Category Topical

Europe, Policy & Politics, Security & Conflict

Hamster on a Treadmill: Western Diplomacy and the Kosovo Status Dispute

July 10, 2023

Since 1878 the Balkan region has come under successive great power security caps, each of which has turned out to be less permanent than advertised. The war in Ukraine underscores the fact that stability in the area, and in Europe…

Governance & Law, North America, Policy & Politics

Unmoored from the UN: The Struggle to Ratify UNCLOS in the United States

June 26, 2023

On July 9, 1982, after three series of multilateral conferences spanning decades of rigorous negotiations, President Ronald Reagan formally announced that the United States would not sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), on the…

Africa, Policy & Politics, Security & Conflict

Sudan: A Tinderbox to All-Out War

June 19, 2023

Violent clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the infamous paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have plunged Sudan into crisis and renewed instability. In mid-April of 2023, brief gun battles in the streets of Khartoum and other strategic areas…

Regional, Topical

International Law’s Role in a Strat-Dominated World

June 12, 2023

This article originally appeared on May 15, 2023, in the SAIS Europe Journal of Global Affairs. Even the finest warrior is defeated when he goes against natural law. By his own hand he is doomed and all creatures are likely…

Europe, Governance & Law, Interviews, Policy & Politics

A Conversation with Charles Dunst: On Defeating the Dictators

June 5, 2023

Charles Dunst is the author of Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman. In a world where democracy is in decline and autocracy is on the rise, Dunst argues autocracy is not the solution…

Europe, Policy & Politics, Security & Conflict

‘Not in Our Name:’ Why Russia is Not a Decolonial Ally or the Dark Side of Civilizational Communism and Imperialism

May 29, 2023

This contribution was written as part of the research project Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace & Conflict [grant number 01UG2205A], funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Though decolonial thinking has existed for as long as colonization itself,…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Rethinking Irish Migration Governance: Why Refugees and Asylum Seekers Must Be Meaningfully Included in Policymaking Decisions

May 10, 2023

Serena Clark recently finished a consultancy at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Migration. She recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Maynooth University. She holds a doctorate in global politics from Trinity College Dublin, where she was a…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Negotiating With Gangs: Lessons From the 2012 Truce in El Salvador

April 24, 2023

Siniša Vuković is a Senior Lecturer of Conflict Management and Global Policy and Director of the Master of Arts Global Policy Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Eric Rahman is a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Book Review: Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers by Yan Xuetong

April 17, 2023

David B. Kanin is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Review of: Yan Xuetong, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 262). What follows is a…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Integration Meets Insecurity: How Paraguay is Shaping South America’s Center

April 8, 2023

Policymakers across the Western Hemisphere often lament Latin America’s lack of regional integration. On average, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean conduct the least international trade as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Broadly, this…

Economics, Governance & Law, Middle East, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Twelve Years of War in Syria: Why is Citizenship Off the Table for Syrian Refugees in Jordan?

March 14, 2023

Zoe H. Robbin is a Fulbright research fellow in Amman, Jordan. She co-leads Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Diplomacy Working Group. The views expressed here do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the US Department of State, or…

Africa, Civil Society, Economics, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

The Gendered Impact of Displacement in East African Refugee Camps

March 8, 2023

Kyilah Terry is a Princeton in Africa Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya. She previously worked as a Policy Fellow with the Office of the Vice President. Kyilah holds a B.A. from UCLA, a M.A. from Georgetown University, and is matriculating into…