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Governance & Law, North America, Policy & Politics, Security & Conflict

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The United States Should Revive the Arctic Executive Steering Committee

August 2, 2021

The United States has set its sights on the Arctic as an emerging region of importance for US national security. In the past two years alone, the Department of Defense,[1] Department of Homeland Security,[2] Army,[3] Air Force,[4] Navy,[5] and Coast…

Africa, Governance & Law, Policy & Politics

Power, Strategy, and Outcomes in Negotiations in The Gambia

May 19, 2021

Introduction According to Bill Zartman, power is defined as the “ability by one party to move another in an intended direction.”[1]Power relates to physical force, but many aspects of power move beyond force. Weaker parties often form coalitions, appeal to…

Europe, Security & Conflict

Russia Is Receding, Not Resurging: Why the United States Should Forego Another Containment Strategy

April 25, 2021

Is Russia resurgent? Some Kremlinologists would respond “yes” after its saber-rattling over Ukraine, transnational cyberattacks, and nuclear weapon modernizations over the past few years. In January, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote in Foreign Affairs that U.S. citizens “wrongly assume”…

Civil Society, North America, Policy & Politics

Finding Common Ground: The Effect of Geography on Domestic and Foreign Policy

April 21, 2021

Americans face a broad array of challenges at home and abroad. The physical, economic, and social effects of climate change; the dislocations caused by human migration; the health and economic consequences of pandemic and infectious disease; the impacts of globalization;…

Asia Pacific, Policy & Politics, Security & Conflict

The United States Needs India and Taiwan to Counterbalance China: Will the “Milk Tea Alliance” Work?

March 5, 2021

The White House declassified one of its most sensitive operational policies, the “U.S. strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific,” as part of the final maneuvers of Donald Trump’s presidency in early January 2021.[1] That decision bewildered diplomats, policymakers, and scholars at home and abroad.…

Civil Society, South America

Chile 2010-2020: The Contentious Decade

February 18, 2021

If contention describes a state of sustained, massive protest combining peaceful, disruptive, and violent tactics, then the decade of the 2010s may be considered the most contentious in Chile’s history.[1] The decade’s contentious dynamics seem more spectacular and unpredictable considering Chilean…

Africa, Policy & Politics

Africa Is Not a Region, and Policymakers Should Stop Treating It Like One

February 11, 2021

With the new presidential administration in the United States, numerous articles have been published which suggest initiatives for the Biden administration, including from such Washington institutions as the Council on Foreign Relations,[1] the Center for Strategic and International Studies,[2] and Foreign Policy magazine.[3] Many innovative…

Asia Pacific, Book Reviews, Civil Society, Governance & Law, Special Content

Dapiran Observes a City on the Edge

January 21, 2021

In the waning days of Hong Kong’s 2014 student-lead Umbrella Movement, a hanging black banner read a prophetic message: We’ll Be Back. In 2019, those words came to fruition. The controversial introduction of a proposed extradition bill, allowing individuals in…

Asia Pacific, Europe, Security & Conflict

The Future Arenas of Great Power Competition

November 29, 2020

For two decades, US military leaders have focused almost entirely on training and equipping the force for counter-insurgency operations. With politicians now intent on drawing down the United States’ involvement in the Middle East, the military has shifted its focus…

Europe, Policy & Politics

The New Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: More of the same?

November 23, 2020

Amidst Brexit and a pandemic, the U.K. government announced an ambitious merger of its foreign and development ministries, which took place in September. As the country undertakes a major review of its foreign and defense policy, what do the past and present of…

Governance & Law, South America

Operation Mercury and Illegal Mining in Latin America

November 2, 2020

Money laundering serves as an important tool for transnational organized crime groups and terrorist organizations, enabling them to transform profit from illegal activities into clean funds for use in the licit financial system. Malign actors hide their money laundering efforts…

Asia Pacific, Security & Conflict

Bias and the Perceived China Threat

September 3, 2020

The health of Sino-American relations will be an important bellwether of American economic and national security success in the years to come. Because China is so important to America’s future, the United States must get it right with how it…