Diplomacy
Taiwan and North Korea as Linked Flashpoints in US-China Relations
Is China's North Korea policy driven solely by stability on the Korean Peninsula, or is it deeply tied to Washington's stance on Taiwan? Hosts Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Ryan Vest sit down with Dr. Shuxian Luo to examine the strategic logic connecting two of…
Liberal Internationalism Forgotten: Myth & Memory in the Legacy of George H. W. Bush
This article challenges the dominant portrayal of George H. W. Bush as the exemplar of a realist president. The image of Bush as a cautious realist was less a reflection of his record than the product of partisan and scholarly mythmaking. In the 1990s,…
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Battle for Belarus
Recorded on location at the Aspen Security Forum, this discussion centers on the geopolitical status and democratic movement of Belarus. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya details her transformation from a political outsider into the leader of the country's democratic…
A Plum for a Peach? Issue Linkage, Taiwan, and China’s Policy toward North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program
This article offers a novel explanation for the variation in China’s policy toward North Korea’s nuclear program. It argues that Beijing’s willingness to constrain Pyongyang is shaped by the perceived level of US assurance regarding Taiwan. Specifically,…
China’s Bid for Space Supremacy in the Middle East
Lawrence Rubin, Lincoln Hines, and Dayana Alagirova examine China's space diplomacy across the Middle East and North Africa by analyzing how regional states—specifically Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran—utilize space partnerships with Beijing to…
Choosing Orbits: China’s Space Diplomacy in the Middle East
China’s engagement with Africa, Asia, and the Middle East has drawn significant attention from the international community and American policymakers. One understudied dimension of this engagement is China’s expanding space diplomacy in the Middle East.…
Trade, Technology, & the US–Korea Alliance: A Conversation with Ambassador Kang
Sheena Chestnut Greitens sat down with Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha, the Republic of Korea’s ambassador to the United States. Recorded before a live audience at The University of Texas at Austin on December 3, the conversation explores the deepening alignment…
AI Policy & Hostage Recovery with the Former Deputy Assistant to the President
Dr. Joshua Geltzer, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Legal Advisor to the National Security Council, shares his extensive experience on two crucial topics: artificial intelligence in national security and the evolving policies surrounding hostage…
The Role of U.S. Diplomacy in Countering Russia’s Nuclear Threats and Misbehavior
With the ongoing war in Ukraine and the recent suspension of the New START treaty, concerns about nuclear escalation have been on the rise. Rose Gottemoeller argues that, because of the existential threat that nuclear weapons pose, the United States has a…
Caught Between Giants: Hostage Diplomacy and Negotiation Strategy for Middle Powers
What is hostage diplomacy, and how can U.S. allies respond to China’s use of this coercive tool of foreign policy? We conceptualize “hostage diplomacy” — the taking of hostages under the guise of law for use as foreign policy leverage — to explain an…
The Good Friday Agreement: Ending War and Ending Conflict in Northern Ireland
The 1998 Agreement that ended Northern Ireland's bloody civil war has often been attributed to many of the remarkable individuals involved in the peace process. But how much of a difference did they really make? James Steinberg explores this question by…
Bill and Boris: A Window Into a Most Important Post-Cold War Relationship
Against the backdrop of an enormous power differential between their two countries, Clinton and Yeltsin established a close personal rapport. They used those positive feelings to interact effectively even when they were being frank in their disagreements, the…