Foreign Policy
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,…
Access Denied? Non-Aligned State Decisions to Grant Access During War
Access decisions play a crucial role in war, with belligerent states employing various methods to gain access into neutral states. Yet, the decision-making process of potential host nations has largely been unexplored for modern, large-scale conflicts. This…
Rethinking U.S. Africa Policy Amid Changing Geopolitical Realities
Since 2020, Africa has seen more political unrest, violent extremism, and democratic reversals than any other region in the world. A wave of coups has washed across the Sahel and West Africa, leaving authoritarians in power in numerous countries. In addition,…
Understanding National Security Strategies Through Time
Since 1986, Congress has required each president to write a national security strategy. How has this security document changed over the years, and where are the continuities and breaks between administrations? John Chin, Kiron Skinner, and Clay Yoo have mapped…
Why Did the United States Invade Iraq? The Debate at 20 Years
Twenty years after the Iraq War began, scholarship on its causes can be usefully divided into the security school and the hegemony school. Security school scholars argue that the main reason the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq was to safeguard the…
Salami Tactics: Faits Accomplis and International Expansion in the Shadow of Major War
Salami tactics offer an attractive option for expansionist powers in the shadow of major war — using repetitive, limited faits accomplis to expand influence while avoiding potential escalation. Despite its long history of colloquial use, however, the term…
Whither the “City Upon a Hill”? Donald Trump, America First, and American Exceptionalism
In order to understand Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, we must examine the master narrative that underpins it. Trump breaks with all modern presidents not just because he challenges the postwar “liberal international order,” but because he…
Sense and Indispensability: American Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty
Former ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji, proposes a way forward for a renewed and sustainable American foreign policy. This would require a re-examination of America's interests, institutional reforms, and a revival of American ideals. To wit: reflection,…
What Is a Moral Foreign Policy?
How should we judge the morality of a president's foreign policy? Joseph Nye suggests a rubric that is based on a three-dimensional ethics of intentions, means, and consequences and that draws from realism, cosmopolitanism, and liberalism.