Scholar
Japan’s Security Policy in the “Abe Era”: Radical Transformation or Evolutionary Shift?
Widely considered Japan’s most powerful prime minister in decades, Shinzo Abe has responded to a changing security environment in the Asia-Pacific — including an increasingly powerful and assertive China and growing North Korean nuclear threat — by…
Artificial Intelligence, International Competition, and the Balance of Power
World leaders, CEOs, and academics have suggested that a revolution in artificial intelligence is upon us. Are they right, and what will advances in artificial intelligence mean for international competition and the balance of power? This article evaluates how…
Unbeatable: Social Resources, Military Adaptation, and the Afghan Taliban
Following the 9/11 attacks, the Afghan Taliban were obliterated in a lightning war prosecuted by the United States. Their Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ceased to exist as a physical entity, and the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, fled to Pakistan.…
Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: What Mattered Most
Scholars, like contemporary observers, continue to argue heatedly over the quality of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy, diplomacy, and leadership. This paper focuses on a fascinating paradox of his presidency: By seeking to talk to Soviet leaders and end…
North Korea Defied the Theoretical Odds: What Can We Learn from its Successful Nuclearization?
How well do the existing theories about nuclear proliferation predict North Korea's successful nuclearization?
Assessing Soviet Economic Performance During the Cold War: A Failure of Intelligence?
For years, scholars have argued that economists and the CIA failed to see that the Soviet Union's economy was headed toward collapse. But are they right?
Choosing Primacy: U.S. Strategy and Global Order at the Dawn of the Post-Cold War Era
Newly declassified U.S. government records shed some light onto U.S. strategic thinking about the post-Cold War era and the infamous Defense Planning Guidance.
The Meaning of Strategy, Part II: The Objectives
By the end of the 19th century, the study of strategy had become routine for practitioners, but of little interest for theorists. By the end of the 20th century, it had become a matter of endless fascination for theorists, but a puzzle for practitioners.
The Meaning of Strategy, Part I: The Origins
The word "strategy," which is now commonplace, only first came into use to understand military affairs at the beginning of the 19th century in Europe. Since then, its meaning has changed in important ways.
Why Did America Cross the Pacific? Reconstructing the U.S. Decision to Take the Philippines, 1898-99
A closer examination of what led President William McKinley to take the Philippines reveals a series of deliberate and thoughtful choices that have often been overlooked or ignored.
‘Blunt Not the Heart, Enrage It’: The Psychology of Revenge and Deterrence
Scholars and policymakers have a sophisticated view of deterrence, but still have a poor understanding of its psychological underpinnings.
World Order: Many-Headed Monster or Noble Pursuit?
The pursuit of world order has taken many forms in the last 100 years of Anglo-American statecraft, and its terms have been bitterly contested.