On 8 March 2022, the exchange rate of the Russian ruble hit its all-time low against the U.S. dollar and other major reserve currencies. Why? Tanks. To be specific, Russian tanks, soldiers, helicopters, fighter jets, and conventional weapons of war deployed in Ukraine. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine did not surprise many military strategists...
As U.S. policymakers grapple with the China problem, the role of ideology in American foreign policy has once again become an important subject of discussion. On one side of the debate are intellectuals who argue that ideology is inseparable from the China challenge. Aaron Friedberg has argued that because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is...
Iran’s foreign policy conjures imagery of a spider and its entangling web, each thread representing a proxy to be called upon to ensnare an adversary. Indeed, Iran has built an impressive network of non-state surrogates that operate on its behalf or, at least, further its strategic goals. Most of Iran’s state and sub-state partners have...
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is after the treasures of our society. Besides aiming industrial espionage at commercial sectors for pure economic advantage, China’s strategic intelligence targets are private-sector dependencies of the American national security establishment. Gaping holes in the security practices of the defense industrial base, high-technology firms, academia, critical infrastructure, and government...
“¡Pobre México! ¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!” (Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!) Attributed to former Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and widely known in Mexico, the remark partially captures the complicated relationship between the United States and its southern neighbor. This long...
The U.S. Department of Defense considers China the pacing threat to the United States as its military buildup, economic coercion, and political warfare threaten the U.S.-led world order that serves the interests of Americans.[1] While the United States has devoted significant attention and resources to the Indo-Pacific, the nuclear element of competition with China has...
On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy boasted, “All — All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.” This extraordinary line in his Ich bin ein Berliner speech rested on a conviction that the American people “take the greatest pride, that they have been able to share … the story of...
On December 9, 2021, the United Kingdom signed a groundbreaking Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) with Singapore, marking the first-ever digital trade agreement signed by a European nation. British International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan boasted that the DEA would “slash red tape, cut costs and support well-paid jobs across the whole UK.” In effect, this agreement...
The internationally-recognized terrorist organization ‘ISIL-Libya’ (ISIL-L) presents a legitimate security threat in 2022 as the group reorients towards guerilla-warfare style fighting and maintains its ideological resilience, exploiting the tense political situation in Libya through coordination with criminal organizations. Libya currently exists in a state of political and socioeconomic unrest, as it struggles to establish a...
Review of The Strategy of Denial by Elbridge A. Colby (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021) The age of Washington’s post Cold-War global hegemony has come to an end, as the United States enters a new era of great power competition with China. Many key American allies are exposed to Chinese military power and...
