Analysis + Opinion | 2017
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Analysis + OpinionDecember 6, 2017The price of war with North KoreaBarry PosenNew York TimesThe complexity, risks and costs of a military strike against North Korea are too high. A combination of diplomacy and deterrence…is a wise alternative, says Barry Posen. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 29, 2017Beijing’s cruel eviction of its migrant workersAudrey Jiajia LiSouth China Morning PostAs a society urbanises, its “hardware” and “software” should both improve. Manual workers should be respected and cherished, not repaid with arrogance, discrimination and humiliation. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 22, 2017Trump intervened with Xi on UCLA players. But what about human rights activists?Audrey Jiajia LiBoston GlobeSome may argue that in the “America First” era, the president understandably pays far less attention to the fate of foreign human rights activists than that of US citizens. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 20, 2017Nuclear stability, conventional instability: North Korea and the lessons from PakistanAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the RocksThis is the twelfth installment of “Southern (Dis)Comfort,” a new series from War on the Rocks and the Stimson Center. The series seeks to unpack the dynamics of intensifying competition — military, economic, diplomatic — in Southern Asia, principally between China, India, Pakistan, and the United States. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 17, 2017Why Zimbabwe's military abandoned MugabePhilip MartinForeign AffairsZimbabwe’s recent military putsch is all the more remarkable. For the first time in the country’s 37 years of independence, the military has intervened directly in domestic politics against the wishes of the civilian head of state. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 11, 2017China, a model for gender equality? The reality would say otherwiseAudrey Jiajia LiSouth China Morning PostThe glaring absence of women in top national decision-making bodies, and a culture where sexism and misogyny still thrive, mean female empowerment in China still has a long way to go. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 9, 2017Trump and Xi forge a friendship with a frightening edgeAudrey Jiajia LiBoston GlobeDespite his China-bashing campaign rhetoric, President Trump is enjoying the warmest reception of his overseas trips — since his inauguration — in Beijing. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 1, 2017What next for Kurdistan?Aswo Safari and John TirmanThe Huffington PostThe central government of Baghdad all along was threatening the Kurdistan regional government, as did Turkey, Syria, and in particularly Iran. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 26, 2017Ai Weiwei: The enemy of wallsAudrey Jiajia LiThe Boston GlobeAi Weiwei is not an enemy of the state. He is an enemy of walls, physical or virtual, no matter who builds them, Trump or Xi Jinping. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 25, 2017What political science tells us about the risk of civil war in SpainSara PlanaWar on the RocksSpanish stability may well turn on what happens near the regional parliament building in Barcelona’s Barri Gotic—in the shadow of Roman and medieval relics — as Catalan citizens prepare to form human shields to literally block Spanish direct rule. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 16, 2017Deadly Overconfidence: Trump thinks missile defenses work against North Korea, and that should scare youAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the RocksCould a president’s overconfidence in U.S. defensive systems lead to deadly miscalculation and nuclear armageddon? Yes. Yes, it could. If Trump believes — or is being told — that American missile defenses are that accurate, not only is he factually wrong, he is also very dangerously wrong. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 10, 2017Women will soon be issuing fatwas in Saudi Arabia. This isn't as groundbreaking as you'd think.Richard A. NielsenThe Washington PostWithin days of the reversal of Saudi Arabia’s infamous driving ban for women, the Saudi government announced that women will be authorized as muftis to give state-sanctioned Islamic legal rulings. Yet those hoping that this move extends women’s rights in the kingdom will probably be disappointed. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 26, 2017China’s delicate dance with ‘Rocket Man’ and ‘dotard’Audrey Jiajia LiBoston GlobeMao Zedong succeeded in joining the nuclear club, and no external force in the world could undermine his grip on power after that. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 15, 2017Command and control in North Korea: What a nuclear launch might look likeVipin Narang and Ankit PandaWar on the RocksA new nuclear state, in a major crisis with a conventionally superior nuclear-armed adversary, contemplates and prepares to move nuclear assets in the event it has to use them. Who controls the nuclear forces? |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 8, 2017Why Kim Jong Un wouldn’t be irrational to use a nuclear bomb firstVipin NarangThe Washington PostNorth Korea’s nuclear weapons program is advancing quickly. Soon Kim Jong Un will be able to deliver it to our shores, if he cannot do so already. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 4, 2017Welcome to the H-Bomb Club, North KoreaAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the RocksAfter months of anticipation, it finally happened. On Sunday morning, September 3, at precisely noon local time, North Korea detonated its sixth nuclear device ever to test a presumably new thermonuclear bomb design. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 1, 2017Why India did not ‘win’ the standoff with ChinaM. Taylor FravelWar on the RocksThe end of a standoff between India and China over a remote road on the Doklam plateau has prompted a vibrant discussion about the lessons learned. The emerging consensus is that India “won” and China “lost.” |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 23, 2017Should you be worried about North Korea?Jim WalshAl JazeeraTo no one's surprise, I can't "save us", but I can give you a sense of where things stand, where they might be going, and a few things we might want to do, writes Jim Walsh in a recent opinion piece. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 18, 2017Revisit NIH biosafety guidelinesKenneth OyeScienceThe NIH recently marked the 40th anniversary of its Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules.The meeting was an inspiring start for charting future oversight of nonclinical applications. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 18, 2017It's time to make Afghanistan someone else's problemBarry PosenThe AtlanticAfghanistan...is a good place to create problems for America’s adversaries. And the best way to do that is to get out, says Barry Posen. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 10, 2017North Korea, Trump, and strategic stabilityVipin Narang and Ankit PandaWar on the RocksWords matter, especially when nuclear weapons use is on the line. In a matter of 30 seconds on a Tuesday afternoon, Trump negotiated himself into a disastrous strategic corner.
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 5, 2017The US will keep losing wars until it decides what it stands forHarvey SapolskyNational InterestDespite the promises, the panels and the pronouncements, a grand strategy for the United States, on par with the Cold War’s containment and Germany’s unconditional surrender during World War II, remains elusive. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 18, 2017Danger at DolamM. Taylor FravelThe Indian ExpressCurrent India-China standoff bears a resemblance to the dispute that sparked the 1962 war. But let’s not stretch the analogy. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 14, 2017Will Tokyo’s arms exports help or hurt US interests in Asia?Eric Heginbotham and Richard Samuels The Cipher BriefJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current political problems obscure the striking speed with which he successfully tackled thorny and long-standing security policy problems, including the lifting of the country’s arms export ban.
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 6, 2017North Korea's ICBM: A new missile and a new eraAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the RocksSo what? North Korea was nuclear before, it is nuclear after. What’s the big deal? Vipin Narang and Ankit Panda explain in War on the Rocks. |
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Analysis + OpinionJune 21, 2017North Korea won't be solved without South KoreaJim WalshFox NewsAny military action on the Korean peninsula would, by necessity, require South Korean consent if not commitment. If war breaks out, it will be Seoul, not San Francisco, that will carry the brunt of the fighting.
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Analysis + OpinionMay 30, 2017Some of the top political science journals are biased against women. Here’s the evidence.Dawn Langan Teele and Kathleen ThelenThe Washington PostFor our study in PS, we collected information on all articles published by 10 top journals over the past 15 years. The data shows that they publish a lower proportion of articles written by women than there are women in the discipline as a whole. |
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Analysis + OpinionMay 6, 2017Turkish referendum rallies in Europe made headlines. Did they affect election results?Tugba Bozcaga and Fotini ChristiaThe Washington PostTurkey’s recent referendum, which ended its parliamentary system by transferring all executive powers to the president, has been a source of contention within its borders, as well as outside them. |
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Analysis + OpinionApril 26, 2017Is war coming to North Korea?Jim WalshAljazeeraCould war really break out on the Korean Peninsula? Could a conventional war lead to the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945? Is this actually for real? Jim Walsh addresses the good and bad news in a recent opinion piece. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 23, 2017Protecting America from cyber attacksJoel BrennerJoel Brenner, a senior research fellow at CIS, gave a presentation on protecting America’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks to InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and the private sector dedicated to sharing information to prevent hostile attacks against the United States. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 16, 2017Syria Showdown: will Trump be pressured into putting Turkey first, America second?Barry R. PosenThe National InterestTurkey may retaliate against the United States if its desire to recapture Raqqa is denied, writes Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the MIT Security Studies Program. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 12, 2017Is it time for our dealmaker in chief to talk with North Korea?Jim Walsh Fox News OpinionNorth Korea’s recent missile tests will put new pressure on the Trump administration to choose a strategy for dealing with this pesky proliferator. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 9, 2017US-Japan relationship: past, present, and futureRichard SamuelsRichard Samuels spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the past, present, and future of the US-Japan relationship. Samuels has written widely on Tokyo’s grand strategy, on the events of 3/11 in Fukushima, and is now working on a book on the Japanese intelligence community. Read transcript |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 6, 2017Trump’s military budget minus a planCaitlin TalmadgeThe New York TimesPresident Trump called to revitalize the United States military, with a 10 percent increase in the defense budget. Such proposals make for a snappy sound bite, yet in the absence of a coherent national strategy, arbitrary increases in the defense budget will do little to make America safer, and could make the world more dangerous. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 5, 2017Making sense of Trump’s travel banHarvey M. SapolskyE-International RelationsThe dangerous part stems from the belief that President Trump’s ban, temporary or not, blocked or not on legal grounds, will become a recruiting incentive for terrorists. |
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Analysis + OpinionJanuary 26, 2017Smartening up Japan's defensesEric Heginbotham and Richard J. SamuelsNikkei Asian ReviewTargeted spending increases needed to buttress deterrence as threats rise. The balance of power in Asia is shifting rapidly, with important consequences for Japanese security and the U.S.-Japan alliance. The People's Liberation Army has become a formidable military force capable of challenging U.S. power at an increasing distance from the Asian continent. |
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Analysis + OpinionJanuary 14, 2017Guess who we don’t talk about these days? IranThomas R. Pickering and Jim WalshThe Charlotte ObserverHave you noticed? The nuclear agreement with Iran is no longer in the headlines. Not long ago, Iran’s nuclear program was the central issue in U.S. foreign policy. |
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