Analysis + Opinion | 2018
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Analysis + OpinionDecember 24, 2018Diplomacy without denuclearization: North Korea in 2018Ankit Panda and Vipin NarangWar on the RocksAfter having attained what he saw as the necessary capabilities to deter the United States with nuclear weapons in 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned the tables this year. |
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Analysis + OpinionDecember 18, 2018Want NATO allies to boost defense spending? Don’t build Fort TrumpBarry R. PosenDefense OneBasing an American division in Poland will reduce allies’ incentive to build up their own forces. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 18, 2018Time for General Mattis to move onHarvey M. SapolskyThe National InterestThere is word that President Trump is thinking about pushing General Mattis out as his secretary of defense, the president is tired apparently of Mattis’s slow rolling or blocking his defense initiatives. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 15, 2018As Europe revisits wartorn times, Trump lays a minefieldUna HajdariBoston GlobeWorld War I is considered to be the first European war to see major US involvement. That’s why it’s ironic that at last weekend’s ceremony marking the end of that war, Donald Trump made it clear that his administration has no interest in maintaining a constructive relationship with European countries. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 9, 2018Would US leaders push the button? Wargames and the sources of nuclear restraintReid PaulyMIT PressWhy since 1945 have nuclear weapons not been used? Political scientists have cited five basic reasons: deterrence, practicality, precedent, reputation, and ethics, writes Reid Pauly in International Security. |
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Analysis + OpinionNovember 1, 2018Stephen Van Evera revisits World War I, one century after its bitter endInterview with Michelle EnglishOne hundred years ago on November 11, 1918, the Allied Powers and Germany signed an armistice bringing to an end World War I. Stephen Van Evera, Ford International Professor of Political Science and an expert on the causes of war, revisits the Great War and discusses key insights for today one century after its bitter end. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 31, 2018Election insights: on reducing gun violenceJohn Tirman"A social movement to challenge America's reslient gun culture has rocked politics for the first time in a generation, and might shake up congressional complacency in the midterm elections." |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 25, 2018President Reif, cut MIT’s ties to Saudi Arabia now!Lukas Wolters and Nicolas DumasThe TechThe Saudi regime targets and kills civilians in Yemen, oppresses and executes women and LGBTQ people, and assassinates journalists. MIT must not collaborate with them. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 23, 2018The price paid by journalists who break the cycle of repressionUna HajdariBoston GlobeThere is a special circle of hell reserved for journalists who “shame” their countries in the foreign press, writes Una Hajdari in an opinion piece in the Boston Globe. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 12, 2018Why ethnic nationalism still rules Bosnia, and why it could get worseUna Hajdari and Michael ColborneThe NationFrom Donald Trump to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, nationalism seems to have become the mainstay of political rhetoric everywhere these days. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 3, 2018Renaming Macedonia in the age of nationalismUna HajdariThe New RepublicAt the heart of this issue lies the question of nationhood, specifically, the difficulties faced by nations formed at the latter end of modern European history, writes Una Hajdari. |
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Analysis + OpinionOctober 1, 2018Déjà vu? 'Global Britain' versus the continental commitmentWilliam JamesThe National InterestOverstretch and European obligations suggest it is time to rethink a return “East of Suez.” |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 20, 2018How is Japan dealing with a volatile United States?Mayumi FukushimaInternational AffairsManaging its relationship with the United States is one of the core challenges facing Japan, as it will need to attempt to resolve the inherent tension between enhancing the alliance relationship as well as reducing its dependence on the US. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 18, 2018Does America need a space force?Harvey M. SapolskyTexas National Security ReviewPresident Trump wants to create a space force, America’s sixth armed service, to assure US dominance in space. It doesn’t matter that America already has a sixth armed service … and is already dominant in space, writes Harvey Sapolsky. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 14, 2018Who to blame for the protests in Basra, Iraq?Marsin Alshamary and Safwan Al-AminThe Washingon PostBasra’s protests are more about economic grievances than political ones. Although many of these grievances are shared by other Iraqis, they are felt most keenly by Basrawis, says Marsin Alshamary and Safwan Al-Aminmin in a recent opinion piece. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 10, 2018This 9/11, end the Afghanistan WarBarry R. PosenUSA Today“It is time for this war in Afghanistan to end,” Gen. John Nicholson said as he relinquished command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Seventeen years of war have shown no plausible theory of success to justify additional U.S. costs and more killing in Afghanistan. |
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Analysis + OpinionSeptember 5, 2018An agenda for Japanese military reformEric Heginbotham, Richard SamuelsEast Asia Forum QuarterlyJapan’s military planners face a number of major challenges on the near horizon, write Eric Heginbotham and Richard Samuels in their essay in East Asia Forum Quarterly. A potential conflict on the Korean peninsula, skirmishes in the East China Sea, debilitating cyberattacks, and the forced repatriation of Taiwan by Beijing. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 29, 2018The Trump administration’s new ‘Iran Action Group’ won’t workNicholas MillerThe Washingon PostThe "Iran Action Group" announcement signaled again that the Trump administration intends to act more aggressively against Iran. So how likely is it that this pressure campaign will change Iranian behavior? MIT SSP affiliate Nicholas Miller says it won’t work. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 19, 2018The GSDF is taking to the waves, but should it?Mina PollmannThe Diplomat, The Japan TimesThe approximately 2,100-member unit is based in southwest Japan and specializes in operations involving AAV-7 amphibious vehicles, MV-22 Ospreys and Chinook helicopters. |
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Analysis + OpinionAugust 13, 2018North Korea's nuclear program isn't going anywhereAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangForeign AffairsAlthough Trump is desperate to continue claiming that he “solved” the North Korean nuclear threat at Singapore, as many predicted, North Korea continues to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals and has played its diplomatic hand brilliantly. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 27, 2018The origins of America's gun obsessionJohn TirmanWBURJohn Tirman writes in an opinion piece that Sacha Baron Cohen's Who Is America? “kinderguardian” ruse reveals the extent of America’s gun culture. It’s a wellspring from the earliest times of colonial America, nourishing the country’s entire history. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 25, 2018Authoritarian nostalgia among Iraqi youthMarsin AlshamaryWar on the RocksPhD candidate Marsin Alshamary discusses the roots and repercussions. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 22, 2018Japan’s pivot in AsiaRichard J. Samuels and Corey WallaceOUPblogIn Tokyo, apprehension regarding how the different trajectories of China and the US might affect Japan—muted somewhat by the Obama administration’s reassurances of a US “pivot” to Asia—is more apparent than ever. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 16, 2018A new military strategy for JapanEric Heginbotham and Richard SamuelsForeign AffairsJapan's current military strategy, which relies on forward defense, is outdated. An active denial strategy would improve deterrence and mitigate crisis instability, says Eric Heginbotham and Richard Samuels. |
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Analysis + OpinionJuly 6, 2018More and more, overseas Chinese fear the long arm of BeijingAudrey Jiajia LiInkstoneWhen Audrey Jiajia Li was invited to host a panel at a conference in Singapore, she didn’t expect to be shouted at for being too negative on China. But it’s part of a disturbing trend of Chinese being unable to speak their mind overseas, she says. |
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Analysis + OpinionJune 30, 2018There are signs North Korea is still working on its nuclear program. Here’s why ‘denuclearization’ is so problematic.Jane Vaynman and Vipin NarangThe Washington PostThere are signs that North Korea is continuing to improve and expand infrastructure at key nuclear-weapons-related sites, including multiple suspected clandestine sites, and a strategy to deceive the United States about them. And it has yet to raze the Sohae missile test site, as Trump claimed Kim promised to do in Singapore. |
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Analysis + OpinionJune 12, 2018What just happened? Experts break it downCNNVipin Narang tells CNN that the Singapore summit showed why Kim Jong Un pursued nuclear weapons in the first place. Although he might have declared his nuclear weapons force “completed” in November 2017, it only achieved political completion when he sat down with the President of the United States as an equal. |
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Analysis + OpinionJune 12, 2018North Korea is a nuclear power. Get used to it.Vipin Narang and Ankit PandaThe New York TimesNorth Korea has arrived as a nuclear power, and there is no going back. Once the reality-show theatrics of the Singapore summit meeting subside, we are left with the reality that North Korea was just recognized as a de facto nuclear weapons power. |
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Analysis + OpinionMay 17, 2018Calm down, folks: Enemies still fear US military tech innovationHarvey M. Sapolsky and Eugene Gholz Defense OneWhere most countries focus on one or two areas, America has a huge, well-funded R&D infrastructure that pushes the envelope everywhere. Panting warnings that the US is falling dangerously behind our opponents in the race for military innovation are commonplace. |
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Analysis + OpinionMay 11, 2018Between two Caesars: The Christians of northern IraqRoger Petersen and Matthew CancianProvidenceA brief account describing the formation and fragmentation of self-defense forces (militias) within the Christian population of the Nineveh Plains. Traces the development of their post-2003 self-defense force, the crisis of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) attack, and the current fractured state of Christian forces in the area. |
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Analysis + OpinionMay 8, 2018The future of the US military commissions: legal and policy issuesJames E. Baker and Laura DickinsonJust SecurityThe ongoing operation of the US military commissions at Guantanamo Bay has posed significant challenges for multiple US administrations. |
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Analysis + OpinionMay 4, 2018Trump thinks his North Korea strategy will work on Iran. He’s wrong on both.Colin H. Kahl and Vipin NarangThe Washington PostOn April 24, French president Emmanuel Macron walked into the Oval Office with one overriding mission: persuade President Trump not to ditch the Iran nuclear deal. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 27, 2018Keep the Iran deal — 10 good reasons whyA bipartisan group of 118 American national security leaders, including CIS scholars, issued a statement outlining ten reasons why President Trump should keep the Iran nuclear deal. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 15, 2018The Trump-Kim Summit and the truth about North Korean denuclearizationAnkit Panda and Vipin NarangThe DiplomatIn a stunning and unexpected move, President Donald Trump announced last week that he will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — setting the stage for the first-ever presidential-level US-North Korea summit. |
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Analysis + OpinionMarch 1, 2018With friends like these: Japan-ROK cooperation and US policyEric Heginbotham and Richard SamuelsThe ASAN ForumAlthough they share a common ally, history and politics keep Japan and South Korea at arm’s length and severely limit their defense cooperation. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 20, 2018South Africa's healthy Democracy: Why Zuma's resignation is a good signDaniel de Kadt, Evan Lieberman, and Philip MartinForeign AffairsDemocracy in South Africa is in tatters. Or at least that’s the widespread view following President Jacob Zuma’s forced resignation on February 14, which ended his almost-nine-year tenure in office. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 13, 2018What can we learn from North Korea’s successful nuclearization?Nicholas L. Miller and Vipin NarangThe Texas National Security ReviewAccording to most theories of nuclear proliferation, North Korea did not stand much of a chance of successfully acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet here we are, staring down an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)-sized barrel of the world’s 10th nuclear weapons power. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 13, 2018The rise of illiberal hegemonyBarry R. PosenForeign AffairsIs US hegemony of any kind sustainable, and if not, what policy should replace it? Trump turns out to be as good at avoiding that question as those he has condemned. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 12, 2018Why North Korea and Iran get accused of nuclear collusionJim Walsh Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistAt first glance, it would seem that Iran-North Korea military or even nuclear cooperation makes “sense.” Both nations face the United States as an adversary, and both have been subject to US and international sanctions. |
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Analysis + OpinionFebruary 6, 2018An adolescent's foreign policyJohn TirmanHelsinki TimesIf there’s one thing President Donald Trump demonstrated in his first year in the White House, it is a penchant for disruption. Not the disruption we hear so much about in the tech industry or as a tool of innovation, but just sheer destructiveness. |
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Analysis + OpinionJanuary 19, 2018‘Fire and Fury’ shows Trump’s shifts on ChinaAudrey Jiajia LiBoston GlobeIt is clear that in the Trump Administration, neither hawks like Bannon nor doves like the Kushners are interested in challenging Beijing on value issues… |
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Analysis + OpinionJanuary 9, 2018A #MeToo movement in ChinaAudrey Jiajia LiSouth China Morning PostThe #MeToo movement is starting to bring about real social change in much of the world, yet its impact in China has been limited even as pioneers try to make a difference. |
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