Building a Better Integrated Defense: Obstacles and Opportunities for U.S.-Japan Defense-Industrial Integration

Image Source: RAND During Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent state visit in April 2024, the White House released a visionary joint statement on deepening U.S.-Japan cooperation across a variety of issue areas—from national security and defense to economic prosperity and technological development. But perhaps most importantly, the statement includes plans to integrate the American … Continue reading Building a Better Integrated Defense: Obstacles and Opportunities for U.S.-Japan Defense-Industrial Integration

Unveiling Masculinity: The Complexities of Gender Identities in Jihadi-Salafi Extremism

Image Source: Islamic State propaganda published in its “Ghazwa-e-Hind” magazine Judith Butler, a pioneer of third-wave feminist theories, described gender performativity as a phenomenon where “gender proves to be performance”— that is, gender identity is not an inherent or a biological phenomenon but is constructed through repeated and conscious actions (i.e., performances). In Jihadi-Salafi groups … Continue reading Unveiling Masculinity: The Complexities of Gender Identities in Jihadi-Salafi Extremism

Ukraine’s Export Crisis Isn’t Over Yet

Image Source: Unsplash The Ukrainian “grain crisis" is not over, despite tremendous successes in increasing Ukrainian seaborne exports since the Russian military invaded Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian exports, like grain and ore, face new logistical challenges beyond the Black Sea, circa October 2023: kinetic attacks by Houthi rebels against commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea. … Continue reading Ukraine’s Export Crisis Isn’t Over Yet

AI-Enabled Deception: The New Arena of Counterterrorism

Image Source: Academic Info Artificial Intelligence (AI) is constantly reshaping the boundaries of innovation, permeating every aspect of modern society, from healthcare to finance. As of November 2023, over half of global companies have integrated AI technologies into their operations. However, an alarming development has emerged alongside these advancements: the exploitation of AI by terrorist … Continue reading AI-Enabled Deception: The New Arena of Counterterrorism

The Case for U.S. Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense Against North Korea

Image Source: Breaking Defense The United States has long maintained that it can defend the homeland against limited North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) strikes. The 2022 Missile Defense Review (MDR) reaffirmed that the United States “will continue to stay ahead of North Korean missile threats to the homeland” through homeland missile defense, missile defeat, … Continue reading The Case for U.S. Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense Against North Korea

Remembering a Forgotten War: United States Policy Options to Resolve Sudan’s Civil War

Image Source: Sudan War Monitor Wars have dominated this year’s election news cycle, with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza featuring prominently in President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address. In contrast, the Sudanese Civil War, which erupted just over one year ago on April 15, 2023, remains notably underreported, garnering the unfortunate moniker … Continue reading Remembering a Forgotten War: United States Policy Options to Resolve Sudan’s Civil War

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Afghanistan

Image Source: Eurasianet The unrecognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is experiencing its first period of peace in nearly fifty years. The Taliban-run state now must balance its desire for good relations with its neighbors with its need to provide basic necessities like water to its citizens. While Afghanistan regularly courts the occasional Kazakh dignitary in … Continue reading A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Afghanistan

Surging Violence and Far-Right Extremism: Unpacking Social Media’s Role in the 2024 Election

Image Source: Wall Street Journal Across the Western world, right-wing political movements are on the rise. In the United States, this has manifested in an uptick of far-right extremist activity on the fringes of the U.S. political spectrum. Since 2016, far-right ideology in the United States has increasingly been a driver of extremist violence. In … Continue reading Surging Violence and Far-Right Extremism: Unpacking Social Media’s Role in the 2024 Election

Why the Armenians of Artsakh Surrendered: Takeaways from Interviews with Refugees

Image Source: AP News By guest contributor Sarkis Karabashian, a student in the Security Studies Program (SSP). As the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, another longstanding conflict simultaneously flared up unnoticed. After a 10-month siege that held the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh starved and without gas, electricity, or Internet, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive on … Continue reading Why the Armenians of Artsakh Surrendered: Takeaways from Interviews with Refugees

From Sling and Stone to Autonomous Drone? Key Questions for Determining Whether Autonomy Favors Davids or Goliaths

Image Source: DALLE-3, via ChatGPT Suppose that the year is 2035 and America is engaged in counterinsurgency operations in the Middle East: would autonomous drones favor the insurgents or counterinsurgents? Scholars such as T.X. Hammes, Paul Scharre, and Sarah Kreps have argued that autonomous military systems (AMS) will tend to favor conventionally “weaker” or poorer … Continue reading From Sling and Stone to Autonomous Drone? Key Questions for Determining Whether Autonomy Favors Davids or Goliaths