Imran Khan is a cricket-star-turned-politician who used a mixture of religious zeal and anti-corruption anger to catapult himself from the cricket ground to the office of the Prime Minister in August …
The Civilian-Military Gap and the Undermining of the US Military
Civilian control of the military is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society. A government whose military is not under civilian control is effectively an authoritarian government, with the power t…
Interview with Jonathan Reiber, cybersecurity expert
Jonathan Reiber is a security expert currently serving as Senior Advisor at Technology for Global Security, a think-tank in Palo Alto, California, and a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center …
China and India: The Emerging Power Struggle of the 21st Century
Over the past 40 years, Asia has experienced unprecedented levels of peace and prosperity, as the bloody conflicts of the Cold War gave way to a relatively stable order. This stability has allowed tra…
To Engage or Not to Engage: Diplomacy with North Korea?
Editors’ disclaimer: this debate was crafted during early 2018, before the development of new events between North and South Korea’s possible peace treaty that would formally end the Korea…
To Boldly Go Where No Military Branch Has Gone Before
In 1969, the United States became the first country to land a man on the moon. While this was not the first time America had set its eyes upon the stars, it was one of the first realizations of that d…
The Danger of Land-Based Nuclear Weapons
“I am become death destroyer of worlds” said J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita, as he watched the first nuclear weapon explode before his eyes. Since then, the US nu…
Soldiers of Fortune: the Rise of Private Military Companies and their Consequences on America’s Wars
War and conflict are synonymous with human history, and where there is conflict, there are often mercenaries who reap the profits. These “armies for hire” appeared as early as Ancient Egypt and Rome, …
Still Stuck in the Cold War? Turkey, NATO, Russia, and the Art of Patronage
Russia announces new arms deals almost daily, and successfully completes them nearly as often. But the sale of Russian arms to a NATO member is a strikingly rare event. Last month, Turkey signed an ag…
The Ghost of Zheng He: China’s Naval Base in Djibouti
Six hundred years after the Ming Dynasty explorer Zheng He landed in Mombasa and brought back a giraffe, China’s trade presence in East Africa is very much alive. In recent years, China has been expan…
Cybercrime: The Spark Which Started Russia’s Cyber Crusade
On the day the Soviet Union fell, the whole world watched, looking to see what would rise from the ashes of the fallen empire. By 1998, Russia’s military spending hit an all time low, and it was expec…
The Military-Industrial Kleptocracy
The Growth of the Military-Industrial Complex Under Trump President Dwight Eisenhower’s foreign policy was an ode to interventionism. Eisenhower began the escalation of U.S. presence in Vietnam, toppl…
Frozen in Place: Canada’s Arctic Policy
Canadian Ranger transporting supplies in the Arctic during Canada’s annual sovereignty Operation Nunalivut It’s 1984. Cold War animosity is back to normal and the U.S.S.R has announced its boyco…
Terminator in Transition: Should drones be able to think for themselves?
The metal body flies without effort against the sky – searching, synthesizing, processing data at an inhuman speed. A specific face has been imprinted on this machine. Once found, the machine can summ…
Don’t Tell: Why Soldiers Are Not Reporting Rape
When Jennifer Machmer was commanding a platoon, she was raped by a soldier serving under her. Unable to bear the strain of the assault trauma on her marriage, Machmer turned to the chaplain of her uni…
The Waning Hermit Kingdom (Part II): The Challenges of Korean Reunification
In January 2014, the North Korean government supposedly announced that it had successfully landed a man on the sun. However, contrary to such macho announcements from government mouthpieces, the sun i…
A Dying King, a Rising Military
Thailand is standing on the cusp of its most decisive event in modern history: the approaching death of King Bhumibol. The struggle for control and power has already started and includes a military co…
The Grim Reaper
In 2000, an unarmed, unmanned CIA surveillance aircraft overflew Tarnak Farm in Afghanistan, taking video of the sprawling agricultural complex and a tall man dressed in a white robe. The figure in th…