On the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia and Tuvalu just signed a new, major agreement—the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty. It binds Australia and Tuvalu much closer together in ways that appear to be win-win. And nobody was coerced into signing it (not directly anyway). But it’s not great, Bob! The new treaty actually expands the Pacific’s ongoing sphere-of-influence problem—the only problem nobody...
Our next Bridging the Gap Book Nook features Rachel Whitlark, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She discusses her recent book, All Options on the Table: Leaders, Preventive War, and Nuclear Proliferation. https://youtu.be/dK5_o5zE2hQ
Dr. Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark is Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Senior Fellow with the Bridging the Gap Project. Previously, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International...
WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BOOK AND WHAT ARE ITS COORDINATES? Peter S. Henne, Religious Appeals in Power Politics, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023 WHAT'S THE ARGUMENT? Religious appeals—references to religious standards and symbols by states used to justify policies or critique rivals—are a potent but unwieldy tool in international power politics. States will often turn to religious appeals when forming international coalitions or...
The world could use some serious thinking about the relationship between political ideology and nuclear escalation—specifically far-right pathways to nuclear war. The nuclear strategy literature is full of smart claims from many angles: entanglement risks, discrimination problems, first-use incentives, credible commitments, retaliatory v. catalytic v. asymmetric postures, the staying power of the nuclear revolution, and the escalatory...
The second installment of our live taping at the British International Studies Association annual…
The Indo-Pacific is an increasingly contested space. Literature on the region revolves around the notion that China’s deepening regional footprint has exacerbated apprehensions in Washington, Canberra, New Delhi, and Tokyo. Some worry that Xi might institute a security architecture with the ‘Middle Kingdom’ at the center rivalling the US hub-and-spokes model. Others, less apprehensive (and possibly more realistic), believe that China intends to...
Shakthi De Silva is a Non-Resident Vasey Fellow at Pacific Forum International (2023-24) and a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal Institute of Colombo and Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies where he teaches courses on International Relations. He previously served as a Lecturer at the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka) and as a Researcher for think tanks in the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His publications...
Ongoing instability in the Sahel – involving worsening insurgent violence, deepening great power competition, and frequent coups – is exposing weaknesses in U.S. Africa policy. In fact, three years into what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called an “epidemic” of coups, the United States and its closest allies in the region still lack a coherent and coordinated strategy to defend democracy in Africa without sacrificing security...
Haleigh Bartos is an associate professor of the practice in CMIST at Carnegie Mellon University. She has 20 years of experience studying African security; she teaches courses on the region and national security at CMU, including Terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa and In the News: Analysis of Current National Security Priorities.
John Chin is an assistant teaching professor of political science in CMIST at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was previously a post-doctoral fellow. His research focuses on technologies of rebellion (coups d’état, self-coups, mass protest and nonviolent revolution, and assassinations), authoritarian politics, comparative democratization, and forecasting political instability. He is the lead author of an Historical Dictionary of Modern...
This is just a short follow-up to my post yesterday with a few predictions. First about Netanyahu's future. Prior to Hamas' attack over the weekend, much discussion about Israel focused on the right-wing Netanyahu government, his continuing corruption trial, and his efforts to reduce the power of Israel's courts. For those who oppose Netanyahu, they fear he will emerge from this crisis strengthened. There are reasons to expect this. Hamas'...