Best Of: The Devil’s Puzzle: Defining International and Domestic Terrorism
The car ramming attack that occurred in New York City on Oct. 31 killed eight people and reignited debate over what constitutes domestic and international […] More
Archive for ‘Fritz Lodge’
Trump in Japan: Rips Trade but Boosts Security Ties
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe both used Trump’s visit to Japan to bolster confidence in the U.S.-Japan alliance as the […] More
With No End In Sight, Gulf Blockade Nudges Qatar Closer to Iran
Nearly five months on, the “crisis” between Qatar and a coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has reached […] More
Madrid and Catalonia Place Bets on Spain’s Future
The crisis in Catalonia is reaching a decision point as the Spanish senate gets ready to vote on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s proposal to use […] More
Political Leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan in Tatters
The Kurdistan Regional Government is already suffering international blowback from its independence referendum, and now some Kurds are calling for the ouster of those who […] More
Rumbles of the Quantum Computing Revolution in Security
Imagine a sensor that could instantly detect nuclear submarines deep underwater, a supercomputer that can break the strongest encryption in the blink of an eye, […] More
ISIS Threat Persists Even As Capital Slips from its Grasp
The end is near for the battle for Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate, but the terrorist group still has ways of […] More
Two Rivers, Three Countries? Ethnography and Destiny in Iraq
The surprise advance of Iraqi troops into the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk on Monday raises a spectre that has haunted Iraq since the 2003 U.S. […] More
U.S. Faces Decision Point in Race for Syria’s East
Turkey’s announcement of what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called “a serious operation in Idlib” last Saturday has injected uncertainty into the Syrian civil war, […] More
U.S. and Turkey Diplomatic Relations Reach Crisis Point
Relations between Turkey and the United States have hit a new low point with tit-for-tat visa suspensions after the arrest of a U.S. embassy employee. […] More
Do Japan and South Korea Need Nuclear Weapons?
The North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un conducted its sixth underground nuclear test early this September – which Pyongyang claims as its first test of […] More
Rising Toll on Civilians Haunts Victories against ISIS
The fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is nearing its second major victory this year as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – an allied […] More
Reset Ahead for Iran and U.S. in Iraq after ISIS Fall
Until 2003, Iraq and Saddam Hussein posed perhaps the most direct military threat to Iran in the region. Haunted by the memory of bitter trench […] More
The Promises and Perils of Syrian Kurdistan
Syria’s Kurds are best known for the role that their military arm, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), currently play as the military backbone of […] More
How Development Aid Serves U.S. National Security Goals
Prospects for the world’s most vulnerable people and fragile countries appear more and more bleak, according to humanitarian aid groups, as sources of international aid […] More
Will U.S. Human Rights Efforts Wilt Under Trump?
In remarks to his staff at the State Department this May, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to announce a departure from decades of U.S. […] More
Israel and Hezbollah Eye Their Next War
On August 15, Israel’s Channel 2 news revealed satellite photos of an Iranian missile production facility near the town of Baniyas in northwestern Syria, capable […] More
Orbital Debris Crisis Could Wreak Havoc on Earth
Space can seem far away, but over the past 50 years it has become an integral part of modern life. Roughly 1,200 satellites in orbit […] More
India Races to Revamp its Economy and Military
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is well known for his massive Twitter following – roughly 32 million – and obsession with taking selfies at every […] More
Turkey’s Drift from the EU and NATO Could Be Permanent
Relations between Turkey and the European Union – already fraught – have deteriorated swiftly over the last few months. In June, the refusal of […] More
Japan and the EU Show That Free Trade Will Not Wait for Trump
In keeping with his America First agenda, President Donald Trump is pushing ahead with the promised new direction in U.S. trade and international economic policy. […] More
The Paris Agreement and American Leadership
President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement this June was met with immediate outcry from both domestic opponents […] More
Do the Trump Team’s New Rules for Vetting Visitors Target Muslims?
The revised ban on travel and immigration from six Muslim-majority countries ordered by President Donald Trump on March 6 now sits before the Supreme Court, […] More
Japan’s Arms Merchants Are Off to a Rocky Start
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government redrew Japan’s self-imposed arms export restrictions in 2014, it hoped to spark a revolution in a domestic defense […] More