Foreign Policy Links for the Week Ending 3/7/2022

March 4, 2022 Author’s Note: Due to some out-of-state travel this week, today’s post will not be the usual analysis of a timely topic; though normal service will resume next week. Instead, due to time constraints, I thought that I would take the chance to look at some of the articles, commentaries, and papers that

Not Because It Is Easy, But Because It Is Hard: A Call for the U.S. to Help Europe Step Up on Defense

January 21, 2022 Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs published an interesting article from Johns Hopkins University’s Hal Brands, titled, “The Overstretched Superpower: Does America Have More Rivals Than It Can Handle?” The piece posits that the United States’ defense strategy has become out of balance with the foreign policy it pledges it pursues. Brands not

Remorselessly Transactional: Offshore Balancing and the Moral Cost of Abandoning Ukraine

January 14, 2022 For the first blog post of the new year, I would like to return, once again, to a topic that I have visited several times in the past year: the situation in Ukraine. More specifically, I think that it is important to address some of the arguments made by realist international relations

The End of the Liberal International Order?

December 3, 2021 Deep into the International Crisis Group’s latest report on the current state of strategic competition between the U.S. and China in the South China Sea is a discussion of whether the U.S. should reframe its hopes for the region less in terms of a “rules-based order” and more in terms of “international

All Alone or All Together: Europe’s Pursuit of “Strategic Autonomy”

November 26, 2021 Earlier this month, the RAND corporation released an interesting report, “European Strategic Autonomy in Defence: Transatlantic visions and implications for NATO, US and EU relations,” by Lucia Retter, Stephanie Pezard, Stephen J. Flanagan, Gene Germanovich, Sarah Grand-Clement, and Pauline Paille, which examined—through interviews with senior U.S. and European experts—what the concept of

Hanging Together or Hanging Separately: The Impact of Future European Defense Capabilities on U.S. Force Posture, Structure, and Strategy

November 19, 2021 On November 10th, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published an intriguing report, “Europe’s High-End Military Challenges: The Future of European Capabilities and Missions,” by Seth. G. Jones and Rachel Ellehuus with contributions from Colin Wall. The report endeavors to examine the military capabilities of key American allies and partners,

Foreign Policy Links for the Week Ending 10/22/2021

October 22, 2021 For just the second time this year, personal scheduling difficulties will mean that there will be no traditional blog post this week. However, that does not mean that there has not been a number of fascinating articles and reports released in recent weeks which I have not had a chance to cover

European Deterrence and Defense: Lessons in Confronting the Russian Threat

October 1, 2021 In recent weeks, two reports were published—the first, “Strengthening European Deterrence and Defense: NATO, Not European Defense Autonomy, Is the Answer”, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Anthony Cordesman, assisted by Grace Hwang, and, the second, “What deters Russia: Enduring principles for responding to Moscow”, by Keir Giles of

The German Election: Taking Foreign Policy off of Die Lange Bank

September 24, 2021 This weekend’s election marks the end of an era in German politics, as Angela Merkel is not seeking re-election to the chancellorship that she has held since 2005. Merkel, who has been regarded as one of the most stalwart custodians of the liberal Western order since she took office, is departing a

When Realism Becomes Fatalism: Liberal Opposition to NATO Expansion

June 18, 2021 Earlier this week, Dr. Stephen Wertheim of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft authored a guest essay for the New York Times, entitled, “Sorry Liberals. But You Really Shouldn’t Love NATO.” The essay expressed deep scepticism about the prospect for the expansion of NATO, specifically in the context of Georgia and Ukraine.