The UK’s Integrated Review at One: Not Fit for Purpose

April 8, 2022 Just over a year ago, in late March 2021, the United Kingdom published its long-awaited national security strategy document, “Global Britain in a competitive age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.” While the Integrated Review attempted to provide a comprehensive reimagining of UK policy around the globe—paying attention

The Russian War in Ukraine: A Truly Global Problem

March 11, 2022 In today’s globally interconnected world, war and strife in one part of the Earth can, and often does, have an enormous impact not only on the immediate region, but the rest of the planet. Indeed, the effects of the war even reach beyond the Earth, as well. While the majority of U.S.

Keyser Söze Sanctions for Russian Oligarchs

February 24, 2022 On February 22, in response to Russian recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on three Russian oligarchs with close ties to Vladimir Putin: Gennady Timchenko, and brothers Igor and Boris Rotenberg. The designation of the three Russians, which accompanied similar measures against five Russian banks,

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

Russia, France, and a Fait Accompli for NATO in the Baltic Region

July 9, 2021 In the past few weeks, the RAND Corporation published two interesting reports. The first, “A Strong Ally Stretched Thin: An Overview of France’s Defense Capabilities from a Burden Sharing Perspective”, by Stephanie Pezard, Michael Shurkin, and David Ochmanek, and the second, “Competing with Russia Militarily: Implications of Conventional and Nuclear Conflicts”, by