By Peter Oesterling
As anthropogenic climate change alters the world’s ecosystems, one effect has been glacial recession across the Andes, the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Rocky Mountains.
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By Dr. Michael D. Gambone and John J. McGarry
Despite their well-documented and unsavory reputation, private military security companies (PMSCs) remain critical to U.S. foreign policy. Hard-won reform has emerged concurrently with greater U.S. dependence on private military security contractors.
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By Aiden Warren and Alexander Dirksen
This article will argue that while the Obama administration promised considerable change in the areas of transparency, intelligence gathering, and national security, it has differed very little from the Bush administration.
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By Joy Gordon
For many years, the Security Council of the United Nations was seen as paralyzed and ineffectual. But in the aftermath of the Cold War, the Council became much more active, and in some cases, was accused of overreaching. Some have argued that this puts the Council’s legitimacy into question. A series of recent European court rulings have provided support for this view, in that they find that some of the Security Council’s enforcement actions are inconsistent with international law.
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By Pia Rebello Britto, PhD and Briance Mascarenhas, PhD
Globalization presents diverse potential opportunities for expansion and collaboration. There is a need for international transformative leaders who are well-grounded in their disciplines, who have a broader vision that transcends countries and cultures, and who have a desire and ability to bring about positive change.
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By Kelly Hunte
Accounting systems must be developed in both donor and recipient countries which would accurately capture non-financial aid flows in order to analyze the true impact and ensure that the aid flows are effectively linked to the national priorities of the recipient country.
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By Benjamin Locks
Since 2007, many Mexicans and international observers have blamed drug traffickers from Mexican cartels—and former President Felipe Calderón’s heavy-handed response—for the reign of violence that has left more than 60,000 people dead through 2012, according to Human Rights Watch.
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By David Babayan
While the Southern Caucasus appears distant from China both politically and geographically, Beijing has had position there. If the current trend continues, China could become one of the most influential players in Caucasian geopolitics.
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By Todd Robinson, Paul F. Diehl, and Tyler Pack
The apparent use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria and the potential development of nuclear weapons by Iran have brought “red lines” to the forefront of public discourse and policy-making. In the former, U.S. President Obama threatened retaliatory measures were Syria ever to use chemical weapons against rebels in its civil war.
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By Moctar Aboubacar
The field of international development cooperation is being increasingly influenced by “emerging donors,” countries like South Korea which are capitalizing on their own development history to engage developing countries with innovative policy experiences.
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By Kari Lipschutz
This paper uses the Nigerian case to illustrate the serious effect this type of institutional crisis can have on the ability to mitigate the negative externalities of resource development.
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By Goitom Gebreluel and Kjetil Tronvoll
Considering the unique history of colonialism and artificially created nation-states in Africa, the incidences of secession have been surprisingly few. Through a comparative analysis of Eritrea, Somaliland, and South Sudan, this article aims to account for post-secession variations in fragility, as well as contextualize the challenges South Sudan is currently facing.
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By Marc Grossman
The purpose of this article is to describe how, building on the foundations laid in 2009 and 2010 and validating the whole of government approach, the SRAP team pursued a diplomatic campaign to support U.S. objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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By Amitai Etzioni
The start of a second Obama administration provides an opportunity for civilian authorities to live up to their obligations in this matter and to conduct a proper review of the United States’ China strategy and the military’s role in it.
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By Yangmo Ku
To what extent could North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-un follow the path of economic reform that Deng Xiaoping adopted in China starting in the late 1970s? This article analyzes the role of individual leadership, domestic context, and systemic considerations to determine whether or not China’s past is applicable to North Korea’s present. This comparative study shows that the prospect for economic reform in North Korea is not very promising.
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By Salar Ghahramani
International financial relations have largely been defined by cross-border trade, foreign direct investments, and global banking relations. This paper demonstrates that another activity, sovereign investments by special vehicles known as sovereign wealth funds, is rapidly redefining the traditional paradigms, providing both opportunities for further integration of the financial markets as well as posing particular challenges for policy makers.
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By Dawood Ahmed
The United States has been carrying out drone strikes within Yemen and Pakistan since 2002 and 2004 respectively. Opponents have attempted to halt the use of drones by invoking legal arguments against the United States government. In doing so, they have overlooked the possibility that it may have taken ‘two to drone.’
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By Hugo de Zela Martinez
The history of the Organization of American States (OAS) mirrors that of its member states and their sixty-four-year-old struggle to balance the principle of non-intervention with exceptions to it in the name of democracy and human rights.
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By Hilary Dauer
The pesantren is an essential part of many Indonesian communities. It disseminates ideology, both religious and political, through the key community services it provides such as education for the community’s youth and the administration of important religious rites. Through the provision of these services, pesantrens provide the ideological underpinning for societal stability.
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By Cassandra R. Veney and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
Since the 1990s, Kenya, like most African countries, has undergone a protracted transition to democracy. Studies on the subject tend to focus on specific events, actors, challenges, and roadblocks and offer prognoses that are often soon overtaken by new developments. In many studies ethnicity looms large as an explanation.
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