The Egyptian Army and the Status Quo after the Current Revolution
By Liram Stenzler-Koblentz
On June 30, 2013, two years after the first Egyptian revolution had ousted long-time President Hosni Mubarak, the protesters returned to Tahrir Square. This time they called for the resignation of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and first civilian president.
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A Time of Hope and of Challenges for Latin America
By Caterina Valero
Now is a time of hope in Latin America. Despite the global economic recession, Latin America has sustained an average economic growth rate of more than three percent since 2004.
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Seven Cities and Two Years: The Diplomatic Campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan
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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Who Authorized Preparations for War with China?
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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The Emergence of Deng Xiaoping in North Korea? Determining the Prospects for North Korean Economic Reform
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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Sovereign Wealth Funds, Transnational Law, and The New Paradigms of International Financial Relations
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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Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy
An interview with Paul Pillar on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the situations in Syria and Iran, the intelligence community, and what it takes to make effective policy and effective policy recommendations.
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A Path to Permanent War?
An Interview with Andrew Bacevich
Bacevich speaks of his careers in the military and academia, the US military, and foreign policy.
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Vigilance is Key
An Interview with Philip Mudd, CIA/FBI Terrorism Expert
Mudd discusses his career in government, his book Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda, and terrorism.
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Diplomacy in a Non-Polar World
An Interview with Ambassador Ryan Crocker
Crocker speaks of diplomacy and the current era of US policy.
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U.S. Global AIDS Funding and Its Discontents: Why the Supreme Court Must Strike Down the Anti-Prostitution Pledge
By Chi Adanna Mgbako
On April 22, 2013, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., a case whose outcome will affect international efforts to safeguard the health of sex workers, a marginalized population in the global HIV/AIDS response.
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Drones: A Tactic, Not a Strategy
By Christopher Harnisch
The confirmation process for John Brennan—formerly President Barack Obama’s chief counterterrorism advisor—to lead the CIA, ignited a divisive debate regarding the legality of drone strikes.
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Should Syria Honor Assad-Era Debts?
By Tai-Heng Cheng and Lucas Bento
The Syrian civil war has no clear end in sight. With the civilian death toll mounting and the refugee crisis deteriorating, the international community is appropriately focused on the human cost of Syria’s internal conflict.
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Rethinking Anti-Drone Legal Strategies: Questioning Pakistani and Yemeni “Consent”
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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Fostering Stability in Conflict Zones
An Interview with Rick Barton, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations about his job, preventing conflict and encouraging stability, and how the U.S. government triages crises and ongoing stabilization efforts.
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The Great Firewall and the Perils of Censorship in Modern China
By Natalie E. Sammarco
China’s Great Firewall (GFW) is a vast web of government-run online servers working 24/7 to block content to the country’s estimated 500 million internet users, commonly referred to as “netizens.”
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NATO is a Global Organization in All but Name
By Seth A. Johnston
NATO’s condemnations of the recent North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests attracted little critical attention.
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International Affairs as if Compassion and Cooperation Mattered
By Caroline Conzelman
I explain here how I teach an international affairs course from an anthropological perspective, and I offer my views on why I believe professionals in business, development, government, the military, and elsewhere stand to gain from adopting anthropological methods and values.
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The Organization of American States and its Quest for Democracy in the Americas
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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Taking Obama’s Offer Seriously: Ending the War on Al Qaeda
By Christopher McIntosh
Despite mostly successful efforts to draw down forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama’s policies in the war on terror have placed the United States on a path for indefinite conflict.
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