25 Items

Military watching the start of work on the first part of some 180 kilometers of a 5.5 meter-high metal wall

AP/Czarek Sokolowski

Magazine Article - Foreign Affairs

When Migrants Become Weapons: The Long History and Worrying Future of a Coercive Tactic

| March/April 2022

Kelly Greenhill argues that by exploiting political divisions that exist within targeted states, the threatened or actual deployment of engineered flows of migrants has long been a distressingly effective policy instrument, and it is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Unless policymakers begin to confront the forces that enable weaponized migration, the favored policy responses seem destined to increase, rather than curtail, its use.

Photo of a Russian armored personnel carrier burning amid damaged and abandoned light utility vehicles after fighting in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The city authorities said that Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting with Russian troops that entered the country's second-largest city on Sunday.

(AP Photo/Marienko Andrew)

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Impacts of Russia’s War in Ukraine

Belfer Center experts in security, intelligence, cyber, nuclear, and energy offer analysis and insight into Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

A migrant is assisted by soldiers of the Spanish Army

AP/Bernat Armangue

Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

Morocco ‘Weaponized’ Migration to Punish Spain. That’s More Common Than You Think.

| June 01, 2021

Kelly Greenhill writes that strategically engineered migration is far more common than most  realize. At any given time, somewhere in the world, leaders inside or outside governments are likely manipulating migrants and/or refugees to pursue political, military, or economic objectives.

Donald Trump

Wikimedia CC/Gage Skidmore

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

How Trump Manipulates the Migration Debate: The Use and Abuse of Extra-Factual Information

| July 05, 2018

Kelly Greenhill writes that U.S. President Donald Trump has shown himself to be a master practitioner of employing "extra-factual information," especially when it comes to immigration and refugee policy.

 

Andrew Wakefield arrives at the General Medical Council in London to face a disciplinary panel investigating allegations of serious professional misconduct.

AP

Journal Article - Science

The Science of Fake News

    Authors:
  • David Lazer
  • Matthew A Baum
  • Yochai Benkler
  • Adam J Berinsky
  • Filippo Menczer
  • Miriam J Metzger
  • Brendan Nyhan
  • Gordon Pennycook
  • David Rothschild
  • Michael Schudson
  • Steven A Sloman
  • Cass R. Sunstein
  • Emily A Thorson
  • Duncan J Watts
| Mar. 08, 2018

The rise of fake news highlights the erosion of long-standing institutional bulwarks against misinformation in the internet age. Concern over the problem is global. However, much remains unknown regarding the vulnerabilities of individuals, institutions, and society to manipulations by malicious actors. A new system of safeguards is needed.

Book - Oxford University Press

Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics

Coercion moves beyond these somewhat hidebound premises and examines the critical issue of coercion in the 21st century, with a particular focus on new actors, strategies and objectives in this very old bargaining game. The chapters in this volume examine intra-state, inter-state, and transnational coercion and deterrence as well as both military and non-military instruments of persuasion, thus expanding our understanding of coercion for conflict in the 21st century.

red ribbon is tied to a firearm of a New People's Army guerrilla in the Philippines

AP

Journal Article - International Studies Quarterly

Rumor Has It: The Adoption of Unverified Information in Conflict Zones

| Fall 2017

Rumors run rife in areas affected by political instability and conflict. Their adoption plays a key role in igniting many forms of violence, including riots, ethnic conflict, genocide, and war. While unverified at the time of transmission, some rumors are widely treated as truth, while others are dismissed as implausible or false. What factors lead individuals to embrace rumors and other forms of unverified information? This article presents a new theoretical framework for understanding individual receptivity to rumors and tests it using original survey data gathered in insurgency-affected areas of Thailand and the Philippines.