EUROPEAN STUDIES
AP Photo
November 19, 2008
"Obama and Ozdemir: Breaking Barriers"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Cem Özdemir, 42, was elected Saturday as co-leader of the Green Party, capping a career in the German and European parliaments that started in 1994. In terms of breaking color and ethnic barriers, this equals or even tops the historic first elected American Black president, because the nature of European societies is so much less pluralistic and culturally-racially-ethnically less egalitarian than American society."
Fall 2008
"Wishful Thinking or Buying Time? The Logic of British Appeasement in the 1930s"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 33
By Norrin M. Ripsman and Jack S. Levy
British appeasement was primarily a strategy of buying time for rearmament against Germany. British leaders understood the Nazi menace and did not expect that appeasement would avoid an eventual war with Germany. They believed that by the time of the Rhineland crisis of 1936 the balance of power had already shifted in Germany’sfavor, but that British rearmament would work to reverse the balance by the end of the decade. Appeasement was a strategy to delay an expected confrontation with Germany until the military balance was more favorable.
April 1, 2008
Is NATO Dead or Alive?
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Dr. Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall, Founding Senior Advisor, Preventive Defense Project
PDP Senior Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall examines the future of NATO and asks: Will the Alliance, established to fight the Cold War, survive the 21st century?
Photo Credit: Kai Mörk
February 10, 2008
PDP Co-Director Ashton B. Carter participates in Munich Conference on Security Policy
Press Release
By Jeffrey Kim, Former Affiliate and Research Assistant, Preventative Defense Project, 2007-2008
From February 8-10, 2008, PDP Co-Director Ashton B. Carter participated in the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy (also known as Wehrkunde).
Spring 2006
Wherein the Divide? Terrorism and the Future of Atlanticism
Journal Article, Perceptions, volume XI
By Matan Chorev, Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
This article argues that the tactical and strategic divergence in the approach to counterterrorism across the Atlantic is best understood through the prism of strategic culture. The different experiences with international terrorism have contributed to vastly different perceptions of the terrorist threat and in turn to different counterterrorism approaches. The paper introduces the concept of strategic culture, outlines the two continents' experience with terrorism and explains why the end of the Cold War brought new tensions to the fore. It suggests that a strategic culture analysis of the divergent approaches to terrorism will help inform and enrich the ubiquitous one-dimensional realist rendering of the Atlantic divide and demonstrate that under the right conditions, international terrorism, rather than leading to permanent divorce might paradoxically be the very thing that transforms the Atlantic relationship back towards a consolidated Atlantic community.
Summer-Fall 2007
"The Virtues and Vices of Fixed Territorial Ownership"
Journal Article, The SAIS Review of International Affairs, issue 2, volume XXVII
By Boaz Atzili, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2006-2008
Today, territorial ownership of states is essentially fixed, in marked contrast to earlier periods in history. This change has affected states in two very different ways. In regions in which most states are socio-politically strong, fixed territorial ownership is a blessing. It enhances peace, stability, and cooperation between states. In regions in which most states are socio-politically weak, however, fixed territorial ownership is largely a curse. It perpetuates and exacerbates states' weakness, and contributes to internal conflicts that often spill overacross international borders.
Fall 2007
Tend to Turkey
Journal Article, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
By Dr. Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall, Founding Senior Advisor, Preventive Defense Project
Dr. Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall's article in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.
July 30, 2007
Don't Count Out Malthus
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
The great demographer and economist Thomas Malthus was 23 years old the last time a British summer was this rain-soaked, which was in 1789. The consequences of excessive rainfall in the late 18th century were predictable. Crops would fail, the harvest would be dismal, food prices would rise and some people would starve. It was no coincidence that the French Revolution broke out the same year.
Nine years after that summer, Malthus published his "Essay on the Principle of Population." We would do well to reread it today. Malthus' key insight was simple but devastating. "Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio," he observed. But "subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio." In other words, humanity can increase like the number sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, whereas our food supply can increase no faster than the number sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Summer 2007
"Correspondence: Does Terrorism Ever Work? The 2004 Madrid Train Bombings"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 32
By William Rose, Rysia Murphy and Max Abrahms, Former Research Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
William Rose and Rysia Murphy reply to Max Abrahms's fall 2006 International Security article, "Why Terrorism Does Not Work."
