International Security

International criminal tribunals are more likely to deter violence against civilians when they have prosecutorial support and when combatant groups are both centralized and supported by liberal constituencies.

In the Middle East, the demise of détente in the 1970s between the United States and Soviet Union can be attributed to U.S. actions, contrary to the conventional wisdom that the Soviet Union was responsible.

Presidents will alter the timing and nature of military strategy in light of electoral constraints, delaying or weakening controversial courses of action.

Rather than debating whether China is challenging a single, U.S.-dominated liberal order, scholars and analysts should consider China’s actions in relation to multiple orders in different domains, where China is supportive of some, unsupportive of others, and partially supportive of still others.

China and the United States hold opposing beliefs about whether nuclear war can be avoided in a potential crisis or armed conflict. Taken together, these opposing beliefs increase the risk of nuclear escalation and can lead to greater crisis instability.

In post-conflict societies, divisions can emerge between returnee and nonmigrant groups, which can in turn lead to violence and destabilization when government institutions favor one group over another.

Domestic politics play a significant role in nuclear decisionmaking under two conditions: when uncertainty over the nature and intensity of a threat is high, and when leaders are incentivized to centralize nuclear policymaking.

Michael C. Horowitz and Shahryar Pasandideh respond to Andrea Gilli and Mauro Gilli’s winter 2018/19 article, “Why China Has Not Caught Up Yet: Military-Technological Superiority and the Limits of Imitation, Reverse Engineering, and Cyber Espionage.”

Recently declassified documents reveal a heated debate within the Clinton administration about how to enlarge the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Central and Eastern Europe and when.

Increasingly, states are employing global economic networks to fulfill their strategic objectives. These networks are asymmetric, and states that occupy the key nodes can leverage their position to gather valuable information or to coerce others.