International Security Journal Highlights

Future Warfare in the Western Pacific: Chinese Antiaccess/Area Denial, U.S. AirSea Battle, and Command of the Commons in East Asia

Stephen Biddle and Ivan Oelrich

Many policy analysts have suggested that China is developing antiaccess and area denial capabilities that could force the U.S. military out of the Western Pacific. The threat is limited, however. China may eventually challenge the U.S. military’s dominance in the East and South China Seas, but the United States will retain the ability to protect most of its allies in the region.

Influencing Clients in Counterinsurgency: U.S. Involvement in El Salvador’s Civil War, 1979–92

Walter C. Ladwig III

In foreign counterinsurgency campaigns, the United States has often found that client governments resist reforms crucial to counterinsurgency success because such reforms would undermine their power. As the U.S. involvement in El Salvador’s civil war shows, placing strict conditions on military and economic aid is crucial to gaining client governments’ compliance.

Should the United States Reject MAD? Damage Limitation and U.S. Nuclear Strategy toward China

Charles L. Glaser and Steve Fetter

China’s growing nuclear arsenal threatens to erode the United States’ damage-limitation capability—its ability to destroy Chinese forces and thereby significantly reduce the damage of  an all-out Chinese nuclear attack. Nevertheless, the United States should not attempt to preserve this capability. Doing so is technologically infeasible and would not bolster U.S. security.

The Origins of Transnational Alliances: Rulers, Rebels, and Political Survival in the Congo Wars

Henning Tamm

Alliances between local combatants and neighboring rulers played a crucial yet understudied role in the Congo Wars. Case studies reveal that rulers of neighboring states intervened in Congo to secure their own political survival. They forged alliances to thwart domestic rebels or to gain access to resources that could ensure the loyalty of domestic elites.

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International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs.

The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press. Questions may be directed to IS@harvard.edu

IS has once again ranked first for citations and impact among international relations journals published in 2015.

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