International Security Journal Highlights

The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters

Michael Beckley

Current gross indicators such as population and GDP are misleading in terms of a country’s relative power. Power can be calculated more accurately by subtracting a country’s liabilities from its assets.

What Explains Counterterrorism Effectiveness? Evidence from the U.S. Drone War in Pakistan

Asfandyar Mir

What makes U.S. counterterrorism campaigns succeed? In the conflict in Pakistan’s border areas, using drones and local partners and then taking swift action made the difference in the decadelong conflict against al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. 

Conflict and Chaos on the Korean Peninsula: Can China’s Military Help Secure North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons?

Oriana Skylar Mastro 

North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is one of the most vexing security challenges facing the United States. What would happen to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons if the North Korean regime collapsed? China’s military could play a vital role in securing or destroying nuclear weapons in North Korea.

Nationalism, Collaboration, and Resistance: France under Nazi Occupation

Matthew Adam Kocher, Adria K. Lawrence, and Nuno P. Monteiro

Many scholars and analysts suggest that nationalism produces resistance against foreign powers, but a reconsideration of the German occupation of France in World War II reveals how a population might instead choose acquiescence or active collaboration. Domestic political competition and the international context prevented French nationalism from being translated into wholesale resistance. 

Would U.S. Leaders Push the Button? Wargames and the Sources of Nuclear Restraint

Reid B.C. Pauly

Declassified U.S. wargame records reveal that nuclear nonuse is partly a result of deterrence, but also because participants worried about their reputations or thought conventional weapons would be effective.