Articles

273 Items

Newspaper Article - The New York Times

N.Y.P.D.'s New Intelligence Chief Takes Reins of Secretive Unit

    Author:
  • Maria Cramer
| Aug. 13, 2023

Former International Security Program Research Fellow Rebecca Weiner is profiled by the New York Times after becoming the New York Police Department's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. The former deputy commissioner of the bureau, John Miller, in 2014, said she had a "remarkable" ability to recognize how security threats were changing.

Saudi Arabian oil facilities in flames

ALJAZEERA

Journal Article - Survival

Houthis in the Footsteps of Hizbullah

| 2023

The Houthis' strategic behaviour and communications indicate that they have attempted to succeed against Saudi Arabia in the same way that Hizbullah has succeeded against Israel: to harness their long-range missiles as a means of subjecting their stronger opponents to limitations and 'rules of the game.' So far, the Houthis have been far less successful than Hizbullah. Nevertheless, the Houthis have become an integral part of the Iran-led 'axis of resistance.'

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seated left, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, right, join in the singing during church services aboard the Battleship HMS Prince of Wales

AP

Journal Article - The Journal of Strategic Studies

The Eagle and the Lion: Reassessing Anglo-American Strategic Planning and the Foundations of U.S. Grand Strategy for World War II

| 2022

Many accounts of the formation of American and British grand strategy during World War II between the fall of France and the Pearl Harbor attacks stress the differences between the two sides’ strategic thinking. These accounts argue that while the Americans favored a 'direct' Germany-first approach to defeating the Axis powers, the British preferred the 'indirect' or 'peripheral' method. However, a review of Anglo-American strategic planning in this period shows that before official U.S. wartime entry, both sides largely agreed the British 'peripheral' approach was the wisest grand strategy for winning the war.

French soldiers loading a French Reaper drone with two GBU 12 missiles

Malaury Buis/EMA/DICOD via AP, File

Journal Article - International Studies Quarterly

Do Armed Drones Counter Terrorism, Or Are They Counterproductive? Evidence from Eighteen Countries

Do armed drone programs decrease or increase terrorism? Existing studies on this question produce conflicting arguments and evidence. Drone optimists contend that armed drones reduce a country's vulnerability to terrorism, while pessimists claim that this military technology provokes higher levels of terrorism. Prior research focuses almost exclusively on one particular context: the short-term effect of the US drone program in Pakistan. However, armed drones have proliferated rapidly over the last decade and eighteen countries now possess this technology. The authors expand the scope of prior studies by leveraging new data to assess how obtaining armed drones and conducting drone strikes changed the degree to which all drone possessors experienced terrorism between 2001 and 2019.

In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 30. 2021.

Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Narratives and War: Explaining the Length and End of U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan

    Author:
  • C. William Walldorf Jr.
| Summer 2022

A new theory of war duration suggests that strategic narratives explain why the U.S. war in Afghanistan endured and ended. A robust anti-terrorism narrative generated audience costs for presidential inaction. As the narrative weakened, these costs declined, and the war ended.

Soldiers conducting a Mobile Training Team deployment in Liberia.

U.S. Army

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Soldiers' Dilemma: Foreign Military Training and Liberal Norm Conflict

| Spring 2022

When the U.S. military trains other states’ forces, it tries to impart liberal norms such as respect for human rights. But when liberal norms clash, these soldiers prioritize loyalty to their unit, the military, and shared goals.

Oleg tests a drone on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.

AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Why Drones Have Not Revolutionized War: The Enduring Hider-Finder Competition in Air Warfare

    Authors:
  • Antonio Calcara
  • Mauro Gilli
  • Raffaele Marchetti
  • Ivan Zaccagnini
| Spring 2022

Rather than revolutionizing war, drones demonstrate its evolution. The principle of air warfare remains avoiding exposure to the enemy. Drones are unlikely to shift the offense-defense balance toward the offense because they are vulnerable to attacks from the ground and air.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe attended an election rally near Harare, in July 1985.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Insurgent Armies: Military Obedience and State Formation after Rebel Victory

| Winter 2021/22

When winning rebels face intense security threats during civil wars, rebel field commanders are more likely to remain obedient during war-to-peace transitions because they have less incentive to challenge newly installed rulers and less capacity to mobilize supporters outside the postwar military hierarchy.