International Security & Defense

This piece is a series in the Defense, Emerging Technology, and Strategy (DETS) Program’s analysis on the war in Ukraine, including a corresponding policy brief on Ukraine’s Battlefield Technologies and Lessons for the U.S. published in July 2023. 

Stephen Walt analyzes the priority that the United States should place on competing with China by asking and answering five questions.

The European Union is planning to adopt semiconductor export controls, restrictions on outbound investment in China, and new rules to reduce the European market share of Chinese renewables. This strategy brings Brussels' into closer alignment with Washington and is likely to increase tensions with Beijing significantly.

The United States tends to react to unexpected events with a combination of fear, political recrimination, and bravado—not a particularly effective mix when it comes to evaluating and responding to potential crises. Despite widespread expressions of concern, some warranted and some hyperbolic, the Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over Montana (and tracked across the country before a fighter jet shot it down over the Atlantic) did not represent a crisis. In fact, it was a gift from Beijing: a necessary wake-up call about the shortcomings in the United States’ national defense. 

Stephen Walt offers some brief foreign-policy advice for the newest members of the U.S. legislature.

Joseph Nye writes: From an American perspective, it is just as dangerous to underestimate Chinese power as it is to overestimate it. While hysteria creates fear, discounting China's recent progress and future ambitions could lead the United States to squander its own long-term advantages.

Ivan Arreguin-Toft analyzes the West's information technology asymmetry of capability, which has given way to asymmetry of vulnerability. While democracies worldwide remain threatened, they also contain the means to restore themselves.

Der Tagesspiegel  profiles asymmetric conflict and cybersecurity expert Ivan Arreguín-Toft. 

High broadband access and adoption rates can significantly improve earnings and net worth. Yet, year after year, Black and Brown Americans are among the most disparately impacted by digital inequities, which only contribute to the structural economic disparities that have tormented them for centuries. This tribute to Black History Month explains why historic investments in digital infrastructure are insufficient without transformational broadband policies that support economic resilience in every household.

The costly Ground-based Midcourse Defense system remains unproven and unreliable in deterring North Korea’s threat to use intercontinental ballistic missiles. An airborne boost-phase intercept system may offer an alternative defense against North Korea without threatening Russian or Chinese deterrents.