Security Dilemma

Iran faces growing problems at home and abroad. At home, a building collapse added fuel to the fire of protests that had started over rising food prices. Abroad, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors has just condemned the regime’s lack of compliance with nuclear safeguards measures. Nuclear negotiations are frozen. Sanctions remain on. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has compli...

Ukraine won the battle for Kyiv and pushed the Russians back from Kharkiv. But that doesn't mean the war is over - indeed, it seems likely to continue for the long haul, while there may be dangers of Russian escalation in spite of Russia's weak position. We spoke with George Beebe, former head of Russia analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency and current Director of Grand Strategy at the Quinc...

What does it mean to be Ukrainian? Struggles within Ukraine about the answer to that question create an opening for other states to intervene, argues our guest, with some (primarily in Ukraine's north and west) favoring a more ethnic nationalism and others (primarily in Ukraine's east and south) favoring a more civic nationalism. In World War I, World War II, and the present day, outside powers ha...

How did Putin become Putin? Amb. John Evans met the future Russian leader when he was just a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. Evans, then serving as U.S. consul general, shares his recollections of the young Putin, situates this in the broader Russian political situation in the 1990s and the evolution of U.S.-Russian relations from the optimism of the period to today's bitterness. We also speak abo...

Change is in the air in the Koreas. In the South, incoming president Yoon Suk-yeol takes over from Moon Jae-in, potentially yielding shifts away from diplomacy with Pyongyang and toward closer relations with Washington and Tokyo. In the North, a recent ICBM test stoked concerns about nuclear risks as many diplomatic mechanisms are on ice. And both Koreas face a diplomatic test as the Russian invas...

U.S. leaders have complained for decades that allies aren't pulling their weight. Countries like Germany have become infamous for underinvesting in their own defense, effectively shifting their defense burdens onto American soldiers and taxpayers. Occasional commitments by allies to do better have often gone unmet, and the most likely path to wide European compliance with NATO's shared 2% of GDP s...

How do different countries choose who gets to decide when nuclear weapons are used, how that decision is made, and how that decision can be brought into effect? What factors lead them to choose different strategies for closely controlling - or not - their nuclear arsenals? How does all this impact U.S. security - and how do U.S. policies shape other actors' choices? Learn all this and more in a sp...

The global response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has put China in a complicated position, and there have been some signs of frustration in Beijing. The global economic disruptions wrought by war and sanctions are no good for the PRC. At the same time, an isolated Russia may present opportunities for China. And stepping back from today's crisis to the broader sweep of history, the Sino-Russian r...

What motivates a military to continue fighting even when their situation looks grim? Are certain types of militaries more effective at achieving their goals than others?  Ukraine appears to have fought better than Russia expected, while even experts on Russian forces have been surprised by the shortcomings its military has displayed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What can the current...

Why is it so hard to let go? It is an enduring puzzle of U.S. foreign relations. It is hardly original to point out the sprawling collection of U.S. military installations and personnel abroad, but why is it so hard to reduce that military footprint, especially when so many presidents come into power wanting to do so? Today, I'd like to discuss U.S. President William McKinley's annexation of the P...

The world is watching the situation in Ukraine with bated breath. As of this recording, Russia has not invaded, but claims of a drawdown appear to be false. We spoke with Emma Ashford about what’s going on, how we got to this point, and possible ways to resolve the situation. We also dig into the views of other powers like China and Germany and the role that economic factors play in the dispute. E...

U.S. defense policy increasingly reflects the view that U.S. threats to defend its Asian allies, and Taiwan, are becoming less credible as Chinese power rises. This view is wrong. Geography and technological trends mean defenders have the advantage - whether the power playing defense is China or its would-be rivals. While the Chinese threat to Taiwan remains worrisome, Asia's defensive advantages...

A twenty-year campaign in Afghanistan that ended in disaster. An intervention in Libya that helped cast the country into a decade-long civil war. An invasion of Iraq that led to chaos and removed a check on Iran. A war on terror that seems to have created more terrorists. NATO expansion in Europe that cemented Russian enmity. Why does U.S. foreign policy have such a poor record lately? And how has...

The United Arab Emirates is a close partner for the United States in the Middle East. It is usually seen as a stabilizing force, especially against terrorism and Iran, and it has many friends in Washington think tanks. Yet this benignant reading of the Emirati role glosses over the darker side of its power: interventions and proxy forces in places like Yemen and Libya; alignment with coups in Egyp...

The Department of Defense has about a quarter of a million servicemembers and civilians stationed outside the United States in a massive network of bases. This force posture includes a heavy presence in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, a medium presence in the Middle East, and smaller numbers in Africa and the Americas. Do current U.S. positions abroad meet U.S. security needs? Are forces deployed onl...

You've worked hard to deepen your knowledge of international affairs. Writing is a critical tool for sharing that knowledge and establishing yourself as a voice in our field. Learn how to write the pieces editors can't wait to feature - and how to navigate pitching your writing to a publication and working through edits. What's it like to be on the other side of the author-editor relationship? We'...

The dawn of precision weaponry helped create deeper interest in making war humane: limiting collateral damage, for example. However, argues Samuel Moyn in a new book, this has had the paradoxical effect of making war endless - rendering it sustainable and diluting efforts to end the wars rather than merely managing their violence. Join us as we hear from Moyn on his provocative argument. Samuel Mo...

Why did America invade Iraq in 2003? What led policymakers to abandon a paradigm of containment and replace it with one of overthrow? Why did George W. Bush, who had run for president as a critic of nationbuilding, end up engaging in America's biggest nationbuilding project in decades? There are few people better equipped to answer that question than Mike Mazarr, who interviewed dozens of decision...

America's sixth president is widely seen as one of the country's greatest diplomats. Phrases like "[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy" remain in our lexicon. Territorial acquisitions he negotiated from Spain include the state of Florida and access to the West Coast. His deft diplomacy helped secure American interests during the massive wars after the French Revolution, the...

Diplomacy is breaking out in the Middle East. Traditional rivals like Saudi Arabia and Iran have been sitting down to talk through their differences. Why is this happening? Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute and several other influential commentators have argued that the United States' drawdown in the region has forced its partners to dial back more confrontational elements in their foreign polic...

Peter Campbell of Baylor University applies lessons from defensive military doctrine to make the case for the advantages of a defense-oriented cyber doctrine in a digital discussion with the John Quincy Adams Society. (8/26/2020)

Working for the U.S. Department of Defense is a dream for many aspiring national security wonks, yet many end up getting stuck in the infamous USAJobs black hole. How can you make your application stronger? We hear from James Dillon, a recruiter for the Department of Defense, about how to stand out, from the secrets to a good federal resume to the role of job interviews.

Fears of a new era of great power competition in East Asia are gripping Washington - but nobody seems to have told the region's states, which are maintaining low defense spending and resolving disputes among one another. This John Quincy Adams Society digital discussion features David C. Kang of the University of Southern California.

Is Europe capable of defending itself against a Russian invasion without assistance from the United States? In a recent paper for Survival, Barry R. Posen argues that it can. The John Quincy Adams Society's national organization teamed up with the JQAS chapter at the University of Notre Dame for a conversation with Dr. Posen on his article and several subsequent critiques of it. You can find the o...

U.S. foreign economic assistance may seem like it'd be great for everyone in countries that receive it - and certainly less likely to be involved in repression than military aid. The evidence points a different direction. We heard from Virginia Commonwealth University professor Jessica Trisko Darden about the research behind her book Aiding and Abetting: U.S. Foreign Assistance and State Violence...