Security Dilemma

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...

How can the JQA Society change your life and accelerate your career? How can you take your leadership skills to the next level? Several current and former chapter leaders talk about the impact their involvement with the John Quincy Adams Society has had for them. You'll hear from Julia and Ryan, two JQA alumni who now work in foreign policy in Washington, and from Samantha and Alyssa, who lead an...

The War in Afghanistan has come to an end. But what about the legal framework that made it (and the Global War on Terror) happen? Hear from a policy advocate working to lobby Congress for a more peaceful foreign policy. Julia Gledhill, a former JQA Society campus leader, now works at the Friends Committee for National Legislation, where she covers issues like war powers, defense spending, and huma...

Thucydides famously argued that the rise of Athens, and the fear this provoked in Sparta, made the Peloponnesian War inevitable. Some have taken this to be a general principle: rising powers and the relatively declining states they advance upon are doomed to confrontation, crisis, and war. Will this be the case with the United States and China? In this digital event with the John Quincy Adams Soci...