The Geopolitical Pivot

North Korea's military strategic thought is intertwined and explained by the culture and theatrical governance enforced by the Kim Dynasty.

Military Operations are not the sole answers to addressing Sahelian extremism

To combat China, the United States must pursue an Indo-Pacific multilateral Active Defense mechanism to contain aggressive Chinese regional posturing and growing A2/AD capabilities

The three main components to ensure primacy and military superiority: capability, capacity, and readiness. Without capability, there is no capacity. Without capacity, there is no readiness.

For the first time in centuries, the centers of global power are not concentrated on the European continent as 2 periphery states, China and the United States, compete to mold the future of the international system. Whether it is the continuation of the Washington Consensus or the dawn of the Tianxia "All Under Heaven" System, the current multipolar world is more multi-faceted than ever before. To...

This is a 20 minute monologue discussing means to addressing an adversarial power of growing parity. It is necessary for the US in particular but the West in general to remove the intellectual and institutional lethargy and once again become innovative, flexible, and long-term strategists to reconstruct understandings of national security that are compatible to modern problems to produce modern so...

Through the evaluation of the Chinese strategy, modern geo-economic principles can be analyzed as the usage of military force has diminished while geo-economic and financial-based statecraft tools have increased in order to garner geo-strategic posturing and global influences. This series looks to examine such.

Geopolitical Host Semaj McDowell and Special Guest Lance Moore begin discussions on the Arab Republic of Syria and the ongoing civil war and instability that has endured since 2014. By evaluating the positions of the state and non-state actors, the United States and regional partners/allies would be able to be in a better position to address and resolve the socioeconomic afflictions that are explo...

America is truly an exceptional country, not just an ideal but as an institutional framework for the Rule of Law, Human Rights and Liberties, and Freedom. The American Experiment is a remarkable course in itself since the inception of the country. The past of America is not clean by no means from the blood spilled, the practices of enslavement, the near extinction of native people, and the pursuit...

The 21st Century calls for a new evaluation and approach to the United States' initiatives and agenda within the Muslim World. Although shedding important emphasis on historical trends and the overview of tensions and conflicts over time, Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and Francis Fukuyama's End of History theories are not as applicable in the current post-modern world. The Muslim worl...

We continue the conversation of Northern Ireland's Security Dilemma and the IRA while enjoying fine glasses of whiskey. We pick up from where we left off from Part 2 with our discussions on the current security problems of Northern Ireland going back to Thatcher and now with BREXIT. Part 3 Finale will be on future implications and analysis of the security dilemma.

This unique group conversation on current geopolitical trends is one that is unscripted and will be a weekly addition to the Geopolitical Pivot podcast as we have serious conversations about the current status and conditions of the United States, the West, and our adversaries. Through a discussion ranging from the recent cyber operations alleged by Russia against the United States to a conversatio...

Disinformation is a covert weed seeking to achieve overt influences and erosion of democratic societies and to undermine democratic political establishment for the national interests and agendas of adversarial powers, both state and non-state actors. Democratic societies must become more resilient in its monitoring, surfacing, and combating of disinformation campaigns to avoid a catastrophic regre...

The history between England and Ireland is a tale that span 800 years. Northern Ireland has been a battleground that is worth examining as its present can reopen past wounds to destabilize any future hope of reconciliation and prosperity.

As information technology, social media platforms, and mass media continue to grow, they have become part of new mechanisms by great powers and non-state actors to undermine social cohesion and political institutions of adversaries, more notably Western democratic countries such as the United States. With the consumption of media information, we run the risk of either unconsciously assisting in th...

Afghanistan is unfortunately positioned in one of the top historically geopolitical regions in the world as it is centered at the center of South Asia, Central Asia, Far-East Asia, and the Middle East. From the 2020 Global Terrorism Index, Afghanistan remains the number one country for global terrorism and terror-related incidents due to the Taliban. To understand the Taliban, it is important to u...

Global terrorism has been on a consecutive decline over the past 5 years; however, the acts of terrorism appear to remain a part of daily news. It is imperative to explore this dynamic trend as islamic jihadism appears to be decreasing while right-wing extremism and terrorism are on the increase. Fun fact: Right-wing extremism in the Western World is the highest it has been in the past 50 years!

The Asia-Pacific is experiencing Great Power Contestation for Its Future. This series seeks to unpack the contested region and bring to light pressing matters and realities that can no longer be ignored. Good friend and upcoming young practitioner of Asia-Pacific geopolitics Joseph Ross was gracious to come on and begin the discussion that will lead into future episodes about the contested Asia-Pa...

Host Semaj McDowell and Guest Katie Zakrzewski have a genuine conversation about the current state of affairs within the United States and the dire implication of continual divisiveness among Americans. The number one threat to the American power and prestige is not necessarily foreign adversaries but in fact domestic instability.

Iran has pursued the development of a robust Iranian ballistic missile arsenal since the War of the Cities during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. After 30 years, Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal of the Middle East and can target enemies within a range of 1,500 miles! This provides a major geopolitical blunder not just to American defense and national security strategies but also to t...

The Sahel region of Africa is approximately 3,300 miles of semi-arid land that has become an epicenter in the birth of Islamic insurgency and jihadism. As the Sahel region is the transitional geographic location between the Islamic Sahara and the Catholic/Christian Sub-Sahara, it is only fitting that the Sahel would be a battleground of ethno-religious tensions and a new frontier of counter-insurg...

Welcome back to the Pivot! This episode is an unscripted monologue on a brief discussion on the concept of civilization with the usages of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Western civilization as case studies to explain the importance of civilization to the promotion of identity. The adaptation of civilization allows for the flourishing of political and economic institutions; however, so too does th...

 Script for Pivot Introductory Post: As Samuel Huntington stated in his book “The Clash of Civilizations”: “Civilization and culture both refer to the overall way of life of a people, and a civilization is a culture writ large. They both involve the ‘values, norms, institutions, and modes of thinking to which successive generations in a given society have attached primary importance”. Emmanue...