Scotsman – A review of the current tensions surrounding the Falkland Islands.
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Category Archives: Geopolitics
Geopolitics / Central Asia – U.S. Foreign Policy in Central Asia
Naval War College Review – The United States is limited in its ability to effect change in Central Asia by geopolitics, the nature of the local regimes, and a lack of leverage. American policy must therefore use what leverage it has more effectively, through better understanding of regional dynamics.
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Geopolitics – Send In the State Department
New York Times – Robert Kaplan writes that whatever the future holds for Iraq, within a year or two there will be far fewer American troops there, and the debate over whether our military is overstretched may subside. Yet because of a bloody counterinsurgency that no one in the military wants to repeat, Iraq has profoundly affected the Pentagon’s deployment strategies as it shifts toward a greater emphasis on the Pacific Rim while still facing a profusion of terrorist-related threats not just in the Middle East but also in Africa and elsewhere.
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Geopolitics / Grand Strategy – The Myth of Grand Strategy
Defense and the National Interest – Part one in a series of articles about grand strategy in a 4GW Era.
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Geopolitics / India-Pakistan – The Nuclear Edge
New Yorker – An examination of the moment, in 2002, when India and Pakistan almost went to war – with the potential for the first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict since Nagasaki.
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Geopolitics / Conflict – A Natural History of Peace
Foreign Policy – Humans like to think that they are unique, but the study of other primates has called into question the exceptionalism of our species. So what does primatology have to say about war and peace? Contrary to what was believed just a few decades ago, humans are not “killer apes” destined for violent conflict, but can make their own history.
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Geopolitics / Russia – For all those who miss the Cold War (especially Mr Putin), some bad newsÖ
Daily Telegraph – Niall Ferguson comments on current events in Russa.
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Geopolitics / China – The Chinese Are Our Friends
Esquire – Thomas P.M. Barnett says???despite everything you hear from the fearmongers at the Pentagon. Don’t listen to them. The Sino-American partnership will define the twenty-first century.
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Geopolitics / Iran – We should be very worried about Iran
Daily Telegraph – Military historian John Keegan’s reviews the current state of affairs in Iraq.
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Geopolitics / Iraq – Writing of Wrongs
Foreign Affairs – Professor Lawrence Freedman reviews The Assassins’ Gate, by George Packer – a searing account of the Bush administration’s failures in Iraq.
Geopolitics – Signs of hope and despair
Winnipeg Free Press – Gwynne Dyer ends the year on an interesting note, as always, summarizing the state of conflict in the world in the last year???
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Geopolitics / Internet – Who Will Control the Internet?
Foreign Affairs – Foreign governments want control of the Internet transferred from an American NGO to an international institution. Washington has responded with a Monroe Doctrine for our times, setting the stage for further controversy.
Terrorism – Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?
Foreign Affairs – The Bush administration contends that the push for democracy in the Muslim world will improve U.S. security. But this premise is faulty: there is no evidence that democracy reduces terrorism. Indeed, a democratic Middle East would probably result in Islamist governments unwilling to cooperate with Washington.
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Geopolitics / Europe – Transatlantic Tension and Threat Perception
Naval War College Review – Because of profoundly different understandings about both the nature and responsibility of federal authority, Washington and European capitals are talking past each other. The answer to the question, ìWhat are the threats to domestic security for which the federal authority is responsible?î sounds very different on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
Geopolitics / Middle East – The Strategic Implications of Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Middle East
Parameters – Promoting democracy has become a strategic imperative in the Bush Administrationís war on terrorism. The purpose of this paper is to explore what a democratic Middle East would mean for US interests.
Geopolitics / Islam – A Clash of Systems: An Analytical Framework to Demystify the Radical Islamist Threat
Parameters – The purpose of this article is to provide an alternative framework to Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” that instead portrays the current global conflict as a clash of systems, not civilizations.
Geopolitics / Iraq – How to Win in Iraq
Foreign Affairs – An insightful essay by Andrew Krepinevich. Because they lack a coherent strategy, U.S. forces in Iraq have failed to defeat the insurgency or improve security. Winning will require a new approach to counterinsurgency, one that focuses on providing security to Iraqis rather than hunting down insurgents. And it will take at least a decade.
Geopolitics / China – China's Search for Stability With America
Foreign Affairs – No country can affect China’s fortunes more directly than the United States. Many potential flashpoints — such as Taiwan, Japan, and North Korea — remain, and true friendship between Washington and Beijing is unlikely. But their interests have grown so intertwined that cooperation is the best way to serve both countries.
Geopolitics / Afghanistan – Afghanistan Four Years On: An Assessment
Parameters – A look at where Afghanistan stands today in terms of its efforts to become a viable nation.
Geopolitics – Peace is spreading: the troubling thing is, we don't really know why
Daily Telegraph – Niall Ferguson writes on how believe-it-or-not, peace is really spreading around the world. But why?
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Geopolitics / Southeast Asia – The Growing Prospects for Maritime Security Cooperation in Southeast Asia
Naval War College Review – Southeast Asia has responded to the maritime dangers that in the 1990s replaced Cold War rivalries, and the terrorist threat that has more recently stepped to the forefront, producing an unprecedented degree of “operationalized” interstate cooperation. Fundamental obstacles remain, but the underlying dynamics are promising.
Geopolitics – The Power Brokers
Foreign Affairs – In Running the World, David Rothkopf provides page after page of raw material on the history and workings of the National Security Council. Unfortunately, the information is not matched by much rigorous analysis.
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Geopolitics / Taiwan – Taiwan : Melos or Pylos?
Naval War College Review – If taken to heart, lessons of the Peloponnesian War could help clarify thinkingóand dispel dangerous illusionsóin Taipei, Beijing, and Washington. The island of Melos learned the futility of unsupported resistance against overwhelming factors of force and geography; the Athenians and Spartans learned at Pylos expensive lessons about the difficulties of island campaigning and about the unpredictability of warfare as a policy.
Geopolitics / China – In China's Own Eyes
Foreign Affairs – The Man Who Changed China, a state-sanctioned portrait of Jiang Zemin, reflects the image that China’s new leaders want their people to see: pragmatic, moderate, and above politics. The vision, however, does not often match reality.
Geopolitics / Oil – The Breaking Point
New York Times Magazine – The United States and China are counting on the Saudis to satisfy our growing thirst for oil. The Saudis say they can supply all our needs. Critics say that that is becoming impossible. They just might turn out to be right.
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