May 23, 2016

Reviewed by: Cheng Lai Ki Christopher Lawrence. America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Oxford, UK. Casemate Publishers, 2015. ISBN: 978-1612002781. Hardcover. £19.99 Compared to other countries around the world, the United States military possesses the largest expenditure rate in the world of around $640,221million, according to a study conducted by the Brookings in 2014.[1] … Continue reading “Book review: 'America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam' by Christopher Lawrence”

May 9, 2016

By: Jackson Webster On July 8th, heads-of-state and government figures from the 28 member-states of the world’s strongest military alliance will meet in the Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw, Poland. The NATO Summit occurs on an ad hoc basis and acts as a steering conference where the alliance’s leaders meet, discuss and decide on NATO’s new … Continue reading “Polska Walcząca: Poland and the United States at NATO”

May 6, 2016

By: Robert Andrea One of the most overlooked aspects in strategic deliberations is that of sequencing. It is much more common for the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of a policy to receive the lion’s share of analysis. Despite this, the order in which the segments of a strategy are implemented can often be just as … Continue reading “Libya’s civil war & the importance of strategic sequencing”

April 22, 2016

By: Peter Kirechu The most notable feature of President Barack Obama’s partnership-based counterterrorism doctrine­–roughly defined–is its central focus on training and arming local security services to independently deal with emerging terrorism threats. The President’s doctrine is unfortunately fraught with inconsistent performance of US-trained security services, especially among fragile states in the Middle East and beyond. … Continue reading “The limits of US security cooperation in Jordan”

December 1, 2015

By: Lauren Mellinger Since announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, Republican candidate (and occasional front-runner for the GOP nomination) businessman Donald Trump has chosen to make reforming American immigration policy a primary focus of his campaign. Central to his plan is the construction of a wall spanning the U.S.-Mexican border. During the … Continue reading “Why the Israeli “wall” is a flawed model for the U.S.-Mexican border”

December 2, 2014

By Eugenio Lilli: Eight percent: that is how much the price of oil fell after OPEC’s decision last Thursday to maintain its oil output unaltered. This sharp drop was only the latest development in a trend that has seen oil prices on the world market tumble by nearly 40 percent since mid-June. At one point, … Continue reading “Until the last drop (…of oil)”

August 19, 2014

By Joana Cook, Managing Editor, Strife Interview conducted on 19 August 2014 Edwin Trevathan, M.D., M.P.H. is Dean of the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University (SLU), and Director of the Institute for Global Health and Wellbeing, where he is also Professor of Epidemiology, Pediatrics, and Neurology. He was Director … Continue reading “Managing an epidemic: Security implications of the Ebola outbreak. Interview with Edwin Trevathan M.D., M.P.H.”

June 3, 2014

By Christy Quinn: The recent indictment of several People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers linked to the 61398 Unit, accused of industrial espionage against several US private companies and trade union bodies on the behalf of Chinese state industries, has pushed the issue of ‘cyber warfare’ to the front pages of global media. What for decades was … Continue reading “The strategic aims of Chinese cyber industrial espionage”

May 29, 2014

By Zachary Wolfraim: President Obama sought to outline a vision for US foreign policy in his commencement speech to West Point graduates on 28 May and once more highlighted the role of American leadership in global affairs.  While he noted that the US was the ‘indispensible nation’, the new dangers to the international system were … Continue reading “Obama offers some humility; this can be a good thing”

April 18, 2014

By Dr Victoria Fontan: Drones are slowly making their way into our modern lives. They can now deliver books, medical marijuana, or beer to sailors at sea. In the next few years, drones will dramatically change our lives. Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni youth activist, explains how they have already changed the social fabric of his … Continue reading “Drones series, Part IV. ‘May you die in a drone strike’: Yemen, AQAP and the US drone program”