The western African nation of Liberia underwent a period of significant unrest and violent beginning with a military coup in 1980 and culminated with a very bloody civil war in 2003, which saw the ouster and exile of an autocratic leader. Under watch of the United Nations Mission to Liberia, the nation successfully transitioned to […]
Tag Archives: Regional Studies Program
HOW CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS AFRICAN SECURITY
The United States Institute of Peace found a ‘basic casual mechanism’ linking climate change to political violence in Nigeria Last month, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the matter of climate change, where he correctly noted that “we have to respond militarily very often to […]
“FICINT”: ENVISIONING FUTURE WAR THROUGH FICTION & INTELLIGENCE (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
I don’t write science fiction so I can predict the future, but I want to better understand what’s lies ahead This episode is the final in a series of releases on the Emerging Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Social Sciences as […]
HOW COMPETITORS USE TECHNOLOGY TO SHAPE THE ENVIRONMENT (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
This is not humanity’s first technological rodeo This episode is another in a series of releases on the Emerging Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Social Sciences as part of the 2019 Senior Conference. Just how much have the rapid advance of […]
REBRANDING THE REBALANCE: ASSESSING U.S. INDO-PACIFIC STRATEGY (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
Three visions currently compete for American strategy in the region, but none are likely to succeed At the beginning of April, West Point pivoted to Asia. Though the Army’s rockbound highland home is 3,000 miles from the Pacific coast, the United States Military Academy recognizes change is afoot. Two recent conferences featured speakers from Asia. […]
HYPERCOMPETITION AND TRANSIENT ADVANTAGE (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
We have to become accustomed to federated approaches to security … as opposed to multilateral alliance approaches This episode is another in a series of releases on the Emerging Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Social Sciences as part of the 2019 […]
SECURITY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: THE VIEW FROM TOKYO (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
It’s not so much the mil-mil relationship … the political relationship is something that’s a little more volatile than it has been in the past This episode is the next in a series of releases on the emerging environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s […]
THE MEANING OF ‘PARTNERSHIP’ IN THE INDO-PACIFIC (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
This is not going to look like US-Soviet competition. … Countries in Southeast Asia — they don’t want to choose. This episode is the second in a series of releases on the Emerging Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Social Sciences as […]
DEMOGRAPHICS, AGING, AND SECURITY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC (INDO-PACIFIC SERIES)
How fantastic that we live in a world where we have a problem of ‘population aging’? This episode marks the first in a series of releases on the Emerging Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region, produced in collaboration with the United States Military Academy at West Point’s Department of Social Sciences as part of the 2019 […]
THE EUROPEAN UNION LOOKS FORWARD II: DEVELOPING EU CAPABILITIES
The European Union is a cooperative of twenty-eight member states, and everyone has different views A BETTER PEACE welcomes special guest Aili Ribulis of the European Union’s delegation to the United States to discuss advances and initiatives that the EU is undertaking to develop its capabilities. This follows up on a podcast conducted in 2018 […]
FORECASTING THE 2019 SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS
Democracy in South Africa is still fairly young. … The people of South Africa are still not enjoying the fruits of prosperity or economic growth As South Africa faces its May 2019 Presidential elections, the nation finds itself at a crossroads. Support for the African National Congress, the party of Mandela that ushered in post-Apartheid […]
TRANSATLANTIC TRADE: MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
There is a significant percentage of Europeans … that believe that American standards and quality of products and services … are very low A BETTER PEACE explores the current state of trade between the U.S. and Europe as compared to U.S.-China trade. While the latter gets more attention nowadays, in reality transatlantic trade remains many […]
RUSSIA’S VIEW OF THE WEST: IT’S COMPLICATED
Russia still needs to be a part of the West. … Our position should be to remain open and stay engaged with Russia A BETTER PEACE is pleased to welcome Ambassador John Tefft to the studio to discuss his perspectives on Russia and Russian-US relations. As former US Ambassador to Russia from 2014-2017, AMB Tefft […]
ARE MADURO’S ACTIONS EMPOWERING OTHER WOULD-BE DICTATORS IN LATIN AMERICA?
Observers figure that if the US, Mexico, or Brazil are unwilling to intervene in [Venezuela], they are presumably even less likely to care about dictatorships in countries with fewer resources The extraconstitutional power grab may have domino effects for other caudillos who want to retain power on the continent, despite unhappy populaces. The international community’s […]
RUSSIA, GREAT POWER COMPETITION, & POLITICS OF HYBRID WAR
At the end of the day, what Putin really wants to re-structure European relationships [from the EU’s] rules-based Europe towards a [transactionally-based] Great Power Europe A BETTER PEACE presents “Russia, Great Power Competition, & Politics of Hybrid War” where Mitchell Orenstein and Darrell Driver discuss the history of great power dynamics and interests in Europe […]
HOW INDIA’S DEFENSE POLICY COMPLICATES US-INDIA MILITARY COOPERATION
India’s national security policies contain unresolved dilemmas that create challenges for … what the country can do with—and for—the United States The American national security bureaucracy is in love with India. Designating India as a “major defense partner” in 2016, then-defense secretary Ashton Carter noted this would allow “the United States and India to cooperate…in […]
THE COMPLEX POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN NIGERIA
Elections in Nigeria are not about issues. They are about personality and personal and ethnic alliances A BETTER PEACE welcomes Ambassador John Campbell to the studio to discuss the upcoming Nigerian elections and describe the very complex political and social landscape in Nigeria. Contrary to the mythical ‘north-south’ divide, Nigeria comprises about 350 different ethnic […]
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE “NEW” U.S. STRATEGY FOR AFRICA
The new strategy seems far less a “strategy” and much more akin to a “philosophy” for engagement in Africa The Trump Administration’s new “Africa Strategy” has gotten a lot of press, much of it negative, since National Security Advisor John Bolton announced it on December 13th, 2018 at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. The […]
ART OF THE KOREAN DEAL: THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES
So far, President Trump’s Korea strategy seems to be working: Kim Jong Un has moved from recalcitrance to a willingness to negotiate. When then-businessman Donald Trump released his 1987 book on negotiation, The Art of the Deal, he could not have foreseen that approximately 30 years later he would be leading a critical negotiation to […]
WHAT IS THE STATE OF U.S. RELATIONS WITH AFRICA?
One in five people on the planet by 2050 will be an African. One in ten will be a Nigerian. You have tremendous potential. … And it all depends on one thing. It’s a question of governance. With North Korea and other national security challenges dominating headlines, Africa is garnering less attention than before. So […]