Abstract. Existing scholarship emphasizes hawks’ advantages in making peace, but it is squarely focused on electorally accountable leaders, even though most international rivalries feature at least on...

Abstract. How do U.S. security clients cope with the United States’ strategic demands to take actions that conflict with their political or economic interests? Much of the literature on intra-alliance...

Abstract. Some academic literature and U.S. policy documents suggest that conventional deterrence is weaker than nuclear deterrence. But recent developments in U.S. policy suggest that conventional fo...

Abstract. U.S. space power has long been anchored to terrestrial geography. In the Cold War, the United States depended on a global network of facilities to track and communicate with military, intell...

Abstract. There has been a good deal of talk in recent years about the “rules-based international order”—the system of laws, agreements, principles, and institutions that, many observers say, lay at the heart of the international system that came into being after World War II. It is often argued that maintaining the rules-based order—and extending it if possible—should be a fundamental goal not just for the United States but for Western countries more generally. Those liberal internationalist arguments are supported by a number of historical claims: about how the rules-based order came into being and about the role played by key institutions, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Bretton Woods monetary system. Those claims are examined here. The basic finding is that many common arguments in this area are not supported by the historical evidence. That finding serves as a kind of springboard for thinking about whether there are any viable alternatives to the sort of policy the liberal internationalists have called for. The argument here is that there are viable alternatives—alternatives based on certain traditional ideas about how foreign policy should be conducted.

Abstract. With China and the United States seemingly locked in intensifying and enduring competition, many analysts compare today's U.S.-China rivalry with the one between the Soviet Union and the Uni...

Abstract. With China and the United States seemingly locked in intensifying and enduring competition, many analysts compare today's U.S.-China rivalry with the one between the Soviet Union and the Uni...

Abstract. How has the balance of power shifted in maritime East Asia, and what does this change mean for the U.S.-China military competition in the region? We examine these questions by focusing on a ...

Abstract. Many scholars assume that classical arms control theory, derived from U.S.-Soviet experiences, is universal. But China—being the weaker party in an asymmetric nuclear relationship—has develo...

Abstract. The conventional wisdom is that China is a rising hegemon eager to replace the United States, dominate international institutions, and re-create the liberal international order in its own im...

Abstract. This article identifies key differences between mainstream and Iraq-based understandings of Islamic State (ISIS) and how it rose to power in Iraq. The conventional wisdom in English-language...