Blog

by David Kampf

Submitting to fears of asylum seekers besieging the country, the United States is restricting entry and pulling back from international solutions to the global refugee crisis. But this hands-off—and walled-off—approach diminishes Washington’s ability to manage the issue and safeguard the country. Like it or not, the global refugee crisis will not disappear anytime soon and it will continue to pose strategic threats.

It is delusional to think other countries will solve the problem of mass human displacement for the United States and a mistake to let America’s refugee policy get bogged down in partisan infighting over broader immigration policy. To defend U.S. national security and protect refugees, the Trump administration should increase the number of refugees it resettles in the United States, lead a multinational effort to modernize the international humanitarian regime, and increase long-term funding for refugees around the world.

Perspectives on China’s Rise

Thomas Cavanna Reviews

Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
Richard McGregor, Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century (Viking, 2017)

By Margarita Konaev

Urbanization is a relentless trend, and as cities grow and expand, armed conflict and violence are urbanizing as well. In recent years, cities like Aleppo, Sana’a, and Mosul have been largely destroyed in wars that involve conventional state forces fighting different insurgents and terrorist groups, armed groups battling each other, and third parties providing support to both state and non-state actors. Terrorist groups and ‘lone wolf attackers’ sponsored or inspired by the Islamic State have orchestrated sophisticated and deadly bombings, shootings, vehicular and suicide terrorism attacks on major cities across Europe and Africa. And even traditionally rural insurgent groups such as the Taliban and the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) are increasingly targeting cities, with devastating consequences for civilians.

In January 2018, Mariya Ilyas F’18, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy alumna from The Fletcher School, participated in the 19th Beirut Exchange Program. Organized by the news website Mideast Wire, the Exchange is an enrichment program consisting of conferences centered in different cities around the Middle East. Mariya availed this opportunity with funding from the Center for Strategic Studies, the Fares Center, the Academic Dean’s Office, and the Tufts Provost’s Office.

By Anna P. Ronell

Because U.S.-Russian relations may be at an all-time low since the end of the Cold War, it is especially important now to continue dialogue between the two countries through all available channels. To quote Fletcher professor Daniel Drezner, “Last fall, the common consensus was that the state of the bilateral relationship was at its lowest point since the Cold War. That was before the Trump administration ratcheted up diplomatic and economic sanctions, pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and slapped new tariffs on Russian steel. It’s safe to say that things have gotten worse.” More than ever before, keeping channels of communication open should be a priority for the Fletcher community.

By Thomas Cavanna

The United States’ response to a rising China has largely focused on bolstering military capabilities, doctrines, and partnerships in the Asia-Pacific (or, more recently, the Indo-Pacific). This approach misconstrues the problem: it overstates the security threat and understates (or ignores) the economic challenge. To maintain its dominant position globally in the long-term, the United States must reckon with the ambitious geoeconomic endeavor Beijing has launched to project strategic influence across the Eurasian continent, which hosts most of the world’s economic centers and natural resources.

The nascent Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) illustrates the transformative geopolitical implications of China’s rise. Despite its changing contours and the fact that it partly recycles preexisting plans, this series of major infrastructure and development projects designed to connect Eurasian regions together is a coherent enterprise of unprecedented scale: $4 trillion of promised investments in 65 countries representing 70 percent of the world’s population, 55 percent of its GNP, and 75 percent of its energy reserves. The BRI aims to stabilize China’s western peripheries, rekindle its economy, propel non-Western international economic institutions, gain influence in other countries, and diversify trade suppliers/routes while circumventing the U.S. pivot to Asia.

By Thomas Cavanna

President Trump’s August 2017 decision to increase U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan alleviated the prospect of an immediate meltdown of Kabul’s government and security forces. However, it risks luring Washington again into its recurrent temptation to apprehend this campaign as a mere question of capabilities and dedication, thereby perpetuating the appeal of military occupation and eluding much deeper problems. For this decision to yield strategic results, the U.S. must clearly signal it does not envision any permanent military presence in Afghanistan, initiate direct negotiations with the Taliban, and capitalize on its regional competitors’ interest in countering radical Islamism.

On May 2, 2018, Dr. Sarah Sewall, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, was hosted by the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) as the last speaker in the Engaging Practitioners series this academic year. She spoke candidly with CSS fellows, Fletcher MALD students, and Tufts undergraduates about her career, successes and failures, and difficult choices she has made over the years. Sewall described a career without a predefined trajectory but instead guided by practical factors, including good luck and serendipity, and unexpected opportunities. Balancing career and family life is a particular challenge, she said, especially for women in the field.

Thomas P. Cavanna, the Center for Strategic Studies’ visiting assistant professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, presented a new paper on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at a March 26 session of the Research and Policy Seminar series. Cavanna, in his seminar talk, argued for adopting a geopolitical and geoeconomic lens for analyzing the BRI, which reveals a long-term challenge to U.S. hegemony in all regions along the Eurasian rimland.

By Sarah Detzner

On March 5, the Center for Strategic Studies hosted Dr. Mark Sedra for two events as part of our “Engaging Practitioners” and “Research and Policy Seminar” series. Sedra is the President and Research Director of the Canadian International Council and has held numerous leadership positions in the field of peacebuilding and the study of conflict-affected states. His work focuses on security sector reform (SSR) and his most recent book, Security Sector Reform in Conflict-Affected Countries: The Evolution of a Model, was published by Routledge in 2016.