Author: Anna Ronell

by Nils Hagerdal

Famine is on the rise across conflict zones worldwide. Yet in Syria – unlike other contemporary wars – the phenomenon is concentrated in urban areas, and intensified significantly after 2015. To explain these outcomes I delve into the nature of urban warfare. Urban combat operations favor the defender, and many military organizations resort to siege warfare to conquer urban territory; starvation remains a powerful siege tactic.

Since the 1830s, Egyptian regimes sought US government support to assist Egypt in gaining its independence and enable it to act freely in the region. Since 1974, the Egyptian–US strategic partnership emerged, especially after the Camp David Accords, to protect the region from the Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and then to contain the rise of terrorism.

On May 13, 2020 Burak Kadercan, associate professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College, presented several draft chapters from his new book, Shifting Grounds: The Social Origins of Territorial Conflict. His study builds on existing social constructivist research on territory and territoriality in international relations and political geography, and examines the interactive relationship between territory and war from conceptual, theoretical, and historical standpoints.

By Benjamin Denison

American efforts at democracy promotion and Russian allegations of American interference in Russian domestic politics are not new. As Russia continues to see regime change lurking behind democracy promotion efforts and other tools of American statecraft, I believe that the best way for the U.S. to move forward is to try to change the perception that it is uniquely interested in overthrowing the current regime in Moscow.

Will the Korean War’s Armistice Agreement see its 75th anniversary? It certainly shouldn’t. With a better, more realistic and diplomatically-minded set of signatories—that applies especially to the White House—it won’t.

By Sidita Kushi

The United States has been bullying its staunchest ally and calling it diplomacy. The Trump administration’s strong-arming of the small Balkan nation of Kosovo – inciting a US-backed governmental collapse amidst a pandemic – mirrors a broader trend of declining US diplomatic capacity and international legitimacy. Now analysts with no expertise in the region are coming out of the woodwork to defend the administration by rewriting history. But no amount of genocide denial and hyper-partisan delivery of half-truths can cover up the fatal policy flaws.

By Polina Beliakova

As autocrats current and aspiring grab more power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has withdrawn from policymaking and expanded the authorities of Russia’s regional officials. This unusual development signals that the Kremlin has reached the limits of its power at home.