Author: Xiaodon L. Liang

By Thomas Cavanna

In late September, Germany’s leaders reached an agreement in principle on a new bill that will severely restrict access to the country’s 5G network infrastructure market. Although forthcoming legislation is unlikely to take the form of a ban, the Chinese company Huawei is expected to see its prospects dramatically curtailed by new technical verification requirements, a political evaluation of suppliers’ “trustworthiness,” and the involvement of national cybersecurity and intelligence services in the decision-making process. The news is a severe blow to Beijing and a major victory for the United States.

Zoltan Feher, a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School, presented his paper, “From Tiananmen to the World Trade Organization: Why Did the United States Help China’s Rise in the Early Post-Cold War Period?” at a September 29 session of the CSS Research and Policy Seminar series. In the paper, Feher asks the question: Why did the United States get China policy wrong in the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies, and what does International Relations theory say about it? The United States invested precious time and money aiding China’s rise, and yet it created a competitor instead of a friend.

By Karim Elkady

As the Trump–Biden competition heats up in the final stretch of the 2020 presidential race, both contenders emphasize policies that seek full or partial disengagement from the Middle East. While the current administration has recently secured a diplomatic breakthrough with the signing of the Abraham Accords among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, this achievement could be understood as part of an emerging trend of decreasing American security commitments toward the region.

By Nils Hagerdal

Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war qualifies as a stunning foreign policy success for President Vladimir Putin. Why was the Russian intervention in Syria so successful when the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is gradually being wound down after almost 20 years without achieving its objectives? Four factors stand out: compared to the United States in Afghanistan, the Russian intervention in Syria had a reliable local ally, a clear mission, relatively high-quality allied ground forces, and a willingness to use remarkably brutal levels of violence to secure its desired outcome.

By Zoltan Feher “We are the modern version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the 19th-century tale of an experimenting scientist who

Karim Elkady, a post-doctoral fellow with CSS, presented chapters from his book manuscript on state-building at two CSS Research and

Thomas Cavanna, a visiting assistant professor at The Fletcher School, presented a new version of his working paper on U.S.

By Zoltan Feher This article was first published by Global Security Review on May 26, 2020. György Spiró’s novel Captivity follows

Senior Research Fellow Polina Beliakova presented two new papers on civil-military relations at at CSS Research and Policy Seminars in

Nils Hägerdal presented his new working paper, “U.S. Military Intervention in Oil-Producing States,” at the CSS Research and Policy Seminar