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By David Kampf The so-called global refugee crisis is not disappearing anytime soon. Venezuelans are fleeing political upheaval and economic

Peter Andreas, John Hay professor of international studies and political science at Brown University, presented his forthcoming academic article “Drugs

Neha Ansari

Any optimism that the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab had been permanently subdued was brutally disabused in mid-January, when an armed assault on an upscale city block in Nairobi left at least 21 people dead. The tragedy should once again raise questions about the United States’ implicit theory of victory underlying its heavy and increasing use of drone strikes in counterterrorism operations in Somalia and beyond.

Megan K McBride

In December 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the defeat of ISIS: “We can announce the end of the war against Daesh.… Our battle was with the enemy that wanted to kill our civilization, but we have won with our unity and determination.” One year later, in December 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a similar declaration: “We have won against ISIS. We have beaten them and we have beaten them badly.…We have taken back the land and now it’s time for our troops to come back home.” These declarations are aspirational at best, and analysts from both the left and the right agree that ISIS is far from defeated.

Karim Elkady, the Smith Richardson strategy and policy fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies, presented his next book, “Alliances that Matter: Why the United States Succeeds in Rebuilding States under its Military Occupation,” on November 19 at the CSS Research and Policy Seminar. After Elkady’s presentation, Jeffrey Taliaferro, professor of political science at Tufts University, discussed the project and offered feedback.

By Lexie Bowser

Kicking off his Engaging Practitioners lunch, Phillip Smyth, the Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, shared a bit about his unique background to becoming the expert on Shiite militia groups that he is today.

The Center for Strategic Studies hosted a Democracy Forum event addressing the status of the liberal international order on October

Senior PhD Research Fellow Polina Beliakova presented her dissertation research at the CSS Research and Policy Seminar on November 5.

By Patrick Maxwell

The complexity of contemporary civil wars—especially those in which a multiplicity of armed actors compete for control or resources—makes it difficult for standard foreign military interventions to increase security and improve stability. Contemporary civil wars often feature interconnected local and national agendas; unfortunately, the processes aimed at ending civil wars tend to focus on high-level actors, while ignoring the local-level dynamics that fuel national-level conflict. In such contexts, how can external actors conducting peacekeeping or so-called peace enforcement efforts ensure the safety of civilian communities and contribute to peace and security?