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By Monica Duffy Toft

The emergence and intensification of the COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions which, falling as they do into a world of advanced industrial states already turning to hyper-nationalism, the political far-right, or outright authoritarianism — including but not limited to Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Turkey, and Russia — make major interstate war more likely.

By Bryan Cassella

Our understanding of the effectiveness of sanctions regimes, which were once seen as simple and straight-forward strategies to apply pressure on target states, has evolved with the successes and failures of past attempts. Research on the factors that contribute to the success of sanctions is still relatively new, and it remains unclear how the characteristics of the target state affect the results.

By Thomas Cavanna

On March 5, Notre Dame Professor Dan Philpott, a leading scholar of religion and global politics, presented his new book, Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World Today, at the Center for Strategic Studies.

By Polina Beliakova Military aid to Ukraine was at the center of the recently concluded impeachment trial in the United

By Thomas Cavanna

Joshua Shifrinson, assistant professor at Boston University’s Pardee School for Global Affairs, presented a new paper entitled, “Staying the Top Dog: Suppression Strategies and Great Power Politics,” at the CSS Research and Policy Seminar on February 25. The paper sets the foundations of his next book.

Thomas Cavanna, visiting assistant professor at The Fletcher School, presented an early version of a new paper on Europe’s position within the global U.S.-China competition for influence at the CSS Research and Policy Seminar on December 10, 2019. The paper is part of Cavanna’s ongoing region-by-region study of the Belt and Road Initiative and its impact on U.S. grand strategy.

Professor Thomas Cavanna recently published a chapter on US grand strategy for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. This study explores the history of America’s grand strategy since 1789 and the seminal debates of the literature on grand strategy.

Regime change in Iran is unattractive for at least three major reasons: the poor track record of the policy in general, the difficulty of finding suitable candidates to run a different kind of regime, and the simple fact that the central tenets of Iranian foreign policy actually predate the Islamic regime and may well persist even with new leaders and a changed form of government.

Under what conditions will forcibly displaced persons return to their original homes after wars end? We draw on theories of labor migration to show that even displaced persons who have positive feelings toward their original location may nevertheless choose to return as regular visitors rather than permanent residents unless the location offers attractive economic opportunities.