Yearly Archives: 2021

China’s Hypersonic Missile Test Does Not Change the Nuclear Calculus

Although China’s recent hypersonic missile test is evidence of significant Chinese technological advancement, it does not represent a paradigmatic shift in nuclear deterrence. In October, the Financial Times reported that China’s hypersonic missile test over the summer represented a technological breakthrough for nuclear weapons. The operational proof-of-concept missile flew at …

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Instrukcja obsługi Łukaszenki. Czy Merkel znajdzie sposób na satrapę?

Tym razem białoruski reżim sztucznie wygenerował powód, dla którego Europa coś od niego może chcieć. Kryzys humanitarny to jedno. Ryzykant czy pragmatyk? Autonomiczny przywódca czy ledwie namiestnik prowincji Rosyjski Bliski Zachód? Co go motywuje? Jakie ma pole manewru? Którego kija się boi, jakich marchewek chce? Kto zdoła odpowiedzieć na te …

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EU official visits Turkey amid migration crisis with Belarus

European Union Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, responsible for coordinating migration and security policies, has held two-day long talks in Ankara, his fourth stop in a tour of partner countries key to putting a stop to the “instrumentalization of migrants by the Belarussian regime and [which] aims to further reinforce …

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Yemen Houthis Say Nearly 15,000 Rebels Killed Since Mid-June

Nearly 15,000 Yemeni Houthi fighters have been killed near the strategic city of Marib since June, sources close to the rebels said Thursday, in a rare admission of their casualties during the seven-year war. “The air strikes launched by the Saudi-led military coalition and the battles have killed nearly 14,700 …

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Aiding Afghan Local Governance: What Went Wrong?

One major pillar of the international community’s engagement over the past two decades centered on strengthening subnational governance. After 20 years of an ambitious, costly international state-building effort, the government of Afghanistan collapsed in the summer of 2021 in a matter of weeks. The Afghan security forces’ remarkably rapid defeat …

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Key to Afghan Relief Efforts: Financial Engineering for Private Sector, Economy

Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis urgently demands solutions to a ‘liquidity trap,’ stifled trade and blocked bank transfers. The U.S. government needs to urgently prioritize saving Afghan lives, meeting basic human needs and stemming the free-fall of the Afghan economy. The unprecedented evacuation of some 100,000 people from Kabul airport in August …

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Ukraine in the Crosshairs

This past spring, Russia amassed 100,000 troops and a host of military equipment near the Ukrainian border in a transparent bid to threaten Kyiv; it seemed that an invasion might be imminent. Then, Russia withdrew most of its forces, claiming they had completed a training exercise, and the crisis was …

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Why China Wants More and Better Nukes

Recent weeks have seen an explosion of worry in the United States about China’s nuclear program. A Pentagon report released in early November warned that China is “accelerating the large-scale expansion of its nuclear forces” and building a larger, diversified, and more sophisticated nuclear arsenal. The report follows news that …

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Plotting like a revolutionary: The need for growing like-minded humanistic networks of Iranians and Arabs

It is a mistake to view Iran’s regional aggression and hegemony as purely a result of violence and terrorism. Certainly, a major impetus of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and of its local militias in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere is the projection of violence of every sort. …

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