December, 2021

• 19 December

  Young and Angry in Fezzan: Achieving Stability in Southern Libya through Greater Economic Opportunity

  

  The Fezzan region of Libya is home both to the country’s largest oil field, making it key to Libya’s oil-based economy, and to some of its direst poverty. Young people have borne the brunt of the region’s chronic development challenges, making them vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups and criminal …

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• 19 December

  China’s Security Force Posture in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia

  

  China’s geo-economic influence is empowering the expansion of its security force posture in the Lower Mekong region, which should be of concern to both maritime Southeast Asia and the United States. While Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia—the geographic core of mainland Southeast Asia—are demonstrating resilience and sustaining some strategic autonomy, several …

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• 19 December

  How to Deliver for Citizens in Fragile States After the Democracy Summit

  

  Multilateral efforts to uphold democracy should be more inclusive of conflict-affected countries going forward. Last week’s Summit for Democracy hosted by President Biden was a call to action. The first-ever international convening of its kind, it offered democratic leaders an opportunity to announce political commitments to reform over the coming …

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• 19 December

  To Consolidate Democracy, Change U.S. Security Assistance

  

  Security sector assistance often undercuts democratic rule in nations facing violence or autocracy As the United States pursues its initiative to bolster democratic rule and human rights after last week’s Summit for Democracy, a priority should be to diagnose and repair the flaws in U.S. and allied approaches to helping …

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• 19 December

  How Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Could Change the Equation in Ukraine

  

  The prospect of greater Russian involvement in the war in Ukraine raises questions about the possible role of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and how it could support Russia’s Ground Forces. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has seen something of a renaissance. While in 2000 it was seen to have been …

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• 19 December

  Sanctioning Russian Aggression: The West Must Accept Economic Self-Harm

  

  The G7 talk of severe sanctions against Russia hides an inconvenient truth. To be effective, sanctions must hurt Western economies too. As Russian military assets mass on the border with Ukraine and tensions rise between the Kremlin and Western allies, ‘economic measures’ are emerging as one of the West’s biggest …

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• 19 December

  The Afghan Debacle Should Prompt China to Revise its South Asia Policy

  

  While China has tried to rebalance its relations between India and Pakistan before, recent developments in Afghanistan give it fresh impetus to do so. Any future Cold War between the US and China would be entirely different to the previous version for several reasons, the most obvious of which is …

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• 19 December

  Resolving the Stalemate: Foreign Fighters and Family Members in Syria

  

  This paper assesses the risks to national and transnational security posed by foreign terrorist fighters and their families, and considers how global leadership and multilateral solutions are necessary to address them. The collapse of the Islamic State caliphate in March 2019, while a positive development overall for international security, has …

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• 19 December

  The Spending Review and the UK’s Strategic Priorities

  

  The recent Spending Review highlights the close relationship between the UK’s international and domestic policy agenda. Key Points In contrast to previous national security reviews, the 2021 Integrated Review (IR), published in March, was not accompanied by a multi-year spending review. The publication of the Spending Review in November 2021 …

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• 19 December

  Macron’s Middle East Ambitions Increasingly Pass Through the UAE

  

  While U.S. President Joe Biden seems determined to reduce the U.S. footprint in the Middle East, finally embracing Washington’s long-discussed pivot to Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron is headed in the opposite direction. In recent years, Macron has made repeated trips to Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf states, and launched …

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