Faculty Publications

The war in Ukraine has reignited decades-old debates about what went wrong in the post-Cold War Russian-American relationship.

In advance of the May 8, 2022, Hong Kong chief executive election, Yvonne Chiu and William McCahill joined NBR executive vice president Michael Wills for an Asia Insight podcast to discuss Hong Kong’s future under the only candidate, John Lee. As Hong Kong emerges from two years of political crackdowns and strict pandemic measures, Lee will face the task of reviving the global financial hub’s faltering economy.

There is more than one way to think about modern U.S.–China relations, but one would never know it from the historical analogy most commonly applied: the Anglo-German relationship from the early 20th century.

This essay finds that Chinese firms are rapidly developing Africa’s ports as platforms for the integrated political, economic, and military presence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in each of the continent’s subregions.

Several weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán singled out Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as an enemy of the Hungarian nation. In the current crisis, Orbán’s criticism of Ukraine and fierce opposition to further sanctions against Russia stand out during a rare moment of apparent E.U. unity in support of Ukraine.

Even though this is a conference mainly about nuclear deterrence, it’s important to note that strategic deterrence vis-à-vis China involves far more than doomsday weapons. The Chinese Communist Party has resolved to make geostrategic gains with the least amount of physical force possible. Preferably party chieftains want to intimidate Asian neighbors without warfare; they want not to fight, and pursue their aims accordingly.

Russia threatened to hold "military tribunals" for the fighters in Mariupol who refused to surrender. This piece explores the implications for prisoner of war status and the application of combat immunity.

Watching Russia falter in Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping may conclude that if he decides to invade Taiwan, he cannot hope to achieve victory with little or limited fighting. The risk is that this will lead him to prepare a much bigger assault, deploying far heavier and more concentrated firepower to batter the island into submission.

One of the most surprising ways that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed Europe is Germany’s sudden willingness to rapidly improve its military. Jonathan D. Caverley of the Naval War College and Lucas F. Hellemeier at Freie Universität Berlin explain that while this is an important shift in Berlin’s approach to security, Germany will take years, even decades, to become a major military power.

Emily Holland, professor at the U.S. Naval War College, analyzes the impacts of Russian oil and natural gas export restrictions on European, U.S. and global energy markets as well as the geopolitical ripple effects.

How might Russian maritime forces be brought to bear against the United States and its allies? This question is particularly critical as fears of inadvertent escalation in Ukraine increase. Understanding the answer requires a close reading of what Russian military theorists themselves write about warfare, matched with an examination of maritime geography; combat power; and intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting.

Taiwan’s island geography makes it harder to invade, but also harder for allies to supply weapons and other matériel and harder for people to flee: there will be far fewer refugees and many more civilian casualties, in event of an invasion. Liberal democratic Taiwan’s fate will test whether the global liberal democratic community can sustain its post-Cold War, Ukraine-induced awakening.

These days people are asking if what Russia is doing in Ukraine constitutes "genocide," and this article responds to that question.

Criminal behavior is expanding to include interdisciplinary domains, and so must accountability for such crimes. We are witnessing activism to bring perpetrators of environmental crimes to justice all the way to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This activism has named the crime of environmental offenses.

A legal review of USMC Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations efforts to maintain a low-profile amongst the civilian infrastructure considering the legal principle of distinction and the need to protect civilians during military operations.