E-Notes
FPRI’s E-Notes are policy-oriented articles covering current developments around the globe that impinge upon American foreign policy and national security priorities. Through Email, and Social Media, they are circulated to more than 250,000 individuals in virtually every country around the world, and reach thousands more on our website.
Prior to 2005, E-Notes were known as FPRI Wires. For a list of all available FPRI Wires, please click here.
Defeating the ISIS Nostalgia Narrative
April 18, 2018 · Colin P. Clarke, Haroro J. Ingram
As ISIS lost a significant portion of its territory over the past year, the international community has heralded the collapse of the caliphate. It is now clear that the celebration was premature. Rather than signal a death knell, ISIS’ ...
A Rational Syria Strategy
April 17, 2018 · Adam Garfinkle
Some decades ago already the phrase “CNN effect” was coined, referring to a concern that the emotional power of pictures might generate such popular sentiment as to overwhelm the calm and careful deliberations of governments during crisis decision points ...
A Tale Told Thrice: In North Kosovo, “Pure Provocation” or “Brutal Lynching”?
April 9, 2018 · John R. Haines
In late March, Kosovo internal security forces detained and then expelled a senior Serbian government official, Marko Đurić, who traveled to a North Kosovo ethnic Serb district known as North Mitrovica. While Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was adamant that ...
Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move: A Busted Flush?
April 2, 2018 · Bernard Wasserstein
In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II rode into Jerusalem on a white horse, flamboyantly manifesting his resolve to transform Germany into a world power. In 1977, Anwar Sadat, the first Egyptian president to visit Israel, flew to Jerusalem as an ...
The Record of FPRI Scholars on Threats to the Electric Grid
March 27, 2018 · Lawrence Husick
On March 15, the New York Times reported that Russia had hacked power plants in the United States. The newspaper also reported that Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that while the security ...
The Trump Administration Kicks (Another) Beehive: Why Is the United States Pushing a “Kosovo Army”?
March 22, 2018 · John R. Haines
United States Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell averred recently that ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo—formerly an autonomous Serbian province, it unilaterally declared independence in February 2008—“has the right” to transform its internal security force into a professional army. It followed ...
Why So Secret? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Unique Fragility of Communications Intelligence
March 21, 2018 · George W. Croner
The public debate over the contents of the applications considered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in authorizing the electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page has brought renewed focus to the secrecy in which the ...
The Era of Urban Warfare is Already Here
March 21, 2018 · Margarita Konaev, John Spencer
Aleppo. Mosul. Sana’a. Mogadishu. Gaza. These war-ravaged cities are but a few examples of a growing trend in global conflict, where more and more of the world’s most violent conflicts are being fought in densely populated urban areas, ...
Xi Jinping’s Second Coronation—and What It (May) Mean for China and the Rest of Us
March 20, 2018 · June Teufel Dreyer
In the chill of early March, nearly 5,000 of China’s most important people gathered in Beijing for what are called the two meetings: the National People’s Congress (NPC), which is in theory the nation’s highest legislative body, and the ...
Rallying the West: The Case for Coordinated Leadership to Counter Instability in the Balkans
March 20, 2018 · LeAnne Noelani Howard, Walt Richter
As the Balkans erupted into violent conflict in the early 1990s, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) found renewed relevance as it deployed ground forces into Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1994, conducted an air campaign against Serbia and then moved troops ...
