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E-Notes
E-Notes are policy-oriented articles covering current developments around the globe that impinge upon American foreign policy and national security priorities.
Mackinder’s Nightmare: Part One
The stunning growth in the capabilities of the People’s Republic of China during the past 30 years has created a severe geopolitical challenge for the United States and its allies. The U.S. faces a near-peer competitor with the potential...
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Coal Mines, Land Mines and Nuclear Bombs: The Environmental Cost of the War in Eastern Ukraine
The war in eastern Ukraine has raged for five years, killed over 13,000 people, and displaced millions. It has affected Ukraine’s political system, economy, society, and security situation. It has caused a rupture in relations between Russia and the...
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Playing Both Sides: How Oligarchs in Eastern Europe Maintain Power and Control
Geopolitical competition between Russia and the West has polarized politics in the vulnerable lands in between Russia and the European Union, breaking voters and parties into pro-Russia and pro-Western camps. But there is a paradox. In this context of...
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The Real Problem with the Trump Foreign Policy
The real problem with the Trump administration’s foreign policy is not its disparaging attitudes toward the United Nations, inherited arms control agreements with the USSR-cum-Russia or Iran, or other international legal instruments such as the Paris Accords on Climate...
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Running Out of Gas: Philippine Energy Security and the South China Sea
About 80 km off the northwest coast of Palawan Island in the South China Sea is the Malampaya natural gas field, the Philippines’ main domestic source of energy. Once piped ashore, its natural gas fuels five power plants, which...
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Irish Phoenix? The Unexpected Winner of Brexit
In his Divine Comedy, Dante drew on ancient mythology to write: “The phoenix dies, and then is born again.” Brexiteers, neo-imperialists, and English nationalists predicted a similar rebirth for Britain once they voted to leave the European Union in...
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Hong Kong’s Summer of Discontent
In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong once again plunged into political crisis over a legal issue. Veteran observers across a wide political spectrum characterized it as the worst such episode in Hong Kong in many decades. ...
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Remembering the Outbreak of the Second World War
Eighty years ago, Adolf Hitler’s war erupted. On September 1, 1939, the Nazi tyrant unleashed a lightning campaign to crush Poland. In destroying Poland, Hitler had the assistance of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, with whom he had made...
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Through Thick and Thin: Will Danish Military Engagements with the U.S. Endure in the Middle East?
What many initially treated as a joke may cause a rift in U.S.-Denmark relations. President Donald Trump’s peculiar offer to buy Greenland from Denmark has caused an unexpected controversy. Trump showed that the news report was no joke when...
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Russia’s Opposition Protests: On the Road from Nowhere to Nowhere
The recent Moscow protests have been seen as yet another turning point in anti-Putin oppositional politics. Nearly every individual who lives in the post-Soviet space can’t help but feel a personal connection to this story. Every new issue, every...
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