Special Reports provide in-depth analysis on a particular topic or issue and provide policy recommendations.


 

A Quick Guide to the Foreign Policy Views of the Republican Presidential Candidates

At a Glance As of this writing, sixteen candidates are formally running for the nomination of the Republican Party for the presidency of the United States. Our purpose here is modest: to report on the foreign policy views of...

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The Best of FPRI’s Essays on Democratic Transitions

We launched the Project on Democratic Transitions a decade ago in reaction to the fifteen years of dramatic change that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. The communist dictatorships of Europe and Eurasia had crumbled and been followed...

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The Best of FPRI’s Essays on the Middle East, 2005-2015

he Middle East - a region as complex and fraught with challenges as ever - continues to hold U.S. policymakers in its thrall. Though they may want to pivot elsewhere, the Middle East keeps pulling them back because the...

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The Evolution of the Executive and Executive Power in the American Republic

THE MODERN REPUBLIC AND THE BIRTH OF EXECUTIVE POWER As Americans, we take for granted the idea of a government that is both free and yet strong enough to preserve the security of its citizens. But the fact is...

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The Inseparable Twins: Diaspora Shishan and Chechen Muwaḥḥidun & Jihadis in al-Sham

Introduction Ethnic Chechens play a critical if underappreciated role in the conflict now raging in al-Sham. They include the descendants of late 19th century Diaspora Shishan — the Arabic transliteration of “Chechens” — long settled in the region; and...

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The Gulf Cooperation Council’s Unified Military Command

INTRODUCTION The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which brings together the countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, took an unprecedented step during its 34th Summit (held in Kuwait City on December 10-11 2013)...

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The Perfect Storm Ahead? An Exploration of the Risk of Nuclear Terrorism

“Today, the elements of a perfect storm are in place around the world:  an ample supply of weapons-usable nuclear materials, an expansion of the technical know-how to build a crude nuclear bomb, and the determination of terrorists to do...

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William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, and the American Founding: The Philadelphia Factor

. . . Given all these contingencies it would appear that the birth of a United States of America was a fluke. And yet the historical narrative also suggests that what made that glorious fluke possible was the location,...

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American Military History: A Resource for Teachers and Students

PREFACE Teaching America’s military history is an important civic duty because “We the People” are responsible for the common defense and therefore should know something about it. At the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), we encourage teachers to integrate...

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21st Century Cultures of War: Advantage Them

Introduction In the inaugural launch of the FPRI’s new e-publication, The Philadelphia Papers, the anthropologist Anna Simons of the Defense Analysis department at the Naval Postgraduate School, and member of the Orbis Board of Editors, provocatively assesses cultures of war in...

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