“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...

. . . 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,...

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...

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...

Introduction   Few observers foresaw the Arab Spring, but it should not have surprised anyone that the Islamist movements – the most organized movements in the Arab world – became the main beneficiaries of the turmoil that ensued. Islamism,...

Introduction Achieving a minimum level of stability in any post-conflict society is an absolute prerequisite for effective and durable reconciliation and reconstruction. To achieve even the most basic level of stability requires a well managed, competent and impartial police...

Introduction Recent weeks have seen an unfortunate number of violent shootings perpetrated by armed men. The shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin shine light on ideologies and other factors inspiring violence in the U.S. In response, the...

Introduction This paper argues that to adequately defend its maritime claims, the Philippines should consider an external defense architecture designed around mobile coastal defense batteries equipped with long-range anti-ship missiles and protected by an integrated air defense umbrella. Such...

Introduction Russia now faces a momentous political crisis. The abuses of the Putin regime are so fundamental that, without profound change, the protest movement is unlikely to be stopped. Putin, however, is unlikely to agree to reforms that would...

Introduction With support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, FPRI’s Center of Terrorism and Counterterrorism examined the Commonwealth’s overall state of readiness, as well as the state’s success and failures in using Homeland Security resources.   On Tuesday, November 22,...