Special Reports

This study began with the proposition that U.S. national security policy faces a looming means-ends gap with interlocking financial, political and strategic elements.  Left on its current trajectory, our posture will be unaffordable, misaligned to emerging challenges, and increasingly...

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,...

The Religious Origins of Religious Tolerance Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a coal mine. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a coal mine, but there’s no cat. Theology is looking for a black cat...

Introduction On the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have confronted third-party national combatants. Known as “foreign fighters,” these individuals have gained deadly skills and connections that can be exported or exploited to devastating...