Political Geography: United States / Journal: Connections

1. The Rise and Consolidation of Islamic State: External Intervention and Sectarian Conflict

Author:: Abdul Basir Yosufi
Publication Date:: 09-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This research paper examines the extent to which both the United States (US) intervention in 2003 and sectarian conflict in Iraq and the region contributed to the rise and consolidation of the Islamic State (IS). It is argued that the US intervention contributed to the rise of IS by creating a strategic cause for mobilization of insurgency while insufficient counterinsurgency resources and doctrine, and the lack of a post-war plan enabled the insurgency to consolidate. Although the US adapted its strategy and deployed additional resources as part of the “surge,” which succeeded in weakening of the insurgents significantly, the premature withdrawal of US troops allowed for a revival of the insurgency which eventually evolved into IS. The sectarian conflict in Iraq and the region further contributed to the rise and consolidation of IS by helping in prolif-eration of the group’s underlying ideology, increasing funding opportunities for the insurgents and driving the Sunni communities to support the Islamic State
Topic:: Terrorism, Counter-terrorism, ISIS, Islamic State, and Military Intervention
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and Middle East

2. Russia vs. EU/US through Georgia and Ukraine

Author:: David Matsaberidze
Publication Date:: 03-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This paper aims to analyze the construction and transformation of the post-Soviet security perspectives of Georgia and Ukraine in the context of the post-Soviet Russian foreign policy in the “near abroad,” quite often termed the “legitimate sphere” of Russian influence by high-ranking Russian officials. This inquiry covers the panorama of the foreign policy in post-Soviet Russia across the FSU, from the early 1990s through to the present, where Georgia and Ukraine’s independent and pro-Western orientation are the main issues securitized for the Russian Federation. Accordingly, the maintenance of territorial integrity has become a security priority for Georgia since the early 1990s and will most likely be Ukraine’s top concern after the Crimean occupation by the Russian Federation in March 2014 and the subsequent developments in Eastern Ukraine. Therefore, it could be claimed that post-Soviet Russian and Georgian/Ukrainian security strategy (following peaceful revolutions) represent a zero-sum game.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Imperialism, Military Strategy, and European Union
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Georgia

3. Russia and the Arab Spring

Author:: Alexander Vysotsky
Publication Date:: 12-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The Russian attitude to the Arab Spring—a mixture of skepticism, caution and mis-trust—was for a long time poorly understood outside the country. In the West, which initially saw in the Arab Spring the familiar battle between “democracy from below” and “dictatorship from above,” many accused Moscow of sympathizing with outdated au-thoritarian regimes, even facilitating their behavior, and of being incapable of keeping up with the times. Later, the situation changed. As democratic revolutions were replaced by civil con-flicts (some more peaceful, others more bloody, all exacerbated by ethnic or religious differences) Russia’s conservative position started to find support, both within the Mid-dle East and beyond. The breakthrough Russo-American agreement on Syrian chemical weapons opened the door to the Geneva II talks, bringing factions within Syria to the same talks table, and also helping regulate the Iranian nuclear issue. To understand the factors that shaped the Russian attitude to the Arab Spring, we need to review recent Russian history and how the situation has changed Russia’s bor-ders. In this article, we will attempt to circumscribe these factors, and offer insights into their true nature.
Topic:: Imperialism, Social Movement, Authoritarianism, Democracy, Arab Spring, and Protests
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Middle East, and Syria

4. The Waning Grand Strategy of Democratization: Why a Pivot to the Asia-Pacific Places the United States at Greater Risk of Terrorist Attack

Author:: David Tier
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Our world is on a trajectory leading to a point where terrorists will eventually acquire a nuclear weapon. It is only a matter of time. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States recognized the lack of effectiveness of its previous intelligence and military efforts in deterring terrorists and sought an alternate way to defuse the radical Islamist threat. By continuing to advocate the use of military force in Iraq after weapons of mass destruction were not found, the U.S. pursued a strategy in line with the idealist school of thought by attempting to plant a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Iraq became the centerpiece of the United States' ambitions to stop the region from exporting violence and terror, and attempted to transform it into a place of progress and peace. This effort was ambitious indeed, and many argued that these goals were be- yond the United States' ability to achieve. However, this strategy offered a possible solution to the endless cycle of violence across the Middle East and Africa and its continuing threat to U.S. national security. The current administration, in contrast, announced last year a "rebalance toward the Asia -Pacific region," ostensibly to counter the growing strength of China's military power. Like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand, this shift pivots the U.S. away from its true threat and increases the peril its citizens will face. The United States should focus its efforts on supporting democratization in troubled regions, and policy makers must counter those who criticize this strategy, including military-industrial complex advocates of the "pivot."
Topic:: Islam
Political Geography:: United States, Asia, and Mumbai

5. Research Ethics in the Mobile Learning Environment (MoLE) m-Learning Project

Author:: Jacob Hodges and Geoff Stead
Publication Date:: 10-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This research paper discusses the Mobile Learning Environment (MoLE) Project, a unique and ambitious effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense's Coalition Warfare Program (CWP) in partnership with over twenty nations. The mobile learning project explored the usefulness and effectiveness of using mobile technologies as a tool to support training activities in medical stability operations. This article discusses the importance of employing global research ethics and social responsibility practices in the testing and evaluating of science and technology projects. It provides an under- standing of research ethics requirements and looks at how the technical challenges were applied within a global framework. Finally, it showcases an integrated application of a mobile capability in accordance with a myriad of research ethics guidelines and concludes with the accomplishment of evaluating this global capability.
Political Geography:: United States

6. The Role of Teaching History for a Nation-Building Process in a Post-Conflict Society: The Case of Macedonia

Author:: Biljana Popovska
Publication Date:: 10-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The theoretical framework of this article is based on several published works whose content deals with history teaching as a key mechanism of justice in transitional societies. Then, it draws from the work of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe and their project "Clio in the Balkans" and the Joint History Text- book Project. In addition, there are materials from interviews with Macedonian and Albanian history teachers, experts, and government representatives selected from the participants in the Macedonian project presented at a United States Institute of Peace conference in Washington, D.C. in November 2005.
Political Geography:: United States and Washington

7. Central Asia and the Afghanistan Security Dilemma: Amelioration, Retrograde, or Status Quo? Central Asia's Role in Regional Security Regarding Afghanistan after 2014

Author:: Timothy A. Krambs
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The regional security of Central Asia hinges on the level of stability within Afghanistan and its foreign relations with its neighbors.1 Afghanistan is not only pivotal in the maintenance of regional security, but is also crucial to the region's economic and po- litical development. As Ashraf Ghani, chairman of the Afghan transition commission, stated, “The region needs to make a choice, a stable Afghanistan ... is absolutely es- sential.”2 However, there is looming doubt as to the ability of Afghan forces to be able to defend the state against domestic and external insurgent movements and to sustain the progress in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency that the U.S.-backed, NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan has estab- lished under UN mandates since the United States initiated military action against the Taliban in 2001. The year 2014 is the deadline that has been set for ISAF troops to withdraw from the war-torn country and hand over the responsibility for ensuring secu- rity in the nation to the Afghan Security Forces. Currently the U.S. and NATO forces are transitioning from a mission of combat to one of support.3 The participants of the “Bonn+10” conference4 identified 2011 as the dividing point “From Transition to the Transformation Decade,” during which the burden on the international community to assist Afghanistan in maintaining peace and continuing to develop its governmental re- forms should gradually diminish.5 Several important questions require informed and in- sightful responses: During this “Transformation decade,” what will the security picture in Afghanistan look like? Who will supplant the U.S. forces and complement the Af- ghan security forces to establish the necessary stability in Afghanistan to allow further economic and political development in the country and the region?
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Central Asia, and Australia

8. Strategic Communication for Security National Defense: Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Approach

Author:: Christian E. Guerrero-Castro
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Most recent military actions have provided stark examples of the increasing power of communications in the public and governmental arena regarding the role that direct actors play in disputes characterized as “conflicts of interests.” These examples have also shown how communications can directly influence perceptions within the interna- tional system and among those who enjoy “freedom of action,” who are always pur- sued by an arsenal of immediate media technology. However, in a conflict of interests, nation-states act along political lines and use the tools of the “fields of action” (inter- nal, external, economic, and defense) to execute their national strategies, with the ob- jective of maintaining or pursuing political and strategic objectives. But how can we defend ourselves against communications, or use them to benefit our political-strategic interests?
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States

9. The Asymmetric Warfare Environment as Described by the Participants

Author:: Giuseppe Caforio
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The completion of a cross-national research study on a sizeable sample of military per- sonnel who had participated in asymmetric warfare operations has resulted in a variety and breadth of survey material that is deserving of further examination.1 Additional study of the data gathered in this research is particularly important in order to reconstruct the environment of this type of warfare, with special regard to the human impact of such conflicts on the participants.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: United States

10. Ballistic Missile Defense in Poland: Did the Costs Outweigh the Benefits?

Author:: Colonel Steven D. Dubriske
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The government of Poland has addressed a number of difficult national security issues since the nation regained its independence from Soviet control in 1989. Longstanding border disputes with neighboring countries and the perceived disparate treatment of Polish minorities in these countries are just two examples of the many external security challenges Poland faced head-on after its emergence from the Warsaw Pact. Poland\'s leadership has also addressed a number of internal security problems, such as the mod- ernization of its Cold War-era military and the transfer of control of the armed forces from the Polish General Staff to civilian authorities within its Ministry of Defense.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Russia and United States

11. GAO Report on Security Force Assistance: More Detailed Planning and Improved Access to Information Needed to Guide Efforts of Advisor Teams in Afghanistan

Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: ISAF's mission in Afghanistan has shifted from a combat role to focus more on pre- paring ANSF units to assume lead security responsibility by the end of 2014. A key element in advising and assisting the ANSF is SFA advisor teams, provided by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. A House Armed Services Committee report accompa- nying its version of the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act directed GAO to review DOD's establishment and use of SFA advisor teams. Specifically, GAO evaluated the extent to which (1) DOD, in conjunction with ISAF, has defined SFA advisor team missions, goals, and objectives; (2) the Army and Marine Corps have been able to provide teams; and (3) the Army and Marine Corps have developed programs to train teams for their specific missions. GAO reviewed doctrine and guid- ance, analyzed advisor requirements, reviewed training curricula, and interviewed Army, Marine Corps, theater command, and SFA advisor team officials in the U.S. and Afghanistan.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, and Washington

12. A Critical Analysis of the U.S. "Pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific: How Realistic is Neo-realism?

Author:: Rong Chen
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: At the time of writing, the U.S. had its highest-ranking military delegation in over two years, led by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, visiting Beijing. The mission was intended to conduct sensitive bilateral negotiations at the highest level in China, having been received by President Xi Jinping and members of China's Central Military Commission. This visit took place during a period of heightened tension in northeastern Asia, characterized by nuclear tests and other provocative actions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and the escalating territorial dispute between China and Japan over Diaoyu Island. It underscored the importance of Sino-U.S. bilateral relations, and encouraged students of the region to reflect on the strategic significance and policy implications of the U.S. pivot toward the Asia-Pacific, which is the key factor of the strategic context of the region.
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, China, Asia, Korea, Island, and Northeast Asia

13. The Rise of All

Author:: James Thompson
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: In the 1950s, there was much speculation as to what would happen if mankind ventured into outer space. Both Soviet and U.S. scientists were forced to speculate about how objects would perform above the atmosphere without knowing what would truly happen. TIROS I, for example, was the first successful orbit-sustaining satellite, designed to map the earth's weather. It was launched by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on 1 April 1960. Thirty years later, NASA turned the TIROS technology around and started looking outward, towards deep space. In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and created some of the most detailed visible-light images ever, thereby allowing a deep view into space and time. Many Hubble observations have led to significant breakthroughs in astrophysics. By taking modern theory from communications satellites and looking outward instead of toward Earth, or "reversing the lens," scientists were able to discover a new universe. But could scientists have accurately predicted the Internet, a rover on Mars, or hypersonic travel in the 1950s?
Political Geography:: United States and Soviet Union

14. Critical Energy Infrastructure: Operators, NATO, and Facing Future Challenges

Author:: Dinos Kerigan-Kyrou
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Critical infrastructure enables modern society. It includes our communications and Internet, our banking systems, the means of safely delivering our supplies of food and water, health systems, defense installations, transportation networks, air traffic control systems, and logistics and port facilities. It also includes our energy and electricity supply. Power generation plants, electricity grids, and diesel, gasoline, oil, and natural gas distribution networks underpin our entire infrastructure. Critical energy infrastructure is the single most important part of the complex web of critical infrastructure. Without energy—particularly the regular supply of gasoline and diesel—no other element of our critical infrastructure can operate. This was clearly seen in the northeastern United States during Hurricane Sandy in2012. That is why the priorities in the wake of the storm were first to reestablish power, and second to restore transit systems (buses and subways).Governments and relief organizations quickly realized that only then could other infrastructure, such as hospitals, become operational again.
Political Geography:: United States

15. The Young and the Normless: Al Qaeda's Ideological Recruitment of Western Extremists

Author:: Thérèse Postel
Publication Date:: 09-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The Boston Marathon bombings on 15 April 2013 brought terror to the finish line of one of the United States' oldest athletic events, and returned terrorism to the forefront of the United States' psyche. The world watched as Massachusetts law enforcement agencies shut down a large swath of the state in order to find a bomber on the run. As the dust settled, it was clear that a well-adjusted, popular, intelligent young man who was a naturalized U.S. citizen, from a Chechen refugee family, executed one of the most infamous terror attacks on American soil since 11 September 2001, under the wing of his older brother.
Political Geography:: United States and America

16. Arctic Sustainability: The Predicament of Energy and Environmental Security

Author:: Erica M. Dingman
Publication Date:: 01-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Acquisition of Arctic hydrocarbon deposits is a strategic priority of Arctic states and numerous non-Arctic states alike. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the area north of the Arctic Circle holds 13 percent of undiscovered global oil reserves and 30 percent of undiscovered gas reserves, with the expectation that 84 percent of these reserves will be found offshore. Increasing global demand for energy, attributed primarily to population and income growth, alongside technical advancements and financial incentives will likely accelerate the rate at which stakeholders seek out these presumed Arctic hydrocarbons.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States

17. Recent Trends in Security and Stability in the South Caucasus

Author:: Richard Giragosian and Sergey Minasyan
Publication Date:: 01-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: After twenty years of independence, the three counties of the South Caucasus-Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia-continue to struggle with a daunting set of challenges. In light of several unresolved conflicts and profound deficiencies in efforts directed at democratic and economic reform, the South Caucasus continues to be a "region at risk." As if this rather bleak landscape was not enough, three more recent trends have emerged to further threaten the region's security and stability. The first trend, and one that is likely to have the most profound effects over the long term, is evident in a subtle shift in the already delicate balance of power in the region, driven largely by a steady surge in Azerbaijani defense spending and exacerbated by a lack of progress in the mediation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Since the 1994 ceasefire that resulted in the suspension of hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh (but that did not definitively end them), this unresolved or "frozen" conflict has been subject to an international mediation effort conducted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) so-called Minsk Group. This tripartite body co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States seeks to engage and prod the parties to the conflict toward a negotiated resolution of the conflict.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Security
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Caucasus, France, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

18. GAO Report on Arctic Capabilities

Publication Date:: 01-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The gradual retreat of polar sea ice, combined with an expected increase in human activity-shipping traffic, oil and gas exploration, and tourism in the Arctic region-could eventually increase the need for a U.S. military and homeland security presence in the Arctic. As a result, the Department of Defense (DOD) must begin preparing to access, operate, and protect national interests there. House Report 111-491 directed DOD to prepare a report on Arctic Operations and the Northwest Passage, and specified five reporting elements that should be addressed. House Report 112-78 directed GAO to review DOD's report. GAO assessed the extent to which 1) DOD's Report to Congress on Arctic Operations and the Northwest Passage (Arctic Report) addressed the specified reporting elements and 2) DOD has efforts under way to identify and prioritize the capabilities needed to meet national security objectives in the Arctic. GAO analyzed DOD's Arctic Report and related documents and interviewed DOD and U.S. Coast Guard officials.
Topic:: Human Welfare
Political Geography:: United States, Arctic, and Northwest Passage

19. International Arms Control and Law Enforcement in the Information Revolution: An Examination of Cyber Warfare and Information Security

Author:: Yury Barmin, Grace Jones, Sonya Moiseeva, and Zev Winkelman
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Cyberspace infl uences nearly every human being in the world, as well as virtuallyevery area of government, industry, commerce, and education. The developments of the revolution in information technology have been a source of tremendous innovation, but as the world has increased its dependency on technology for its most basic functions, it has also become more exposed to the underlying vulnerabilities in cyberspace. These vulnerabilities continue to be probed and exploited at an increasing rate, and as a result, cyberspace has become not only a major area of concern for international security, but also a new de facto military arena. The United States and Russia both possess signifi cant capabilities in this realm, and their cooperation is essential to international safety and security in the era of the information revolution.
Political Geography:: Russia and United States

20. Private Security Companies and the Imperfect Reach of the United States Criminal Justice System

Author:: Christopher M. Kovach
Publication Date:: 04-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Mercenaries are dangerously unreliable. According to Machiavelli, employing mercenaries or foreign troops “limited freedom of action and created dependence on other powers.” Yet for the first time in its history, and despite cautionary words against condottieri, the United States is relying heavily on private firms to provide security services in an unstable environment. In fact, not since the seventeenth century has there been “such a reliance on private military actors to accomplish tasks directly affecting the success of military engagements.” But military excursions to foreign soil raise perennial issues related to the imposition of order, discipline, and training, the foundations upon which commanders traditionally build successful campaigns.
Political Geography:: United States and Iraq

21. GAO Report on Afghanistan Drug Control

Publication Date:: 04-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The US counternarcotics strategy has changed emphasis across program areas over time to align with the overarching counterinsurgency campaign. The 2005 US counternarcotics strategy focused on five program areas: elimination/eradication, interdiction, justice reform, public information, and alternative livelihoods. Since then, US Department of Defense policy and rules of engagement were changed to allow greater military involvement in Afghanistan counternarcotics efforts due to the ties between traffickers and insurgents. Furthermore, the US counternarcotics strategy has shifted to align more closely with counterinsurgency efforts by de-emphasizing eradication, focusing more on interdiction efforts, and increasing agricultural assistance.
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and United States

22. EU-Russia Energy Diplomacy: 2010 and Beyond?

Author:: Irena Dimitrova
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: There are three major players in the arena of European energy security: the European Union, its individual member states, and Russia, which is currently the EU's most important energy supplier. Other concerned parties include candidates for EU membership and those nations that aspire to candidacy. Countries through which Russian gas must travel en route to markets in Western Europe, possible gas suppliers from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the United States also have significant roles to play. This essay focuses on researching the nature of the European Union's energy relations with Russia in terms of natural gas supply, from the perspective of the member states.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Central Asia

23. QJ Fall 2010 (full version)

Author:: Irena Dimitrova
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: There are three major players in the arena of European energy security: the European Union, its individual member states, and Russia, which is currently the EU's most important energy supplier. Other concerned parties include candidates for EU member- ship and those nations that aspire to candidacy. Countries through which Russian gas must travel en route to markets in Western Europe, possible gas suppliers from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the United States also have significant roles to play. This essay focuses on researching the nature of the European Union's energy relations with Russia in terms of natural gas supply, from the perspective of the member states.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, and Central Asia

24. NATO Enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia: Old Wine in New Bottles?

Author:: Dušica Lazarević
Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This article examines the question of possible NATO enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia, although it will not venture to provide a firm answer as to its likelihood. The aim of the essay is to offer an accurate analysis of the aspiration of these two former Soviet republics to join the Alliance, with a primary focus on relations between the West (in this case, NATO) and Russia, the successor of the Soviet legacy. In the process, it will try to uncover the underlying principle of NATO enlargement as such. To this end, the article will use geopolitics as a theoretical background to explain the behavior of the parties involved, carefully taking into consideration the specific position of NATO as an alliance. Furthermore, it will elaborate the debates over each post-Cold War round of enlargement, with special focus on the first post-Cold War round of NATO enlargement, as this event established the fact of Alliance expansion and laid out the rules for future enlargement rounds. Studying the positions of Ukraine and Georgia in the context of cooperation with NATO, the article addresses the differences and similarities of the two countries, and examines separately their relations with NATO, Russia, and the United States. The overall conclusion is that the prospects for Ukraine and Georgia to accede to NATO membership are not bright, but at the same time they are not completely without prospects. Their ultimate outcome will depend on the terms—whether explicit or tacit— of the ongoing transatlantic bargain between the U.S. and Russia.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Ukraine, and Georgia

25. Security Sector Reform

Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This paper provides Department of State, Department of Defense (DoD), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) practitioners with guidelines for planning and implementing Security Sector Reform (SSR) programs with foreign partner nations. SSR refers to reform efforts directed at the institutions, processes, and forces that provide security and promote the rule of law. Over the past decade, the U.S. Government (USG), along with like-minded bilateral and multilateral donors, has begun to develop a more comprehensive approach to SSR by better integrating its defense, development, and diplomatic tools and resources. The objective of this new approach is to assist partner governments to provide effective, legitimate, and accountable security for their citizens. In so doing, SSR assists these governments to respond appropriately to threats within and outside their borders.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States

26. U.S. Climate Change Policy: A New Chance for Leadership

Author:: Samiksha Nair
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: U.S. climate change policy has been glacial in its progress over the past fifteen years, as its development has been subject to significant economic and political forces. Even though there has been a gradually narrowing global consensus in the great debate on climate change, a distinct impression exists that the United States, as one of the principal producers of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world, has delayed signing on to the leading international accords that seek to reduce and control their harmful effects. U.S. policy regarding climate change over the past eight years has been subject to the less-than-friendly approach of the recently completed Bush Administration, but a new, almost diametrically opposed stance is now expected from the Obama Administration. While wholesale reversals of policy are predicted, realists see less of a policy shift in the offing, and in fact expect to see the continuation of earlier policies in many areas.
Topic:: Environment
Political Geography:: United States

27. Political Dimensions of the Northern Afghanistan Resupply Routes

Author:: Gregory Gleason
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: A series of insurgent attacks in Pakistan targeting U.S./NATO supply lines took place during the latter half of 2008 and early 2009. As much as 75 percent of the cargo to support military operations and development programs in Afghanistan previously had been shipped through Pakistan, passing through a small number of precarious transport corridors, constrained by chokepoints and subject to disruption. As a result of insurgent attacks, carriage of supplies through the Khyber Pass along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was repeatedly interrupted for brief periods. These events in Pakistan shifted Allied attention from the southern routes to Afghanistan's northern access routes. The existing transit routes for supplies entering Afghanistan from the north passed across European and Eurasian countries and then through the Central Asian countries. This combination of port, air, rail, and road facilities came to be referred to within the framework of Afghanistan's normalization operations as the NDN-the "Northern Distribution Network."
Topic:: NATO
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, Europe, and Central Asia

28. Energy and the 3 Levels of National Security: Differentiating Energy Concerns within a National Security Context

Author:: Phillip E. Cornell
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The past several years have seen a renewed interest in the confluence of energy security and national security policy. Defining the intersection between such wideranging policy areas has been predictably inconsistent, and highly dependent on respective national and agent-based interests. At both national and multinational levels, conflicting objectives and definitions have driven confused attempts to develop singular "energy security" policies within an international security context. Since 2006, NATO has been engaged in a concerted if arduous and controversial process of defining the value the organization adds to the security environment. The new U.S. administration has put energy security front and center on its agenda, particularly in relation to foreign and security policy, but a confused interagency jumble has left many hands on the rudder of foreign energy policy. In the media as well as policy circles, cut-offs of Russian gas, Somali piracy, SCADA system vulnerabilities, terrorist attacks on Middle East pipelines, nuclear safety, and volatile gasoline prices have been too often lumped together.
Topic:: Security and NATO
Political Geography:: United States and Middle East

29. Why Did Poland Choose The F-16?

Author:: Barre R. Seguin
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This essay provides a comprehensive synthesis of the Polish military's fighter aircraft selection process, assesses the dominant issues, and answers the question, “Why did Poland choose the F-16?” It begins with a brief examination of Poland's military aircraft status and military aircraft industrial production capability from approximately 1990 to 2002, its requirements for an advanced fighter aircraft, and Poland's military hardware procurement and acquisition processes. Analysis then turns to acquisition reforms associated with the F- 16 decision, the institutional structure for purchasing military aircraft, the mechanics of the F-16 decision, and who ultimately made the decision. Given the centrality to the decision process, a capabilities comparison of the three competitors—the Lockheed Martin F-16, Saab/BAE Systems JAS-39 Gripen, and the Dassault Mirage 2000-5 Mk II—is offered and interoperability considerations addressed. This study then outlines the financial construction of the three bids, to include economic issues and pressures from the U.S., French, and Swedish governments and industry, and an in-depth analysis of industrial offsets. Lastly, it will examine political issues associated with the F-16 purchase.
Political Geography:: United States and Poland

30. The Principle of Distinction and Weapon Systems on the Contemporary Battlefield

Author:: Michael N. Schmitt
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This article examines, primarily from the perspective of U.S. forces, the challenges faced by technologically advantaged forces on the asymmetrical battlefield vis-à-vis the legal principle of distinction. Distinction, the linchpin of international humanitarian law, requires that parties to a conflict conduct their operations in a manner that distinguishes between combatants and civilians, as well as between civilian objects and military objectives. Paradoxically, the technological edge that advanced militaries enjoy over their enemies may present problems in terms of ensuring compliance with the distinction principle, particularly at the tactical level of warfare. The conflict in Iraq has demonstrated that on an asymmetrical battlefield, the weaker party may adopt tactics that violate the norm in order to offset its technological disadvantage. When this occurs, compliance by the advantaged party is also complicated. Safeguarding the principle of distinction, therefore, requires altering the cost-benefit calculations of the side facing defeat at the hands of its stronger opponent.
Political Geography:: United States and Iraq

31. Solving Transnistria: Any Optimists Left?

Author:: Cristian Urse
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Since 1992, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the situation in Transnistria, the breakaway republic on the border between Moldova and Ukraine. After the conclusion of the agreement that ended the armed conflict, the Moldovan government in Chişinău and the Transnistrian authorities in Tiraspol made efforts to find a political solution, under the supervision of a negotiation mechanism that included, until the end of 2005, Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE. Russia's 2003 plan to that end was rejected by the Moldovan leadership. This triggered a set of political and economic punishments from Moscow. The political changes of 2005 have given a new impetus to the negotiations on the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict. The changes in Georgia and Ukraine and the resuscitation of GUAM have significantly influenced the premises for a settlement, while the United States and the European Union have become observers in the negotiations format.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Europe, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia

32. The European Union's Energy Security Challenges

Author:: Paul Belkin
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Recent increases in energy prices and a steady escalation in global energy demand—expected to rise by nearly 60 percent over the next twenty years—have led U.S. policymakers to engage in a wide-ranging debate over how best to address the country's future energy requirements. Similarly, energy security has become a policy priority for the European Union (EU) and its twenty-seven member states. Together, the United States and Europe represent the world's largest energy market. Although they produce approximately 23 percent of the world's energy, they consume almost 40 percent of the world's supply.
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

33. Public Diplomacy's Next Challenge

Author:: Christopher C. Harmon
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Despite seven years of experiments, U.S. public diplomacy against international terrorism has largely failed. What is most needed is a strong infusion of fresh ideas. The rhetorical branch of the offensive against terror has been utterly neglected. U.S. spokesmen should re-open the argument about terrorism's rank immorality; amplify the voices of Muslim critics of terrorism; publicly deconstruct the ideas of outspoken terrorists; and point to such weaknesses as their lack of credentials in theology. Secondly, there is much room for vigorous and thoughtful defense of evident political alternatives to terror, especially moderation and the rule of law.
Topic:: Diplomacy and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States

34. The Renaissance of Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency: Examining Twenty-First Century Insurgencies and Government Responses

Author:: John J. Le Beau
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Insurgency and counterinsurgency as types of warfare are currently subject to considerable attention due to the nature of the high-profile struggles underway in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is prudent to note that neither insurgency nor the strategy and tactics required to combat it represent new phenomena. A large body of experience and literature from the twentieth century and earlier exists that addresses both sides of the insurgent struggle. Some characteristics of insurgencies are largely immutable, since insurgency is ultimately a form of warfare that is adopted when a combatant has limited resources and limited choices for how to fight against a more powerful adversary. Today as in the past, these characteristics include employment of small-unit attacks, ambushes, assassinations, propaganda activity, and the development of covert infrastructure. Nevertheless, the primary insurgencies active in the twenty-first century are marked by important differences from earlier struggles, particularly in the areas of motivation and inspiration. Rather than being quintessentially political and interested in local or national grievances, many contemporary insurgencies are at their core linked to a particular interpretation of Islam. Thus, these insurgencies represent a war of religion, not of politics, economics, or ethnicity. Islamist insurgencies are likely to be uncompromising and averse to negotiation, absolutist and pan-national in their goals, and willing to justify the mass slaughter of non-combatants who do not share their religious vision.
Topic:: Islam, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia

35. Full Issue

Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

36. Building Defense Institutions: The Broader Context Today

Author:: Peter Faber
Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: When the Soviet empire imploded, hopes of a post-Westphalian peace first rose, and then fell. The end of history did not come, nor did uncomfortable discontinuities coalesce into new international patterns. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, those who hoped for the emergence of new structures of global relations claimed that the interregnum was now over. A clearly definable historical epoch—the Age of Terror—had now emerged. To many observers, however, the years since the 9/11 attacks represent continuity rather than departure. The dissociations and confusions of the interregnum have not disappeared, and one can see terrorism as a feature of this flux rather than its end point. Drifting, in other words, continued to compete with planning; discernible order continued to battle with entropy. If the high priests of pattern identified terrorism as their preferred organizing device in the U.S., advocates of European integration touted their own organizing principle: a trans-European narrative that enjoyed growing acquiescence (if not total uncritical acceptance) throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

37. NATO Enlargement and Beyond

Author:: Edwin J. Pechous
Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The direction of NATO's future security posture currently hangs in the balance. Efforts for a modest increase in new membership and an expansion of interests and cooperation beyond its present day borders continue unabated. Where this policy will lead is yet to be determined. It is certainly worthwhile for those involved in this planning and strategy development in the next years to pursue a deeper understanding of the most recent enlargement processes from the mid-1990s to 2004—when ten new members entered the Alliance—and the overall NATO/U.S. outreach efforts during the same period of expansion. Our analysis of these endeavors is based on the insight gained from the conduct of 105 conferences with various combinations of the 26 PFP members led by a team from the Institute for Defense Analyses under the sponsorship and guidance of the George C. Marshall Center and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Political Geography:: United States

38. Beyond the RMA: Survival Strategies for Small Defense Economies

Author:: Ron Matthews and Curie Maharani
Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Life was straightforward during the Cold War. There were the big guys in the bi-polar strategic stand-off—the United States and the Soviet Union—and there were the little guys: the Eastern European countries, such as Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia; Chile in Latin America; Spain in Southern Europe; Sweden in Scandinavia; Israel in the Middle East; and Singapore in the Far East. All these countries, big or small, capitalist or communist, possessed comprehensive and diversified defense industrial bases. However, times have changed, and in some senses they have changed dramatically. More than anything else, economics does not favor small countries. Previously, Cold War doctrine was premised on mass formations of artillery, main battle groups of tanks and combat aircraft located on the Central European front. In the twenty-first century, these formations have disappeared. Militaries have been transformed by the need to respond to new, emerging, asymmetrical threats arising anywhere across the globe, a shift that is captured under the umbrella term of the “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA). Contemporary doctrine focuses on high-intensity warfare, characterized by sophisticated defense systems, such as telemetry and cruise missiles, fiber optic technologies, sensors, modern telecommunication systems, “stealth” coatings of modern weapon platforms, light-weight composite materials, and the miniaturization of technologies in, for instance, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Political Geography:: United States, Middle East, Israel, Poland, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Latin America, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, Chile, and Scandinavia

39. Report by Swiss Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi on the results of the Consortium's first conference to the EAPC-D in Brussels, Belgium, on 18 December 1998

Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: During the EAPC Meeting of Defence Ministers of 12 June 1998, US Secretary of Defence Cohen proposed the creation of a PfP Consortium of defence academies and civilian institutes of security studies. This Consortium should serve to strengthen defence civilian and military professionalism through enhanced institutional cooperation among the forty-four EAPC member states in defence education and training. Its activities should include an annual conference, a dedicated Internet website, a secretariat, and a journal or other appropriate publication to further its goals.
Political Geography:: United States, Belgium, and Brussels

40. Memorandum of understanding between the Department of Defense of the United States of America and the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection, and Sports of Switzerland Concerning Cooperation in the Development of an Internet- Based Website, to Support the Work of the Partnership For Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes

Publication Date:: 06-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Defense of the United States of America (hereinafter referred to as “the United States”) and the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection, and Sports of Switzerland (hereinafter referred to as “Switzerland”) is in furtherance of the principles established in the Partnership for Peace (PFP) Framework Document adopted by the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels on 10 January 1994.
Political Geography:: United States, America, North Atlantic, and Switzerland

41. The U.S.-Russian Dispute Over Missile Defense

Author:: Vladimir Rukavishnikov
Publication Date:: 09-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: The current Bush Administration is considering a crash effort to put into place the European components of a U.S.-built national missile defense system (NMD) before the end of President Bush's second term. While the debates in the United States are focused primarily on the failure and success of various flight tests, and on the cost of missile defense, the European general public wants to see a concrete plan of its deployment, to understand the design of the entire system, and have a clearer sense of a timetable.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and Europe

Search

Search Constraints

Search Results

Refine your search

Topic

Political Geography

Content Type

Journal

Publishing Institution

Author

Publication Year

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS