Essays
(Needpix.com)
Word to the Wise
Beware the Lion in the Kremlin

Vladimir Putin is a predator who feeds on fear and weakness. Appeasing him will only encourage him to come back for more.

Constitutional Corruption
The Kremlin’s Crumbling Walls

If Putin remains in control through 2030, the problem will still be: after Putin, what?

Buyer Beware
How China’s Mask Diplomacy Backfired

Its defective “gifts” reflect a defective regime—and the world is beginning to notice.

(White House Photo)
A View from Japan
The Virtues of a Confrontational China Strategy

A Japanese official criticizes aspects of the Trump Administration’s confrontational approach to China, but on balance finds it preferable in almost every way to Obama’s engagement and accommodation.

Pacific Perspective
Countering China’s Grand Narratives

Americans tend to focus more on China’s size and strength than its vulnerabilities. In doing so, they play right into Beijing’s hands.

(U.S. Navy photo/Released)
Hypersonic Weapons
COVID-19 and the Weapons of the Future

The coronavirus outbreak is straining U.S. deterrence and power projection abilities—and revealing our glaring vulnerabilities in the realm of hypersonic weapons.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Beyond Free Markets
COVID-19’s Threat to Energy Security

As we are now learning the hard way, maintaining strategic stockpiles of masks and ventilators isn’t enough. The same could be said of oil.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Crisis & Opportunity
The Taiwan Factor During COVID-19

The U.S. can blunt Beijing’s aggression, undermine its propaganda, and improve our own public health response with stronger support of Taiwan. Here’s how.

Populism American Style
A Tale of Two Parties

How did the Republican Party succumb to populism within its ranks, while the Democrats have so far managed to resist it? A prominent Democrat offers his view—with lessons for 2020.

Power Concentrations
The Net Effect

Thanks to innovations in information technology, we are facing unprecedented concentrations of power—which are making society not only less transparent, but more brittle as well.

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