Power Problems

Japan has realized that they need to take more responsibility for their security in response to China’s rise, but there remain disagreements among U.S. allies about how to confront China. Dartmouth College professor Jennifer Lind discusses the threat environment in East Asia, Japan’s military spending and relations with its neighbors, and how collective narratives about historical baggage between countries can shape policy. 

Show Notes

• Jennifer Lind bio
• Elbridge Colby and Jennifer Lind, “Japan Must Disavow Pacifism and Embrace Collective Defense,” Nikkei Asia, June 18, 2021.
• Jennifer Lind, “Japan Steps Up,” Foreign Affairs, December 23, 2022.
• Jennifer Lind, “With U.S. Help, Japan’s Position towards China Hardens,” Financial Times, April 21, 2021.
• Jennifer Lind, “Narratives and International Reconciliation,” Journal of Global Security Studies 5, no. 2 (2020): pp. 229-247.
• Jennifer Lind, Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010).
• Jennifer Lind and Daryl G. Press, “Reality Check,” Foreign Affairs 99, no. 2 (March/April 2020).
• Jennifer Lind, “Great Power Drives Great-Power Narratives,” Asia Policy 16, no. 3 (July 2021): pp. 142-147.

1. Jennifer Lind and Chikako Kawakatsu Ueki, “Is Japan Back? Measuring Nationalism and Military Assertiveness in Asia’s Other Great Power,” Journal of East Asian Studies 21 (2021): pp. 367-401.

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Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, explains how China's impartial approach to diplomacy gives it an edge against America's more Manichean tendencies. He also discusses what US troops are doing in the unauthorized war in Syria, Beijing's diplomatic mediation of negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Iran -- and potentially between Ukraine and Russia, and what accounts for the slow pace of change in America's posture in the Middle East, among other topics. 

Show Notes

• Trita Parsi bio
• Trita Parsi and Kalid Aljabri, “How China Became a Peacemaker in the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs, March 15, 2023.
• Trita Parsi, “The U.S. Is Not an Indispensable Peacemaker,” New York Times, March 22, 2023.

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What can we learn from the great empires of history? Tulane professor and Cato adjunct scholar Christopher Fettweis is the author of The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy. He discusses grand strategy, balancing means and ends, the wisdom of restraint, the temptation to overextend, and other lessons to draw from the history of empires.

Show Notes

• Christopher Fettweis bio
• Christopher J. Fettweis, The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy(New York: Oxford University Press, 20222).
• Christopher J. Fettweis, “Restraining Rome: Lessons in Grand Strategy from Emperor Hadrian,” Survival 60, no. 4 (August-September 2018): pp. 123-150.

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Over time, U.S. foreign policy has become increasingly activist, interventionist, and hostile despite facing fewer direct national security threats. These military interventions have also gradually become less connected to the national interest. Tufts University professor Monica Toft and Bridgewater State University assistant professor Sidita Kushi explain their quantitative research on US interventionism and explore alternative strategies. 

Show Notes

• Monica Toft bio
• Sidita Kushi bio
• Monic Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi, Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy(New York City: Oxford University Press, 2023). Forthcoming.
• Sidita Kushi and Monica Duffy Toft, “Introducing the Military Intervention Project: A New Dataset on US Military Interventions, 1776–2019,” Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022).
• Monica Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi, “The Roots of Washington’s Addiction to Military Force,” Foreign Affairs, January 10, 2023.
• Monica Duffy Toft, “Getting Religion Right in Civil Wars,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 65, no. 9 (2021): pp. 1607-1634.
• Sidita Kushi, “Selective Humanitarians: How Region and Conflict Perception Drive Military Interventions in Intrastate Crises,” International Relations (2022).
• Sidita Kushi, “Regional Bias Too Obvious in Western Response to Humanitarian Atrocities,” EURACTIV, September 27, 2022.
• Monica Duffy Toft, “America’s Modern Addiction to the Big Stick,” Responsible Statecraft, June 21, 2022.

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The United States has sent a vast amount of aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion. Defense Priorities’ Rajan Menon and Daniel DePetris explain that while the war is likely to end in a negotiated agreement, neither side is motivated to negotiate right now. They also discuss the need for European defense autonomy. 

Show Notes

1. Rajan Menon bio
2. Daniel DePetris bio
3. Rajan Menon and Daniel DePetris, “Europe Doesn’t Need the United States Anymore,” Foreign Policy, January 30, 2023.
4. Lessons from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Symposium at Defense Priorities
5. Rajan Menon and Daniel DePetris, “We Can’t Keep Treating Talk of Negotiations to End the Ukraine War as Off Limits,” The Guardian, November 3, 2022.

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Michelle Murray, associate professor at Bard College, explains how states aspire to major power identity and status, how the struggle for recognition in world politics produces conflict, and the social dimensions of the security dilemma. She also discusses the history of US and German naval expansion in the 19th century, realism and constructivism, and how to avoid war with a rising China, among other topics. 

Show Notes

• Michelle Murray bio
• Michelle Murray, The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations: Status, Revisionism, and Rising Powers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). 

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Ahsan Butt, associate professor at George Mason University, discusses the problems in Pakistani politics and government, the changes in U.S.-Pakistani relations since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban, India, and China. He also explains his theory of why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.

1. Ahsan Butt bio
2. Paul Staniland, Adnan Naseemullah, and Ahsan Butt, “Pakistan’s Military Elite,” Journal of Security Studies 43, no. 1 (2018): pp. 74-103.
3. Ahsan Butt, “Clash of the Titans: India and Pakistan Continue to Battle Over Kashmir,” The National Interest, August 24, 2020.
4. Ahsan Butt, “Why Did the United States Invade Iraq in 2003?” Security Studies 28, no. 2 (2019): pp. 250-285.

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Stephen Wertheim and Matt Duss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace analyze President Joe Biden’s foreign policy performance two years into his administration. They discuss US policies on Ukraine, Russia, on the use of economic sanctions, the war in Yemen, the stalled Iran deal, the politics of progressive foreign policy, and more.

Show Notes

• Stephen Wertheim bio
• Matthew Duss bio
• Matthew Duss and Stephen Wertheim, “A Better Biden Doctrine,” The New Republic, January 4, 2023.
• Stephen Wertheim, “World War III Begins with Forgetting,” The New York Times, December 2, 2022.

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Does international law actually impose real constraints on states? Michael Poznansky, associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, discusses why states choose to pursue overt vs. covert action, the role of plausible deniability, and the “hypocrisy costs” associated frequent violations of the non-intervention principle.

Show Notes

• Michael Poznansky bio
• Michael Poznansky (2021), "The Psychology of Overt and Covert Intervention," Security Studies 30, no. 3 (2021): pp. 325–353.
• Michael Poznansky, In the Shadow of International Law: Secrecy and Regime Change in the Postwar World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).
• Michael Poznansky, “The Appeal of Covert Action: Psychology and the Future of Irregular Warfare,” Modern War Institute, September 6, 2021.
• Michael Poznansky, "Revisiting Plausible Deniability," Journal of Strategic Studies 45, no. 4 (2022): pp. 511-533.
• Martha Finnemore, “Legitimacy, Hypocrisy, and the Social Structure of Unipolarity: Why Being a Unipole Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be,” World Politics 61, no. 1 (January 2009): pp. 58-85.

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A common argument against U.S. troop withdrawals points to the risk of creating strategic vacuums that rival powers could then fill to great advantage. Benjamin H. Friedman, director of policy at Defense Priorities, explains why such fears are without merit. He discusses, among many topics, the value of territory in contemporary international politics, how power generates paranoia, and whether the U.S. should reduce its force posture abroad.

Show Notes:

• Benjamin H. Friedman bio
• Benjamin H. Friedman, “Don’t Fear Vacuums: We Can Go Home,” Defense Priorities Report, December 7, 2022.
• Benjamin H. Friedman, “No, Afghanistan Did Not Hurt U.S. ‘Credibility’,” UnHerd, August 31, 2022.
• Benjamin H. Friedman, “Bad Idea: Assuming Trade Depends on the Navy,” Defense360, January 7, 2022.
• Jennifer Keister, “The Illusion of Chaos: Why Ungoverned Spaces Aren’t Ungoverned, and Why That Matters,” Cato Policy Analysis no. 766, December 9, 2014.

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