From almost the inception of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), alliance observers have criticized various members for unequal or delinquent burden-sharing. Though often warranted, these criticisms failed, and continue to fail, to encompass all the ways that alliance members contribute to NATO. Using the Washington Treaty as a guide, this article proposes a framework that draws upon NATO’s enduring principles and roles to select holistic metrics to evaluate burden-sharing. Rather than dispensing with the traditional monetary inputs of defense expenditure and major equipment investment entirely, this article argues that they serve a useful purpose. However, other soft and hard power factors must augment these metrics in order to reflect burden-sharing appropriately.

In Western discussions of the Cold War and the ideologies that shaped its character and course, Maoism generally is treated as little more than an oddity: a curious Marxist variant developed by a c...

This study looks at the challenge that cryptocurrencies could pose to national security as it pertains to terrorism. The study begins by untangling what are cryptocurrencies before shifting attention to how criminal use cryptocurrencies and how terrorist could use cryptocurrencies. One of the key issues identified is the lack of an international regulatory regime, including, a definition of what are cryptocurrencies and how one could regulate the sector. By engaging in such research, this study seeks to encourage international society to focus more on cryptocurrencies and develop an effective, binding regulatory regime.

The breakdown of nation states in the Middle East has precipitated a regression to the fundamental tribal identity. The success of al-Qaeda and ISIS later on in mobilizing the tribes for the insurgency in Iraq was due to their ability to reach out to the correct nodes of tribal influence. But their failure was also to a great extent due to their ignoring of tribal mores and sensitivities. Regimes in the region are aware of the risks of this trend, and in some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the leaderships are trying to strengthen the state at the expense of the tribes. Nevertheless, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya have already devolved totally into “re-tribalised” societies and Jordan and Saudi Arabia are vulnerable. The Sunni-Shiite divide is also superimposed on the tribal factor as it serves to unite tribes against a common enemy. Where borders of the nation state remain intact, they now co-exist with fuzzy areas of tribal influence with minimal governance. This trend will change the map of the region from the static quasi-Westphalian model to a dynamic map of fluctuating areas that will be semi-controlled by tribal powers, tribal alliances and “farming” out of state authority to the tribes. Economic interests will be a key driver of these coalitions. The countries of the region that will maintain their territorial integrity will deepen their dialogue with the tribes along their borders and even far beyond their borders. This trend will affect intelligence collection and analysis. Whereas in the 20th century regional studies relied heavily on country studies that described the workings of government in primarily military modernist regimes, understanding of the region in the first decades of the 21st century will call for “micro-understanding” of the working of tribal affiliations and coalitions and modes of intelligence collection that were typical of the 19th Century and relied on cultural and religious intelligence that can only be gleaned through direct contact and HUMINT.

U.S. space systems are the backbone of the U.S. economy and national security. Chinese counter-space weapon developments promise to make the satellite protection mission ever more challenging. Ther...

"Why Europe intervenes in Africa: Security, prestige and the legacy of colonialism." Comparative Strategy, 38(6), pp. 583–584

NATO’s 1999 Kosovo campaign was a pivotal moment in Russia’s worldview and its post–Cold War evolution, prompting an enduring period of estrangement and alienation from the West. It has had a profound and lasting impact on Russian policy and strategic thought vis-à-vis the international system and the use of force, as well as the balance of power amongst different sections of the country’s foreign policy elite. This article focuses on the enduring consequences of NATO’s intervention for relations between Russia and the West, as well as on how the operation has shaped Russian strategic thought and its views on the character of conflict in the twenty-first century. It explores three themes that emerged in the wake of Operation Allied Force: questions over European security, specifically how it is provided and by whom, as well as Russia’s role; challenges to the existing liberal international order and the norms underpinning it; and the evolution of Russian military thought and defense policy post-1999.

At the end of World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom continued their intelligence-sharing efforts by signing the British-U.S. Communication Agreement, later renamed UKUSA. The purpose of the agreement was to streamline the intelligence-sharing process between the two nations in order to better handle global threats, most notably the Soviet Union. The addition of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand led to what is now known as the Five Eyes Alliance. Despite its global reach and close collaboration, the Five Eyes Alliance is constrained by its small membership and overburdened by current and developing global issues that need constant, up-to-date intelligence to address them. Therefore, it could be advantageous for the Five Eyes Alliance to consider expanding its membership to include Germany, France, and South Korea. This article provides a background for understanding the historical evolution of the UKUSA agreement, examining its advantages and disadvantages, before advocating for the addition of Germany, France, and South Korea to the alliance because the benefits of their membership would outweigh any potential disadvantages.

Nuclear weapons are the most efficient means by which an adversary could annihilate the state of Israel. The elimination of nuclear weapons is therefore in Israel’s strategic interest. Israel should lead efforts to achieve a Middle East nuclear weapon–free zone (NWFZ) and accede to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non–nuclear weapon state (NNWS). Such a policy would reduce the risk of Iran and certain Arab states developing nuclear weapons. In place of nuclear deterrence, Israel can take assurance from its advantages in intelligence, missile defense, and superior conventional military power projection capabilities.

This article assesses the relevance of US seapower in the contemporary security environment. This paper builds upon a rich literature on sea power, strategy, and maritime operations to assess recent factors and emerging geostrategic dynamics that are likely to affect American maritime strategy, while keeping sight of the principles that will endure regardless of shifting domestic and international politics. It places the application of sea power in an historic and strategic context to inform the policy choices that confront the administration in wielding elements of national power to further U.S. interests around the world. These issues come to the fore as the Trump Administration is seeking to expand the size of the Navy, with various proposals to increase the number of ships in the fleet to 350 vessels. The article presents these issues to highlight the building blocks available and the challenges faced by the United States as it seeks to reinvigorate its maritime strategy in the 21st century.