Volume 139 - Number 3 - Fall 2024
Foreign-imposed Regime Change and the American War in Afghanistan JASON BROWNLEE asks why did America’s twenty-year war in Afghanistan fail to establish a self-sustaining non-Taliban government? The author argues that the U.S. influence depended on the prospects for integrating old regime elites into the new government and on the strength on indigenous opposition forces. Both variables were unfavorable in Afghanistan and they shaped the boundaries of political order no matter how hard U.S. forces fought or how long they stayed.
Volume 137 - Number 3 - Fall 2022
Americans Still Held Hostage: A Generational Analysis of American Public Opinion about the Iran Nuclear Deal Mazaher Koruzhde and Valeriia Popova examine the effect of the Iran hostage crisis on American public opinion on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. They argue that Americans who were “old enough” to share a collective memory of the crisis form a “crisis generation” and are significantly less likely to approve of the deal, regardless of their party and ideological orientations.
Volume 136 - Number 4 - Winter 2021-22
Narrowing the Academic-Policy Divide: Will New Media Bridge the Gap? Paul C. Avey , Michael C. Desch , Ana Petrova , and STEVEN LLOYD WILSON analyze the degree to which blogs and other online new media disseminate scholarship to foreign policy officials. They find that policymakers visit sites as supplementary news sources, not to engage with academic findings. They also find that policymakers rate blogs and strictly online news sources as about as useful as scholarly journal articles and academic books.
Volume 136 - Number 2 - Summer 2021
Does Race Stop at the Water’s Edge? Elites, the Public, and Support for Foreign Intervention among White U.S. Citizens over Time Jon Green examines recent and historical relationships between individuals’ racial attitudes and their support for U.S. foreign policy interventions abroad. He argues that such relationships are persistent over time and are strongest among college-educated citizens, who are likelier to be socialized into elite- level political conflict.
Volume 136 - Number 2 - Summer 2021
The Life Cycle of Grand Strategies: The Case of the American Shift to Containment Ilai Z. Saltzman examines the way grand strategies change by identifying their “life-cycle.” He argues that replacing an existing grand strategy is a multiplayer and decentralized process incorporating the ideational inputs of various actors, and that this process is more chaotic, porous, and nonlinear than we tend to think.
Volume 136 - Number 1 - Spring 2021
Policy or Pique? Trump and the Turn to Great Power Competition Deborah Welch Larson analyzes Donald Trump’s policy toward China and Russia and the return of great power competition. She argues that Trump’s personalization of foreign policy undermined his trade war with China, and efforts to improve relations with Russia and that the Joe Biden administration will continue to compete but seek cooperation in areas of shared interests.
Volume 135 - Number 4 - Winter 2020-21
Conflict Aggravation or Alleviation? A Cross-National Examination of U.S. Military Aid’s Effect on Conflict Dynamics with Insights from Pakistan Amira Jadoon analyzes the effects of U.S. military aid on conflict dynamics and violence within recipient states. She argues that higher levels of U.S. military aid to states with weak governance structures can inadvertently result in a diffusion rather than elimination of militant organizations and fail to constrain retaliatory attacks.
Volume 136 - Number 1 - Spring 2021
U.S. Geopolitics and Nuclear Deterrence in the Era of Great Power Competitions Peter Rudolf argues that in the new era of great power competitions the United States is faced with the question of whether to seek some form of geopolitical accommodation based on de facto spheres of influence and buffer zones or to push ahead with strategic rivalries overshadowed by the risk of a military conflict with a nuclear dimension.
Volume 135 - Number 3 - Fall 2020
That “Special Something”: The U.S.-Australia Alliance, Special Relationships, and Emotions Lloyd Cox and BRENDON O’CONNOR challenge the common realist assumption that emotions are irrelevant for understanding inter-state relations. They examine the notion of special relationships in international politics. They develop a distinctive approach to the collectivization of emotions within and between states and apply this to the U.S.-Australia
Volume 135 - Number 2 - Summer 2020
Foreign Policy Dilemmas and Opportunities for a New Administration: An Opinion Piece Robert Jervis speculates about the likely foreign policy that a Democratic administration will follow if its candidate wins in November. He argues that President Donald Trump will have left a difficult legacy and his successor will have to simultaneously rebuild trust and instructions while also utilizing the leverage that Trump has generated.
