Blog
Ethics and the Syria Withdrawal
All of the questions I wanted to pose about the ethics surrounding the question of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria have been raised in Conor Friedersdorf’s December 26 column in The Atlantic. (In fact, the only ethical question he does not address about a Syria withdrawal is the one raised recently by Josh […]
Warren and Haley: Post-Trump Foreign Policies?
One of the conclusions of the recently released report Misconnecting with the U.S. Public: Narrative Collapse and U.S. Foreign Policy is the need for U.S. political figures, particularly thinking toward a post-Trump administration, to develop a narrative which acknowledges the recent mistakes that have led to skepticism on the part of the U.S. public towards […]
Kerch and San Ysidro
The events in the Kerch Straits, which connect the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and on the U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro crossing, have several things in common despite occurring in different parts of the world and reflecting different sorts of crises (one, an armed clash between Ukrainian and Russian naval vessels, […]
The Truth is Not Always as It Seems, and What That Means for Reconciliation and Justice
In this blog post, Caroline Nguyen writes that the difficulty of defining and enforcing the right to truth explains why many scholars and practitioners are skeptical of its efficacy.
Truth, Justice, and Power: Why Victimization Continues After Conflict
The cases of South Korea, Spain, and the Gambia show how political institutions can marginalize survivors in the aftermath of conflict.
Sanders’ “Selective Engagement” versus Transactional Internationalism
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders each offer a different alternative to the traditional “bipartisan consensus” in U.S. foreign policy.
The Importance of Memory: Unreliable, Precarious, and Crucial to Reconciliation
Several recent cases involving the Gambia, Japan and Korea, and Spain highlight the tenuous relationship between memory, history, and state-building.
Empty Pews in the Church of Atlanticism
Timothy Garton Ash uses the image of “empty pews” to describe a declining commitment, not only on the part of the U.S. public, but even some American foreign policy experts, to the cause of Atlanticism–the notion that the United States has compelling interests to remain involved in European affairs. As he notes in his essay […]
