Volume 02 Issue 02, Summer 2020

Features

Putin and Missile Defense Malaise
Dr. Stephen J. Cimbala
Dr. Adam Lowther

The authors first consider some of the military-strategic and arms control issues that have complicated US– and NATO–Russian dialogue on missile defenses. They then analyze the hypothetical impacts that ICBM silo defenses deployed by the United States and Russia might have on deterrence and arms control stability, including consideration of possible alternatives.

Gray-zone Conflict Management
Dr. David Carment
Dani Belo

In this article, the authors examine the involvement of state and nonstate actors in gray-zone conflict and their relationship to hybrid warfare and the implications for conflict management. The article unfolds in four parts. In the first part, they examine the concept of gray-zone conflict and how it relates to hybrid warfare and conventional interpretations and theories of conflict and war. In the second section, we outline evidence from the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine with respect to how gray-zone conflict impacts both state behavior and conflict management strategies. In the concluding part, the authors consider implications for conflict management and directions for future research. Building on these insights, they identify several key steps for conflict resolution in Eastern Ukraine. The authors argue that it is important to disentangle and individually address the challenges posed by gray-zone conflict in all three security, economic, and sociopolitical domains. It is also essential to update international laws of war to account for low-intensity armed and unarmed hybrid tactics. Finally, it will be necessary to reform and upgrade contemporary international institutions to address gray-zone conflict.

Musical Criminology
Dr. Hayat Alvi

This study examines and comparatively analyzes the two musical genres in the context of terrorism and narco-terrorism, and how these musical traditions affect their respective followers, admirers, and devotees. The analysis also highlights how these musical genres popularize crime and violence, and desensitize audiences to the extreme brutality praised and glorified in their songs.

Views

Trump Is Right about Europe
Dr. Amit Gupta

This article argues that Europe can still be relevant, if the United States views the continent not as a military partner to engage in long-range military power projection but, instead, as an economic, diplomatic, and soft-power proponent that helps bolster world order.

The Middle East and Syria as a Case of Foreign Intervention
Dr. Andrés de Castro García

One of the key elements in the analysis of foreign realities is the acknowledgment of its foreign element. In a very recent publication, Dr. Irena Chiru, of the National Intelligence Academy of Romania, describes the importance of the cultural element in security-related research and the importance of understanding a country’s society and values. Western academics and practitioners must carefully study the Middle East, as a strategic area, to truly understand its history, its unique way of development, and forms of governance. This article intends to give a broad perspective of the Middle East—and Syria in particular—from a Western perspective but with an approach qualified by a proper experience on the field and using Realism and Structural Realism.

The Reconstruction of the Silk Road
Simon F. Taeuber

This article analyses the European Union’s (EU) and its member-states’ responses to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and addresses norm contestation in Sino–European discourse regarding the primary institutions (PI) of sovereignty, international law, and market economy. The article combines the toolset of the English School with norm contestation theory. The findings show evidence for norm contestation and increasing tension in Sino–European discourse and relations since the beginning of Xi Jinping’s presidency. Moreover, the article illustrates that the BRI, while at first a projection screen for norm contestation, eventually became subject to contestation itself. The article argues that the identified norm contestation is rooted in a clash between liberal-solidarist interpretations of PIs and Chinese pluralist interpretations and that the variegated European responses to the BRI demonstrate the challenges the initiative presents to cohesion in EU foreign policy. Lastly, the article demonstrates that in contesting liberal-solidarist interpretations of PIs, China is resisting European solidarization and arguably proposing a pluralist alternative to a liberal-solidarist order.

Commentaries

The Battle Is Almost Lost
Dr. Liselotte Odgaard

Ships may be the new battleground for the European Union’s willingness to loosen its antitrust rules. Cruise ship builders Fincantieri in Italy and Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France attempt to create an industrial heavyweight to counter China’s rise as a cruise ship builder. These companies argue that if European shipbuilders continue to be constrained by rules protecting competition in Europe, Chinese companies with significant financial resources and with technological capacity comparable to that of Europe will take hold of the European shipbuilding market and outcompete European companies.

Radicalization in Prisons and Mosques in France
Vinayak Dalmia

France has the largest Islamic population in Europe and one of the largest percentages of total population. While the Arab Spring and associated conflict in the Middle East have triggered a significant influx of migrants into the country, France has been a destination for immigrants from its former colonies like Morocco and Algeria since the second half of the twentieth century. While many issues regarding radicalization stem from migration stretching back decades, the rapid increase in immigrants from war-torn areas, combined with prevalent Islamist extremism, presents extremely serious issues for the French government.

Book Reviews

Two Centuries of US Military Operations in Liberia: Challenges of Resistance and Compliance
by Niels Hahn
Reviewed by Jeffrey Biller

The Royal Air Force: The First One Hundred Years
by John Buckley
Reviewed by LT Kristyna N. Smith, USA

Tiger Tracks—The Classic Panzer Memoir
by Wolfgang Faust
Reviewed by Dr. Andrei V. Grinëv
Translated by Dr. Richard L. Bland