Volume 13 Issue 2 - Summer 2019

The Missile Defense Review:  Insufficient for Complex and Integrated Attack

Thomas Karako
Why doesn’t the MDR contend with the threat of complex and integrated air and missile attack?

Space Force Déjà Vu

Everett C. Dolman
What are the implications of the latest DOD proposal to Congress for the Space Force?

Security in Northeast Asia:  Structuring a Settlement

Joshua Shifrinson 

The INF Treaty:  Pulling Out in Time

Alexander Lanoszka 
Could withdrawing from the INF Treaty improve US security against Russia and China in a manner that improves deterrence?

Industrial Age Capacity at Information Age Speed

Maj Timothy J. May, USAF  
Can the US evolve its industrial base to meet future logistical demands that spur innovation and sustain competition?

The INF Treaty:  A Spectacular, Inflexible, Time-Bound Success

Justin V. Anderson
Amy J. Nelson
Was the relative rigidity of the INF Treaty the key factor in its undoing? 

Emotional Choices: How the Logic of Affect Shapes Coercive Diplomacy

by Robin Markwica
Reviewed by Matthew R. Costlow 
How are you feeling right now? Would the person next to you be able to accurately tell? How about someone 4,800 miles away, separated by different cultures, deep-seated suspicion, and cognitive biases? If you are a state leader and you or your opponent’s emotions are misleading, it could result in nuclear war. Emotions have been critical drivers of state security policy since the beginnings of the state, but the quest to study and categorize these emotions, and their effects, is just beginning to bear fruit.

Rationality in the North Korean Regime

By: David W. Shin 
Reviewed by:  Lt Col Scott Martin, USAF 
Someone reading just the headlines about the actions of North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, during his 2017 verbal and cyber sparring with President Donald Trump might wonder about the rationality of the North Korean leader. Engaging in seemingly aggressive behavior not only to provoke the United States and South Korea but also to draw the ire of longtime allies in China and Russia—with the frightening prospect of a nuclear engagement—does not seem like the actions of a rational leader. 

The End of Strategic Stability?: Nuclear Weapons and the Challenge of Regional Rivalries

Edited by Lawrence Rubin and Adam N. Stulberg
Reviewed by Justin Anderson 
Adam N. Stulberg and Lawrence Rubin discuss the Great Power competitions and regional rivalries of today. The concept of strategic stability remains a touchstone for scholars and policy makers attempting to understand the complex role played by nuclear weapons in contemporary international affairs. But it also remains devilishly difficult to define, negotiate, and implement between today’s nuclear rivals.

The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy

by Stephen M. Walt 
Reviewed by COL Patrick T. Budjenska, US Army 
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Walt argues, the United States could have proceeded with a more restrained grand strategy as tensions and security threats were reduced in the resulting unipolar world. But, as he articulates, the opposite occurred, and the United States engaged in a foreign policy called “liberal hegemony.” He asserts that this policy of liberal hegemony, although a “costly failure,” has been followed by each successive US administration for the last 25 years. 

Will China’s Economy Collapse?

by Ann Lee
Reviewed by David A. Anderson 
Many pundits around the world suggest that China’s economy is likely to collapse. Author Ann Lee, a frequent commentator on global economics and financial issues and adjunct professor of economics at New York University, assesses this in her book. She asserts otherwise by systematically refuting the purported macroeconomic issues creating the so-called economic fragility of China by drawing upon a number of direct comparisons to the US. Her premise is: how could China’s economy be so at risk when it is in better shape than the US economy?