Shaping Beats Decoupling: Alternatives to Global Conflict between the United States and China

Image courtesy of M Woods.

This article was originally published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) on 02 March 2020.

China is increasingly seen as the central threat to the liberal Western world order. A growing sense that this shift is unstoppable creates a climate of discussion that overlooks important alternatives, writes Nadine Godehardt.

How the Coronavirus Impacts China and its Foreign Policy

Image courtesy of Macau Photo Agency/Unsplash.

This article was originally published by the United States Institute of Peace on 13 February 2020.

The U.S. and China have a mutual interest in containing the outbreak, but exchanges over the virus have not been without friction.


China hit a grim landmark earlier this week when the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak surpassed 1,000 with over 40,000 recorded cases of infection—and those numbers are rising every day. The outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, has rattled global markets and catalyzed concern over a widespread epidemic beyond China’s borders. The suffering has been immense, and people in China and those with family or friends there are frightened about what’s next. Meanwhile, there are shortages of masks and supplies and hospitals are overrun, with rising anxiety due to travel restrictions and quarantine policies.

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Cyber CSS Blog

Cyber Deterrence Is Dead: Long Live Cyber Deterrence!

Image courtesy of Jacob Osborne/DVIDS.

This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations on 18 February 2020.

Born in the 1990s, the thinking on cyber deterrence was nurtured by the U.S. Department of Defense in numerous war-gaming exercises. Hitting puberty in the aftermath of the distributed denial-of-service campaign against Estonia in 2007, cyber deterrence matured after Stuxnet and received peak attention from policymakers and academics from 2013 to 2016 during the golden age of ‘cyberwar’ scholarship. From 2016 onward, the interest in cyber deterrence started to fade to the extent that it is now intentionally neglected. The figure below captures this short life cycle by quantitatively visualizing the number of articles, book chapters, and research reports written on ‘cyber deterrence’ and ‘cyberdeterrence’ between January 1990 and January 2020.

Countering Online Foreign Influence in 2020 Elections

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This article was originally published by Political Violence @ a Glance on 23 January 2020.

Social media has proved an essential tool for catalyzing political activism and social change around the world. Yet, the very features that make it so useful to those with greater-good intentions—scalability, mobility, and low costs to entry—also make it prone to manipulation by malign actors who use it to spread disinformation and divisive rhetoric. These bad actors looking to sway public opinion include both fringe groups and well-funded, highly staffed government institutions. With the US presidential election approaching, voters and policymakers are rightly concerned with what should be done to mitigate the flurry of fake news stemming from beyond the border.

Does the Trump Administration’s Israeli-Palestinian Plan Offer a Path to Peace?

Image courtesy of The White House/Flickr.

This article was originally published by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on 29 January 2020.

Without a basis for negotiation around which both sides feel they can come to the table, peace will remain elusive.

Yesterday, at an East Room gathering, President Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled his administration’s plan to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As promised at the outset of his remarks, the approach represents a vision “fundamentally different from past proposals.” The event itself—with the plan unveiled by U.S. and Israeli leadership—presented a visual that underscored this difference, and the challenge this plan faces if it is to chart a course to peace.