China-Middle East

The special role of US nuclear weapons

By Matthew Kroenig

The United States needs to maintain a robust, flexible, and modernized nuclear deterrent. That means that United States needs to continue with nuclear modernization, reject a no first use (NFU) policy, and examine further nuclear capabilities.

With the US out of Afghanistan, Iran jumps on the opportunity of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

By Jonathan Fulton

Even if Iran’s full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is stalled, the US exit from Afghanistan changes the regional landscape.

Counterterrorism and great-power competition

By Nathan Sales

For nearly two decades after the attacks of September 11, 2001, counterterrorism was the United States’ top national security and foreign policy priority. That is no longer the case, as resources and policy maker bandwidth are increasingly shifting to challenges associated with peer and near-peer rivals such as China and Russia.

State of the Order: Assessing July 2021

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.