New American Engagement Initiative

On October 15, Christopher Preble and co-hosts Melanie Marlowe (CSIS) and Zack Cooper (AEI) of the War on the Rocks Net Assessment podcast discussed the bipartisan turn away from the mostly internationalist spirit that has informed US foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. The three concluded that dissatisfaction with the current direction of […]

On October 8, Foreign Policy published a biweekly column featuring Scowcroft Center deputy director Matthew Kroenig and New American Engagement Initiative senior fellow Emma Ashford discussing the latest news in international affairs. In this column, they discuss recent Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), Taiwan’s strategic significance to the United States, and the possibilities for […]

On October 12, Emma Ashford authored an article for Inkstick Media entitled, “Is Congress seeking accountability for the war in Afghanistan?.” Ashford makes the case that the use of hearings on Afghanistan for short-term political objectives comes at the cost of Congress fulfilling its role of providing oversight of national security powers. “Whether it’s failing to ask questions […]

The United States must review its security sector assistance strategy, which frequently assist security forces that commit abuses against the people they are supposed to be serving, contradicting the United State's espoused mission to promote human rights and democracy.

The core assumptions underpinning US policy in the Middle East—ensuring oil flows, maintaining Israel’s security, preventing the rise of a dominant hegemon, and countering terrorism—have been upended by new realities.

The Biden administration has released an Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (INSSG), a stepping-stone to a full National Security Strategy (NSS). Although this document presents a more realistic vision of the world than the Trump administration’s NSS did, the INSSG still contains some questionable assumptions.

What does it say about our system of government that hard truths are not absorbed? This year’s Annual Threat Assessment and Global Trends 2040 are blunt about the challenges facing the United States. But the warnings about China should have been heeded a decade or more ago.

There’s a silver lining to parenting in a pandemic: It’s an education in the core concepts of international relations, as well as a useful reminder that we’re all operating in a condition of anarchy. Here's a mom’s primer on deterrence, coercion, credibility, and reassurance.

There's a disconnect between rhetoric and reality when it comes to women's roles in peacebuilding and development projects because the discussion about women overwhelmingly focuses on them as victims of conflict and political violence without also recognizing them as participants in it. That’s a problem.