China’s Three Roads to Controlling Taiwan
Speakers: Dr. Dan Blumenthal (AEI) & Frederick W. Kagan (AEI); Jack Gaines, Moderator (One CA Podcast) Date: 27 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary The increasing political and military tensions between China and Taiwan are frequently discussed in Western media. During these discussions, politicians and pundits point out Taiwan’s strategic importance to the US and China, […]
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Putin and the Psychology of Nuclear Brinksmanship
Speakers: Dr. Rose McDermott (Brown University); Dr. Paul Slovic (Brown University) Date: 28 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary The world has not experienced a global military conflict since World War II. Countries’ possession of nuclear weapons is frequently thought of as a contributing factor to this seven-decade peace. However, Dr. McDermott and Dr. Slovic asserted […]
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Freedom in the World 2023: Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy
Speaker: Yana Gorokhovskaia (Freedom House) Date: 20 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary For fifty years, Freedom House has published its assessment of the state of democracy around the world. Freedom House categorizes countries and territories in to three groups based off a point system: 1) free, 2) partly free, and 3) not free. Dr. Gorokhovskaia […]
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The Minds and Actions of Devoted Actors and the Will to Fight: A Behavioral and Brain Studies Approach to War and Extreme Group Conflict
Speaker: Dr. Scott Atran (University of Michigan) Date: 12 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary What drives warfighters to make costly sacrifices—including their lives—is a long-standing question that military and civilian leaders have tried to answer. Dr. Atran explained that this question can be studied through two different psychological models: 1) rational choice theory and 2) […]
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Russia’s Role in Global Nuclear Supply Chains
Speaker: Ms. Darya Dolzikova (RUSI) Date: 12 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary Ms. Dolzikova discussed how Russia’s civil nuclear sector has largely evaded the sanctions placed on the rest of the Russian economy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. During her presentation she outlined the drivers of the global dependency on Russia’s civil […]
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Double deterrence: Two challengers, one defender
Author: Dr. Frank Zagare (University of Buffalo) Publication Preview During the cold war the conventional wisdom was that an all-out war between the United States and theSoviet Union was all but precluded. The key to this strategic nirvana was a carefully calibrated balance ofstrategic weapons and the high costs associated with nuclear conflict. The policy […]
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Strategic Culture – Its history, issues, and complexity
Authors: Dr. Lawrence A. Kuznar (NSI, Inc.); Nathan Heath (NSI, Inc.); George Popp (NSI, Inc.) Publication Preview The concept of strategic culture emerges in discussions of both tailored and integrated deterrence. Thisreport examines the concept’s history, current consensus, and enduring debates about what it entails. Italso proposes a model of strategic culture as a complex […]
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Nuclear Intimidation, A Russian Success Story
Speaker: Mr. Keir Giles (Chatham House) Date: 5 September 2023 Speaker Session Summary Russia’s long-term information operations (IO) and influence campaigns have altered how US and Western decision makers perceive the risk level of Russia using a nuclear weapon. Russian IO are designed to influence the decision makers through several levers, including through their constituents. […]
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Concepts of Influence Beyond Punishment and Denial: A Combined Effect Analysis of China, Russia, and Iran
Speaker: Brig Gen (Ret) Thomas Drohan (Professor Emeritus of Military and Strategic Studies, U.S. Air Force Academy; Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies) Date: 29 August 2023 Speaker Series Summary Authoritarian states more frequently use a whole-of-society approach to deterrence and coercion activities than democratic states. Because of many societal and geopolitical changes that have occurred […]
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US Command Perspectives on Campaigning in Support of Integrated Deterrence
Speakers: Ms. Michele Wolfe (USAFRICOM), Drs. Emily Goldman and Michael Warner (USCYBERCOM), Mr. James “JJ” Jenista (USNORTHCOM and NORAD), Mr. Robert Jones (USSOCOM), Mr. Howard Simkin (USASOC), Ms. Kayse Jansen (USSTRATCOM) Date: 10 August 2023 Speaker Session Summary The complex nature of the modern threat environment and geopolitical competition, especially competition in the gray zone, has […]
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