Journal of International Studies

Vladimir Putin, nicknamed “Pootie Poot” by George W. Bush, demonstrates his first car, a Zaporozhets, to the U.S. President. (E. Draper/White House) The Seduction of George W. Bush By Peter Baker Peter Baker tells the intimate story of how Bush and Putin’s personal relationship shaped American foreign policy toward Russia. This excerpt from Baker’s new book is a rich collection of revealing anecdotes ranging from Putin’s suggestion that Bush amend the constitution to accommodate a third term to Bush’s frustrated characterization of Putin as an eighth grader who doesn’t know his facts. The A-Team Killings By Matthieu Aikins Rolling Stone Aikins examines how the lives of Afghan villagers have been caught in U.S. war efforts and how this further muddies relations with the Afghan government. This piece offers interviews with the villagers of the Nerkh district of Afghanistan, where the bodies of ten missing Afghan residents were found last Spring near an American Special Force...

The best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, next is to attack alliances.  -  Sun Tzu , The Art of War A growing chorus of nations is decrying Washington's unrestrained cyber espionage. However, there is only one country with both the means and motivation for using mounting international resentment to challenge American hegemony. The NSA surveillance of America's allies has opened up two vital fronts in which China can erode American global dominance.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has claimed the rhetorical high ground, calling cyber security "a matter of sovereignty". She said Beijing is eager to address the issue through the framework of the United Nations, and to do so "China and Russia have submitted a draft plan, in an effort to help the world jointly tackle the problem." [1]  This joint Sino-Russian proposal to combat the NSA's electronic surveillance coincides with a parallel initiative la...

A series of events in recent weeks has created a widespread narrative that the U.S. is an unreliable ally and a weak partner. First, the U.S. government shutdown forced President Barack Obama  to cancel his trip  to a couple of Asia summits. Then, new Edward Snowden leaks revealed that the National Security Agency has been spying on up to 35 world leaders,  including top U.S. allies  like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both events take place against a backdrop of concerns about U.S. credibility from top Middle East allies, most notably Israel and Saudi Arabia. Both countries are fearful that Washington  will cut a deal with Iran  over its nuclear program, and have taken exception to the  Obama administration backing down  on its various threats against the Assad regime in Syria. Taken together, the general sentiment was summarized succinctly by former Vice President Dick Cheney, when  he observed that  “our friends no longer c...

The controversy over the U.S. National Security Agency’s global espionage operations appears to be spreading to Asia, where it is already sparking outrage among some of America’s allies and partner states. Readers will recall that the NSA story began in Asia  when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden  first fled to Hong Kong immediately before news organizations began publishing stories about the documents he leaked. During Snowden’s  brief stay  in Hong Kong,  some stories came to light  about U.S. spying operations in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Although these attracted a lot of attention in China, they failed to garner much interest elsewhere amid Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s domestic spying operations and his dramatic stay in Moscow's airport. Ultimately, no one was particularly surprised to learn the U.S. was spying on China. Since that time, Asia has remained largely on the periphery of the NSA c...