CURRENT ISSUE
The full spring 2013 issue is available at The MIT Press.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Spring 2013
"Climate Change and Insecurity: Mapping Vulnerability in Africa"
International Security, issue 4, volume 37
By Joshua Busby, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2004-2005, Todd G. Smith, Kaiba L. White and Shawn M. Strange
Many experts argue that climate change will exacerbate the severity and number of extreme weather events. Such climate-related hazards will be important security concerns and sources of vulnerability in the future regardless of whether they contribute to conflict.
AP Photo/Maurizio Gambarini
Spring 2013
"Forced to Be Free? Why Foreign-Imposed Regime Change Rarely Leads to Democratization"
International Security, issue 4, volume 37
By Jonathan Monten, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2006–2007 and Alexander B. Downes, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2007–2008
Is military intervention effective in spreading democracy? Existing studies disagree. Optimists point to successful cases, such as the transformation of West Germany and Japan into consolidated democracies after World War II. Pessimists view these successes as outliers from a broader pattern of failure typified by cases such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
AP Photo/Feng Li, Pool
Spring 2013
"First Things First: The Pressing Danger of Crisis Instability in U.S.-China Relations"
International Security, issue 4, volume 37
An analysis that examines the current state of U.S.-China relations and compares it with key aspects of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War indicates that a serious Sino-American crisis may be more likely and more dangerous than expected.
Spring 2013
"How New and Assertive Is China's New Assertiveness?"
International Security, issue 4, volume 37
There has been a rapidly spreading meme in U.S. pundit and academic circles since 2010 that describes China's recent diplomacy as “newly assertive." This meme underestimates the complexity of key episodes in Chinese diplomacy in 2010 and overestimates the amount of change. The speed and extent with which it has spread point to an understudied issue in international relations—namely, the role that online media and the blogosphere play in the creation of conventional wisdoms that might, in turn, constrain policy debates.
