April 9, 2016

Libya: A Nation Dangerously Divided

Nearly four and half years after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebel forces during the civil war in 2011, Libya remains bitterly divided, and this division is making the country a prime breeding ground for terrorism. U...

February 20, 2016

Why the Spratly Islands Dispute Matters

Starting in 2013, China began a concerted effort to establish large, artificial islands throughout the Spratly Island archipelago in the South China Sea (China claims the entire sea and archipelago). The undeniable purpose of such efforts is for Chin...

January 28, 2016

Russian Influence Grows In Latin America

The symbolic gesture of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ‘resetting’ relations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in March 2009 has been engrained in the minds of most people. With the push of a button, all would be mad...

January 16, 2016

Saudi Arabia and Iran: Behind the Rivalry

Relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran have never been particularly good.  But with the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on January 2, relations are deteriorating further and faster. The nex...

January 5, 2016

ISIS: Parsing Barack Obama's Definition of 'Contained'

In an interview with President Obama on November 12, 2015, ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos suggested that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was gaining strength.  The president pushed back against the notion and remarked that I...