Securing US AI Supply Chains: Policy Reforms for Responsible Data Annotation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Rameen Sajjad, Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow American technology companies face growing criticism for extracting data and digital labor particularly through data annotation from developing nations in Africa and Asia. The extraction is done without equitable compensation or adequate regulatory oversight. This unregulated resource extraction model is characterized by scholars as digital colonialism, which […]
Clearing Muddled Waters: How Understanding Provincial Actors Could Prevent Future US-China Conflict in the South China Sea (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Drake Tien, Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow Since becoming a standalone province in 1988, Hainan Island has played an outsized role in China’s strategic goals and operations in the South China Sea (SCS). This includes administrative oversight of the controversial Sansha City, hosting the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) nuclear submarine fleet at Yuli […]
Electronic Warfare and Crisis Stability in the US-China Gray-Zone Competition (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Selena Lin, Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow As the strategic competition between the United States and China intensifies, military interaction increasingly occurs below the threshold of armed conflict through persistent gray-zone activities. Among the most consequential of these activities is the use of electronic warfare (EW) to degrade sensing, navigation, and communication systems. This […]
A Case for Rethinking US-Venezuelan Relations (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Nick Tselikov, Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow Ever since Hugo Chávez became President of Venezuela in 1999, U.S. policy towards the country has beencharacterized by antagonism. This has been especially so as Venezuela has been forging closer ties withRussia, China, and Iran. The U.S. government has increasingly ramped up sanctions against the country, as […]
Overdue Retrenchment: Immediately Reducing the United States’ Defense Posture in Europe (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Cody Fenimore, Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow Over the past seven decades since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) formation, the United States has provided the overwhelming majority of Europe’s defense. Born from a sense of duty to help European countries stabilize and to prevent the spread of communism after the Second World War, […]
John Quincy Adams Society Honors Julia Gledhill with Inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award
Washington, D.C. — The John Quincy Adams Society proudly presented its first-ever Distinguished Alumni Award during its annual holiday gathering, recognizing outstanding contributions by program alumni who advance the Society’s mission of promoting realism and restraint in U.S. foreign policy. This year’s honoree is Julia Gledhill, a research analyst with the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center, celebrated […]
No More Situationships: Why Rethinking Foreign Partnerships is Essential to Right-Sizing U.S. Global Force Posture and Creating a Sustainable Defense Strategy (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By David C. Lane, Spring 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellow Since the end of the Cold War and onset of the “unipolar moment,” U.S. strategic doctrine has remainedrelatively unchanged. U.S. global primacy has been largely uncontested, but fissures are beginning to show, as American power enters relative decline, with rising global powers like China and other […]
Our Fall 2025 Marcellus Policy Fellows
After receiving a record number of applications and a highly competitive selection process, the John Quincy Adams Society is pleased to announce its Fall 2025 cohort of Marcellus Policy Fellows. This is the Society’s eleventh cohort of fellows. The Fellows will spend the next twelve weeks learning from top experts on foreign policy as they […]
Meet Adam Abdel-Qader, the Society’s Newest Team Member
What are you most excited about in your new role? I am most excited about the opportunity I have been given to connect and build relationships with restrainers and realists in the Marcellus Policy Fellowship. I can’t wait to contribute to their professional development both as writers and thinkers of prudent policy but also as […]
Advancing a Restraint-Focused Cyber Strategy in the Indo-Pacific (Marcellus Policy Analysis)
By Joseph Brennan, Spring 2025 Marcelus Policy Fellow The Indo-Pacific is becoming the strategic hotspot of global competition where cyber power converges with increased geopolitical tensions, particularly between China and the United States. With digital technology embedded into military strategy, economic infrastructure, and everyday lives, cyberspace emerged as the area of contention and collaboration. The […]