The Last Stake to the Palisade: How to Engage with North Korea (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Dylan Motin, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow The United States faces a worsening balance of power against China and should partner with North Korea (officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK) to address it. Washington succeeded in turning adversaries into partners to face a greater common threat together in the past and […]

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The Case for a US Turkey Policy Reset (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Martin Makaryan, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow President Recep Tayip Erdogan’s overhaul of Turkey’s domestic and foreign affairs, coupled with changes in the international strategic environment, prompt a careful rethinking and restructuring of the long-standing policy towards a treaty ally with which U.S. foreign policy and national security interests are no longer aligned on […]

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CHIP-ing Away: The CHIPS Act and US-China Tech War (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Benie Kwarteng, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow The United States must change its strategy in its technology competition with China. At the core of the US-China tech war and geopolitical tensions are advanced semiconductor chips. Since the invention of integrated circuits (commonly known as semiconductors), the United States has been a global leader in […]

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Strategic Competition and Irregular Warfare in Africa: Lessons from the Cold War (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Peter Burns, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow The 21st century will be the African century. The continent’s population is on track to exceed 2.5 billion by 2050. The effort required by governments, economies, and institutions to effectively manage this level of growth will be demanding given the varied challenges Africa faces. Political stability, internal […]

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Why Are the Baltic States Reckless Drivers in NATO? (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Robert Clarke, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow The war in Ukraine has startled much of Europe, but none more so than those states closest to Russia’s border. Finland has joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), eschewing decades of neutrality – a model that has commonly been referred to as “Finlandization,” after its most […]

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Reimagining the US-China Relationship: Alternatives to Neoliberal US Trade Policy (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Griffin Grubb, Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellow The U.S. – China trade war is the most significant economic conflict in recent memory. The outcome will determine the trajectory of American leadership and its role in the rest of the 21st century, as well as the consequences for the global economy. Under the Trump Administration, […]

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Stopping the Security Spiral: The Importance of U.S. Disengagement in South Korea (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Hunter Slingbaum, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow As of 2021, the United States had roughly 28,500 troops actively deployed in South Korea and 55,000 troops in Japan, both nations that have seen significant economic success and relative military peace over the last several decades. Unlike Japan, however, South Korea has a nuclear adversary and […]

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Winning the South: How the United States Can Win Back Latin America (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Scarlett Kennedy, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow Amid increasing tensions between the United States and Iran, it is crucial to have an effective plan in place for protecting the U.S. homeland from Iranian violence. This violence significantly decreased following the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) but has reignited since the agreement’s collapse, constructing […]

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Building Capacity or Undermining Stability? Reconsidering US Security Sector Assistance in Fragile States (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Keenan Ashbrook, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow In the post-9/11 era, U.S. foreign policy has placed an increasingly high level of emphasis on Department of Defense (DoD)-led security sector assistance (SSA) in fragile states. This strategic shift has been motivated by the theory that “power vacuums” and instability serve as breeding grounds for hostile […]

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Securing the Insecure: Rethinking US-Iraq Relations (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Simeone Miller, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow U.S. security policy in Iraq has failed. It is a policy that has been defined by an inflated threat perception. While it was designed to prevent the further proliferation of Salafi-Jihadists in the country, it has done more to support their emergence and led to further local […]

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