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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Containment 2022: Rallying the Asia-Pacific Against Chinese Aggression (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By David Winter, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow The balance of power has shifted away from the favor of the United States, but the attitude of the American foreign policy elite has not reflected this reality. The Asia-Pacific region is home to multiple U.S. partners, valuable economic traffic, and to a rising near-peer competitor, the […]

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With Friends Like These: How the United States Can Foster the European Union’s Strategic Autonomy (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Juan Garcia-Nieto, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow The partnership between the United States and the European Union (EU) is largely a successful one. Europe, once a continent ravaged by wars, achieved an unprecedented level of political and economic integration. However, the transatlantic relationship rests on a deeply flawed assumption: that the United States should […]

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The Great Balancing Act: U.S. Engagement in Central Asia (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Alex Little, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow Central Asia is a diverse region with a critically important central geography, a plethora of natural resources, and rapidly developing industries such as energy production. Central Asia comprises Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, all of which are former Soviet republics. Given their Soviet past, Central Asia […]

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How to Phase Out Military Aid in Africa (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Patrick Fox, Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow Africa will become increasingly critical to the international community over the next several decades. However, even as its population and economies grow, security crises on the continent remain resilient or worsening. The modern American approach to security in Africa is insufficient and must be reworked. Africans want […]

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Our Spring 2023 Marcellus Policy Fellows

After a highly competitive selection process, the John Quincy Adams Society is pleased to announce its Spring 2023 cohort of Marcellus Policy Fellows. This is the Society’s sixth cohort of fellows. The Fellows will spend the next ten weeks learning from top experts on foreign policy as they develop a think tank style policy analysis […]

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Our Fall 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellows

The Marcellus Policy Fellowship is the John Quincy Adams Society’s most selective program, providing promising foreign policy minds an early-career opportunity to produce independent, impact-minded research under expert guidance. Fellows learn about U.S. foreign policy from top scholars and path-breaking thinkers, refining their own ideas into a high-quality policy paper and supporting materials. The Society […]

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An Alternative to Maximum Pressure in Venezuela (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By A.J. Manuzzi, Spring 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow The continuity of the Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” policy towards Venezuela into the Biden Administration has failed to generate meaningful political change while prolonging and exacerbating humanitarian suffering and sabotaging intra-Venezuelan negotiations. The current policy, characterized by the pursuit of regime change through crushing economic sanctions, clashes […]

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Charting a New Path Forward for the US-NATO Relationship (Marcellus Policy Analysis)

By Jordan King, Spring 2022 Marcellus Policy Fellow The United States no longer needs to act as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) primary security guarantor. After World War II, the United States recognized a unique opportunity to rebuild the economies of Western Europe, establish itself as a hegemonic power on the continent, and build […]

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