Soft Power

Japan’s New Culture Warriors: Cute Cartoon Characters As Soldiers of Soft Power Fortune

Japan’s military is forbidden by law from sending its troops to fight abroad; so why not send fictional 2D ones instead?

Hope for Human Rights despite China’s Threats
Hope for Human Rights despite China’s Threats

Here is the bad news for Beijing, and the good news for the West. Despite genuine concerns over how an increasingly multipolar world will erode the human rights consensus, the agenda still remains a major obstacle to ideological competitors—both at home and abroad.

The Bold and the Free: Waging Media War in Arabic - Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) - Al-Hurra
The Bold and the Free: Waging Media War in Arabic

Given the alarming trends in the Middle East, America should fashion agile media platforms that influence audiences in the region and—even more importantly—say something compelling.

How Can the US Help Taiwan in the Western Hemisphere?
How Can the US Help Taiwan in the Western Hemisphere?

While the US continues to support Taiwan, it has been unable to prevent some governments from establishing relations with China. Many of the nations that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan are located in Latin America and the Caribbean, two regions where the US has plenty of allies and partners. So as we discuss Taipei’s future in the Western Hemisphere, we must discuss what Washington can (realistically) do to help its ally.

American Blunders in the Middle East: A Review of Michael Doran’s in Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East
American Blunders in the Middle East: A Review of Doran’s Ike’s Gamble

Michael Doran’s book shows how the Eisenhower administration made several mistakes in the Middle East, and today policymakers can learn from them.

Obama’s Internationalist Moment: Review of HBO’s The Final Year
Obama’s Internationalist Moment: Review of HBO’s The Final Year

HBO’s The Final Year traverses the globe, from Africa to the Arctic, Havana to Hanoi, but it is in Syria where the cockfight personified by Samantha Power and Ben Rhodes climaxes. Indeed, President Obama claims that “on no other issue was there such a split” between them.

Sources and Solutions: Review of Van Dam’s Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria

Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria by Nikolaos van Dam does not give a blow-by-blow account of the war. Instead, it explains underpinning factors which shaped the course of the Syrian Civil War and offers potential solutions to the ongoing conflict.

The Stain of Srebrenica
The Stain of Srebrenica

A Dutch appeals court has upheld a 2014 decision that found the Netherlands responsible for the deaths of 350 unarmed Bosnian-Muslim men who were murdered by Bosnian-Serb troops in Srebrenica in 1995.

Obama's First Months as Commander in Chief and On the World Stage: A Retrospective to Assess Trump
Obama’s First Months as Commander in Chief and On the World Stage: A Retrospective As We Assess Trump’s Early Foreign Policy

As we assess Trump’s early foreign policy moves and first international tour, it helps to look back upon Obama’s. Here, then, are passages from A Perilous Path.