In 2024, the Cato Institute will host its seventh annual Junior Scholars Symposium (JSS), a paper workshop for graduate students on policy‐​relevant topics related to international security and national security policy. The Cato Institute works to promote a  . Accordingly, the most promising papers will clearly identify flaws in US approaches to international relations and offer recommendations for improving US foreign policy. The JSS provides participants a unique opportunity to receive feedback on research in progress from their peers and Cato scholars. Papers should be of jou ..read more

I’ve been in Washington over 30 years, but sometimes even I can be stunned by the short memories and shortsightedness of members of the Fourth Estate. Today’s example is the editorial board of the venerable (and usually pretty sane) The ostensible topic of their latest (paywall) was the recent terrorist attack in Moscow, which appears to have been the work of violent . After offering some fairly standard pre‐​Trump era Establishment fare on the need for still more US military action in the Islamic world, the ed board ended its piece by stating, The ISIS comeback also argues for the H ..read more

On March 11, 2024, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released an annual update to its Arms Transfers Database , which is the primary data source that our arms backlog dataset uses to track US weapon deliveries to Taiwan. As shown in Figure 1, the SIPRI database update brings the current backlog of US arms sales to Taiwan to at least $19.17 billion—$66 million higher than our . See the tabs in Figure 2 to compare the February and March versions of backlog. There were no new US arms sales to Taiwan announced in March 2024. Instead, the change in value from last mo ..read more

The backlog of US weapons sales owed to Taiwan did not change much in February 2024. The Biden administration only announced one new sale— upgrade equipment for a battlefield communication system valued at $75 million— and there were no weapons deliveries reported. This new sale places the overall size of the Taiwan arms backlog at approximately $19.1 billion. See Figure 1 for a breakdown of the backlog by weapon category, Figure 2 for a side‐​by‐​side comparison of the backlog from January to February, and Table 1 for a detailed list of backlogged capabiliti ..read more

In 2024, the Cato Institute will host its seventh annual Junior Scholars Symposium (JSS), a paper workshop for graduate students on policy‐​relevant topics related to international security and national security policy. The Cato Institute works to promote a  . Accordingly, the most promising papers will clearly identify flaws in US approaches to international relations and offer recommendations for improving US foreign policy. The JSS provides participants a unique opportunity to receive feedback on research in progress from their peers and Cato scholars. Papers should be of jou ..read more

I’ve been in Washington over 30 years, but sometimes even I can be stunned by the short memories and shortsightedness of members of the Fourth Estate. Today’s example is the editorial board of the venerable (and usually pretty sane) The ostensible topic of their latest (paywall) was the recent terrorist attack in Moscow, which appears to have been the work of violent . After offering some fairly standard pre‐​Trump era Establishment fare on the need for still more US military action in the Islamic world, the ed board ended its piece by stating, The ISIS comeback also argues for the H ..read more

The Biden administration marked the two‐​year anniversary of the war in Ukraine by announcing a new round of sanctions and other economic efforts  at coercing Russia. Unfortunately, the new sanctions suffer from the same flaw as its overall Ukraine policy: a disconnect between strategic ends and tactical means. Biden says the new sanctions will “target individuals connected to [Aleksey] Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” and “ensure Putin pays an even steepe ..read more

The backlog of US weapons sales owed to Taiwan did not change much in February 2024. The Biden administration only announced one new sale— upgrade equipment for a battlefield communication system valued at $75 million— and there were no weapons deliveries reported. This new sale places the overall size of the Taiwan arms backlog at approximately $19.1 billion. See Figure 1 for a breakdown of the backlog by weapon category, Figure 2 for a side‐​by‐​side comparison of the backlog from January to February, and Table 1 for a detailed list of backlogged capabiliti ..read more

The Biden administration marked the two‐​year anniversary of the war in Ukraine by announcing a new round of sanctions and other economic efforts  at coercing Russia. Unfortunately, the new sanctions suffer from the same flaw as its overall Ukraine policy: a disconnect between strategic ends and tactical means. Biden says the new sanctions will “target individuals connected to [Aleksey] Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” and “ensure Putin pays an even steepe ..read more

In the legislative business, there are certain “tells” that one side is losing the policy debate so badly that they have to resort to extreme tactics to try to pull out a win. Such appears to be the case with the House Intelligence Committee, which it seems is all but demanding a  to debate portions or perhaps the entire compromise FISA reform bill. This according to a late Sunday evening Since 1830, the House has met in secret session only four times: in 1979 (Panama Canal Treaty), 1980 (Soviet‐​Cuban activity in Nicaragua), 1983 (also on Nicaragua), and 2008. The latter sessio ..read more