Orbis最新文献

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is rapidly building a blue-water force structure, but little is known about how the service intends to use these new platforms in operations outside of East Asia. This article answers key questions about the future trajectory of the PLAN by examining the service’s strategy of “Far Sea Protection.” It argues that Far Seas Protection is predicated on two desires: (1) to strengthen China’s ability to protect the homeland from attack from the sea and (2) to safeguard the country’s expanding overseas interests. Ultimately, the PLAN intends to do so through the conduct of “far seas mobile operations” with aircraft carrier strike groups, amphibious assault ships, and nuclear-powered submarines. If conflict occurs before these platforms are available to the fleet, the PLAN would conduct asymmetric warfare east of the first island chain, using an approach described as “far seas sabotage guerilla operations.”

Globalization has always involved more than just trade. Particularly as expressed by the United States and Europe at the turn of the millennium, it was a framework in which openness, interconnectedness, and the exchange of cultural and intellectual influences on the global level were seen as beneficial in and of themselves. The contrast is stark between that vision of international order and the one that is emerging today. Often forgotten, however, is that this vision of international order was not the only one being advanced. It is instructive today, to consider how the rest of the world thought about globalization back then.

To demonstrate why a more feminist approach offers potentially greater success than the more masculine approaches already tried, and failed, this article provides a case study of US deterrence strategy toward Iran during the most recent presidential administrations—two Democratic and two Republican. Analysis will focus on whether each administration’s stance toward Iran has been traditionally masculine, feminine, or a mix. From that examination, recommendations are made regarding development of effective US-Iranian deterrence strategy in the future.

This article illustrates the role that General Studies courses in the Humanities can play in educating students about the complex dynamics by which cultural production may reflect, support, or change social structures, issues, and norms, through the specific examples of two English courses offered for General Studies credit at MSU Denver: “Monsters and Monstrosity” and “Vampire Films.” Grounded in a cultural-criticism approach to textual analysis, the courses read monsters as symbolic keys to the cultures that produce them. The terrifying and repulsive qualities of monsters invariably operate on the boundary between self and other. As an abject Other, the monster serves to reinforce our sense of what is different/non-normative/threatening, and the stamp of monstrosity legitimizes cultural bias, often perpetuating social marginalization and inequality.

This article examines how seven potential drivers of the Russian Federation’s military interventions played out in seven instances in which Vladimir Putin was likely to have deliberated on whether or not to use military force in foreign countries, including three instances in which the Russian leader ultimately decided to intervene and four instances in which he did not. The article contends that carefully reviewing these historical episodes could help predict Putin’s military actions in the future.

The Islamic Republic of Iran finds itself in an unusual paradox. It is a regime that is growing stronger in the region while weaker at home. The mullahs will stand as Persia’s most dedicated and ardent imperialists, who have implanted their influence throughout the Middle East. Iran has prolonged regional civil wars, harassed Arab potentates, and reduced the once proud Arab nation of Iraq into a vassal state. Yet, it is at home that the regime faces its most significant challenges. Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s new dogmatic and unimaginative president, is facing a depleted economy, popular protests, and massive corruption. The clerical oligarchs have no answer to Iran’s mounting problems. It remains unclear whether the regime can survive the many predicaments of its own making.

This essay engages with and revises the author’s article titled, “Fateful Collision: NATO’s Drive to the East versus Russia’s Sphere of Influence,” for the Institute for New Economic Thinking. In addition, it draws on his book, The American Way of Empire: How America Won a World—But Lost Her Way, particularly the chapter on “Europe: NATO Expansion versus the Russian Sphere.”