Analysis & Opinions

Meghan Garrity details the history of mass expulsions since the centennial of the signing of the Lausanne Convention—a treaty codifying the compulsory “population exchange” between Greece and Turkey. An estimated 1.5 million people were forcibly expelled from their homes: over one million Greek Orthodox Christians from the Ottoman Empire and 500,000 Muslims from Greece.

Stephen Walt's argument tries to answer the following question: What impact will the decisions taken at the recent Party Congress have on the balance of power and U.S.-China competition? From a U.S. perspective, was what just took place in Beijing good news or not?

Ivan Arreguin-Toft analyzes the West's information technology asymmetry of capability, which has given way to asymmetry of vulnerability. While democracies worldwide remain threatened, they also contain the means to restore themselves.

Charli Carpenter argues that the Taliban should be isolated and shamed, and diplomatic recognition should be withheld until an inclusive government is in place. But in the meantime, the United States should do all in its power to protect and expand the human rights of women. Leading by example can be the most powerful form of advocacy.

Charli Carpenter argues that the way to protect civilians from war crimes during ongoing war is not merely to threaten punishment for crimes sometime in the future but to put a stop to them now. And in Putin's case, this stopping power can come only from military force, not solely from judges.

Stephen Walt offers a tentative and far-from-comprehensive survey of what scholars have to say about the war in Ukraine.

Veteran historians Frederik Logevall and Arne Westad ponder the 20th century world for lessons from Russia's Ukraine invasion. 

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with a blunt warning to Europe and the U.S.

But beyond sanctions and arming Ukrainian forces, what more can the West do?

“If Russia is determined to suffer some significant losses, which it will, it can still prevail and capture large parts of Ukraine. The question is: What will they do with that later?” said Mariana Budjeryn, a Belfer Center research associate at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“It might be optimistic, but I do not see how they succeed,” said Budjeryn, a native of Ukraine who visited her mother last week in Lviv, a major city in the country’s west.

Stephen Walt analyzes the U.S. and European responses to Russia's aggression.