
The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship
In this week's "Four Minute Foreign Policy" interview, Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute is pleased to introduce Fellow Shamila Chaudhary, Senior Advisor to Dean Vali Nasr and former Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan on the U.S. National Security Council. What impedes the path forward for the United States and Pakistan - and with what consequences for Afghanistan's future? What opportunities does the United States' leadership have to better engage and pursue mut

An Underutilized Bonanza: Using Existing Oral Histories vs. Conducting One’s Own Interviews
Students of more recent political events are often keen to interview former officials. I know I was. Over the past two years, I talked to dozens of officials who worked in the George H. W. Bush Administration at the end of the Cold War. It helped with my dissertation: Methodologists – especially in political science – think it is generally a good idea to include interviews in one’s research. Always interesting and often informative, these discussions did help me better unders

The Diplomacy of Détente – NATO hosts author Stephan Kieninger
Dr Stephan Kieninger, fellow at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, is the author of The Diplomacy of Détente: Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz. He presented and discussed his book during a visit to NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 5 November, 2018. Book talk: The Diplomacy of Detente: Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz with Dr Stephan Kieninger, William Alberque and Cat

Fragile States and the Catalysts of Conflict
In our next installment of "Four Minute Foreign Policy," Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute is pleased to introduce Senior Fellow Maureen White, former Senior Advisor on Humanitarian Issues to Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke in the State Department's Office of the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. What distinguishes fragile states that devolve into conflict and those that do not? "The answer is not simple..." but we can identify key catalysts. Liste

Paddy Ashdown’s Lessons For Multilateralists
A Royal Marine, a diplomat, a politician: Paddy Ashdown knew how to be tough to get things done. But he never forgot the importance of legitimacy in every measure he pushed through. Two days after U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis submitted his resignation letter to Donald Trump stressing disagreements on the question of the value of multilateralism and alliances, another champion of multilateralism passed away. Paddy Ashdown, a member of the House of Lords and former le

Challenges 2019 will bring for the Arab world
It has only been a few days since the New Year fireworks lit up the skies of many of the world’s cities. For a brief moment, it was possible to forget the tumult and flurry of activity that marked the end of 2018, and focus on the festivities. Unfortunately, not even the arrival of a new year is likely to aid any efforts to temper rising volatility, fractious diplomacy, political headwinds, tepid markets and, generally speaking, a world on the brink. Regardless of the causes

Strategic Shocks: Readying for Reaction
Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute is pleased to launch the new year with the next entry in our "Four Minute Foreign Policy," series, dedicated to providing accessible expert analysis of pressing global developments and starting public conversations on ever-evolving circumstances. John-Michael Arnold, a DAAD Post-Doctoral Fellow at SAIS FPI, introduces his work on strategic shocks. From the fall of the Soviet Union, to the September 11th attacks, to the Arab Spring u