2021

Entrusted Norms: Security, Trust, and Betrayal in the Gulf Cooperation Council Crisis

This paper by Vincent C. Keating demonstrates the utility of considering how some norms might not just be internalized, but also entrusted. It argues that entrusted norms are different from internalized norms because they have light policing and, when broken, they result in not simply a reaction of disappointment, but betrayal. As such, the offending party cannot simply return to the behavioral status quo and expect a return to the political status quo.

Vincent Charles Keating

New publication on oil and the political economy in the Middle East

Martin Beck co-edited and co-authored the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline in a Manchester University Press volume that connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes. Picture licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power (free chapter on Afghanistan)

This book by CWS experts Sten Rynning, Olivier Schmitt and Amelie Theussen examines the alleged decline of the West's military power, investigating the role of time in a series of structural fractures that leave the West seemingly muscle-bound: overwhelmingly powerful in technology and military might but strategically fragile. Due to the situation in Afghanistan, the publisher Brookings Institution Press and Chatham House have agreed to make Kathleen J. McInnis' chapter "Civilian Casualties and Contemporary Coalition Operations: The Case of Afghanistan" freely available.

Warning about War

The 2021 annual ISA best book award has gone to CWS co-director Chiara De Franco and her co-authors Christoph Meyer and Florian Otto. The book explores the impacts and persuasiveness of warnings issued by intelligence services, media professional and NGOs in four recent conflicts. By investigating why some warnings are more impactful than others, the book offers novel insights into the study of conflict prevention and the understanding of persuasion in foreign policy.

Air defence systems set problematic precedents for what counts as meaningful human control

A new report by Ingvild Bode and Tom Watts published in collaboration with Drone Wars UK finds that ways of using air defence systems have incrementally diminished human control over the use of force – and how this matters for the debate on autonomous weapons.

Deterrence in the 21st Century - Insights from Theory and Practice

Center for War Studies professors Peter Viggo Jakobsen and Steen Rynning contribute chapters to important book updating our understanding of deterrence

Russia as a Military Great Power

A New book is out in Danish about Russian Military Power. Fellow PhD Candidate Mikkel Storm Jensen has written a chapter about Russian Cyber Warfare & our PhD Candidate Michael Gjerstad co-wrote a chapter with Niels Bo Poulsen about Russian Military Culture.

French Defence Policy Since the End of the Cold War By Olivier Schmitt & Alice Pannier

This book by Olivier Schmitt and Alice Pannier describes the evolution of French defence policy since the end of the Cold War. This book will be of great interest to students of defence studies, French politics, military studies, security studies, and IR in general.

Olivier Schmitt & Alice Pannier

Fluctuating regional (dis-) order in the post-Arab Uprising Middle East

How has the Middle Eastern regional order changed in the current decade, and what are the consequences of these changes? CWS Professor Martin Beck provides answers to these questions by serving as a co-guest editor and (co)-author of two articles of a special section of Global Policy.