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The Washington Quarterly

The Washington Quarterly is a journal of international affairs, analyzing global strategic changes and their public policy implications.

The Washington Quarterly is a global security policy journal that provides diverse perspectives on strategic changes, trends, and relations around the world along with their public policy implications. The journal addresses a broad range of topics within this theme, including the following:

-the future of global order and the US role in the world
-the role of China, India, and other rising powers

-nuclear security challenges including among new, aspiring, or great nuclear powers
-democracy's geopolitical future—its strengths, weaknesses, and prospects
-sanctions and other means of coercion in an interdependent world
-the information contest and the security implications of disinformation
-transnational security threats such as climate change, pandemics, and terrorism

Contributors reflect diverse political, regional, and professional perspectives, coming from in and outside of the United States. Essays are authoritative yet written for the informed global affairs generalist. Members of the analytical, diplomatic, intelligence, media, and policymaking communities value TWQ as a source of incisive, independent thinking about global political and security challenges and policies. TWQ has subscribers in more than 50 countries. The Washington Quarterly is hosted by the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and is published by Taylor & Francis, where a full archive of TWQ can be accessed with subscription.

07/07/2025

The summer issue of The Washington Quarterly is now live online! In our “Nuclear Fortress America?” feature section, Steve Fetter and David Wright break down why Israel’s Iron Dome cannot be replicated in the US, and Astrid Chevreuil explores French and British nuclear options for European deterrence. Plus, in the “Winning the Tech Competition” with China section, Andrew Kennedy outlines 3 US advantages—and how it risks squandering them—and Brandon Kirk Williams outlines the stakes of the AI race.

In our “Provocations” section, Richard Fontaine & Gibbs McKinley explain the significance of 6 global “swing states” for international order; Mahsa Rouhi discusses Iran’s strategic crossroads after its “Axis of Resistance” has declined; Gangsheng Bao outlines 5 Chinese strategic considerations often misunderstood, while Duan Xiaolin & Hao Yufan explain the surprising stability in the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute since 2012; and Amy Paik reveals the importance of global undersea cables—and the role the ROK can take in protecting them.

Read the full articles at https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/!

04/08/2025

The spring issue of The Washington Quarterly is now live online! In our feature section, Rethinking Conflict with China, Evan S. Medeiros and Andrew Polk break down China’s evolving arsenal of “economic weapons;” Sheena Chestnut Greitens explores how a US-China conflict could become protracted; Evan Braden Montgomery and Toshi Yoshihara lay out China’s coercive options to conquer Taiwan short of outright invasion; Michael D. Swaine contends that Taiwan represents a “non-vital” US interest; and Charles L. Glaser argues for an updated US-supported self-defense policy for Taiwan.

In Provocations, Richard K. Betts explores the history, possibilities, and pitfalls of “nuclear sharing” in NATO and how they apply to South Korea and elsewhere today; Heather Williams argues for an updated US nuclear posture to reduce conflict risk; Peter Dean, Michael Green, and Alice Nason outline a modernized approach to US Indian Ocean strategy; Nicholas Lokker discusses how the United States can advance EU enlargement; and Zeno Leoni, Joao Vitor Tossini, William de Sousa Moreira, and Sarah Tzinieris explain the strategic value of the often-neglected South Atlantic region.

Read the full articles at https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/!

12/18/2024

The winter issue of The Washington Quarterly is now live online! In our feature section, Emerging Technologies: Nuclear Impact, Rabia Akhtar and Mapreet Sethi analyze how ETs may impact Southern Asian nuclear deterrence, Doreen Horschig examines how ETs could destabilize the Israel-Iran relationship, Anna Nadibaidze questions whether Russian AI is as developed as they claim, Anna Péczeli explores potential arms control strategies, and J. Luis Rodriguez offers arms control lessons from Latin America.

In Provocations, Sara Moller unpacks NATO’s resurgent nuclear-conventional debate, Linde Desmaele discusses the implications of three visions for NATO burden sharing in Europe, Rintaro Inoue analyzes Japan’s willingness to use counterstrike, Aaron Arnold and Daniel Salisbury trace the phenomenon of “remote sanctions-busting” in the post-COVID era, and Juan Luis Manfredi, Ricardo Arredondo, and Leesa Danzek explore how influencer culture is reshaping diplomacy.

Read the full articles at https://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/!

09/18/2024

The fall issue of The Washington Quarterly is now live online! In our feature section, Ukraine’s Ripple Effects, Kimberly Marten analyzes three explanations for Russia’s embrace of Hamas after the October 7 attacks, Liviu Horovitz and Lydia Wachs explain Russia and Belarus’ decision to implement nuclear sharing arrangements, Noel Foster offers a controversial method of starving Russia’s war economy, and Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe reframe the post-Ukraine war conversation, asserting that the questions we’re currently asking aren’t the right ones.

In Provocations, Jon B. Alterman unpacks China’s Middle East strategy, suggesting that it has a lot to do with the US, Anjali Dayal offers suggestions for preventing mass atrocities despite a divided UN Security Council, Anouk Wear analyzes the ways in which the PRC has used Hong Kong to test the limits of international law and export its own version of human rights, and Rafał Ulatowski assesses why Germany’s Zeitenwende has not come to pass.

04/15/2024

The spring issue of TWQ is live online!

In our feature section, US Alliance Management in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Brian Blankenship discusses the trade-offs of alliance burden-sharing in both regions, Tara Varma makes the case that Europe's next chapter should be one of strategic autonomy, and Wannes Verstraete discusses Europe's possible nuclear futures. Kelly Grieco and Jennifer Kavanagh argue that the US must start leveraging the Indo-Pacific's unique geography to its advantage, Jeffrey Reeves analyzes the underrated impact of "Bidenomics" in the region, Ankit Panda and Tristan Volpe assess Seoul's nuclear bargaining leverage, and Christopher Johnstone gives Japan high marks after its first year of implementing its new security strategy.

In Provocations: Daniel Byman, Riley McCabe, and Alexander Palmer outline six non-mutually exclusive options for Israel in Gaza—noting the costs, risks and limits of each. And Adam T. Biggs assesses that nuclear risks rise as great-power conflict goes on.

Read the full articles in the link below!

12/20/2023

The winter issue of TWQ is live online! In our feature section, "Debating China," Thomas Fingar and David M. Lampton argue that the US must rethink its China policy based on a better understanding of China's own behavior, Rachel (Tecott) Metz and Erik Sand lay out the cons of the US coming to Taiwan's defense, Ian Bowers and Øystein Tunsjø characterize contemporary US-China competition as "hypercompetition," and Brad Glosserman argues that the US and partners should embrace tech denial toward China.

In our second section, "Modernizing Deterrence," Sung-Han Kim and Hyun Ji Rim propose implementing "comprehensive extended deterrence" in the US-ROK alliance, Robert Litwak unpacks emerging challenges in a tripolar nuclear world, and Ron Gurantz assesses the implications of the return of crisis diplomacy in international politics.

In Provocations: David H. Bearce and Seungbin Park argue that the US must resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership and lay out a path to doing so, and Sarah Tzinieris, Rishika Chauhan and Eirini Athanasiadou assess India's a la carte strategy toward US-led minilateral frameworks in the Indo-Pacific.

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