Articles & Reports

Recent Articles

NOV 7, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

Ends and Means: A Response to Rights as Weapons

In Clifford Bob’s latest book, Rights as Weapons, he argues that rights are not political ends in themselves but are rather an effective means ...

NOV 7, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

Sources of Firepower for Weaponized Rights

“Rights” are often portrayed as things that are universal, apolitical, inherent, or natural, and as ends in themselves. But what if “rights” are mere rhetoric, ...

NOV 7, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

Ruling by Rights: Rule Making and Embedded Normativity

Clifford Bob’s Rights as Weapons offers a gripping description of the manifold ways people use rights-claims to attain strategic goals. In addition to using ...

NOV 7, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

A Conversation about the Politics of Rights within Rights as Weapons

Clifford Bob’s book Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power builds a powerful argument that rights can be weapons of political conflict. ...

NOV 7, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

What We've Been Reading

Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s what we’ve been reading this month.

Senator Elizabeth Warren in Iowa, June 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/48037984057/">Lorie Shaull</a> <a href'="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/"(CC)</a>

OCT 30, 2019 • Article

Crafting Narratives and the 2020 Elections

As the recent U.S. Global Engagement report notes, there is no longer one main narrative for U.S. foreign policy. Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev ...

OCT 30, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

Crafting Narratives and the 2020 Elections

The Project on U.S. Global Engagement has released its report, The Search for a New Narrative: Recasting American Involvement in the International System. 

President Donald Trump at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 2019. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/48791288231/>The White House (CC)</a>.

OCT 25, 2019 • Article

The Search for a New Narrative: Recasting American Involvement in the International System

This project on U.S. Global Engagement was launched in 2018. An initial report, released in December 2018, diagnosed the causes and symptoms of the narrative collapse ...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo & Vice President Mike Pence in Turkey, October 17, 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/48919135551/">The White House/D. Myles Cullen/Public Domain</a>

OCT 18, 2019 • Article

A Russian Take on the Kurds and U.S. Foreign Policy

A Russian defense news site declared the United States an "unreliable ally" after the withdrawal of American troops from Northern Syria. Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev ...

OCT 17, 2019 • Journal Online Exclusive

A Russian Take on the Kurds and U.S. Foreign Policy

The Russian defense news site Voennoye Obozrenie has a very interesting and caustic take on the U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria.