Foreign Threats Research Articles

State Arctic Policy of Russia

The state Arctic policy of Russia has no analogues in terms of the variety of tasks and the scale of risks of their implementation – from natural and climatic to foreign policy. Its most important subject was the consistent combination of new state and corporate solutions with the re-development of the «Soviet heritage». Today, this “heritage” accounts for more than 80% of the currently used national wealth of the Arctic. It was created in fundamentally different socio-political and socio-economic conditions, and now to maintain it at least in the same state and restructure it requires financial, material, technical and human resources that are not comparable with those necessary for similar purposes in the territories located to the south. The implementation of a unified state policy in the Arctic zone is complicated by the fact that it consists of a unique conglomeration of territories of four constituent entities of the Russian Federation and 28 municipalities of different types, located on the territory of other regions of the Russian Federation. All of them are relatively independent, have their own regulations, strategies for their development, etc. In 2008–2019, the state Arctic policy of Russia was documented in successive Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and government decisions on the Arctic development program. However, in 2020 they were radically revised, including in the direction of taking into account the growing foreign policy threats. The conclusion is justified that only the strengthening of political and economic sovereignty on the basis of stable economic growth of the entire country can ensure the stability and minimize the risks of the functioning of this most important part of our state.

ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN POLICIES TOWARD TAJIKISTAN SINCE 9/11

Tajikistan is a landlocked state and has a unique position in the Central Asian region due to its border attached with Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and near to Pakistan. It is the poorest among the Central Asian states with lack of energy resources. Tajikistan faced several challenges such as poor democratic performance, economic dependence on foreign remittances, unemployment, bad governance, and security threat. Next year after independence in 1992 the Tajik Civil War had started and ended in 1997, which had deep impacts on the country’s economy and social life. Since 9/11 when the terrorist attack on the United States of America, Tajikistan got special attention due to its location. It condemned those attacks and keen to cooperate with American war against terrorism. This study focuses on American policies towards Tajikistan during 2001-2012. The paper also investigates American political, economic and security relations with Tajikistan and analyses the American interests and its strategic importance of Tajikistan towards America.

Explaining negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish parliamentary speeches (1960–1980) via group position theory

This paper scrutinizes the role of Turkish politicians’ threat perception on negative descriptions of Armenians between 1960 and 1980. In so doing, it brings together the theoretical insights of group position theory with the scholarship on the perception of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. Building on a comprehensive, mixed-method content analysis of Turkish parliamentary proceedings, it demonstrates that Turkish politicians are more likely to make negative comments about Armenians while debating about national security and foreign threats than when speaking about other topics. The paper concludes that perceived threats contribute to the negative descriptions of Armenians in Turkish politics.

Foreign Threats to Ukraine’s Independence and the Challenge Posed to Polish National Security

The purpose of the article is to examine the Russian threat to Ukraine’s state sovereignty and its impact on Poland’s national security; to underline that Russia intends to take revenge for its defeat in the Cold War, to regain control over the former Soviet Union republics, to defeat the USA and EU, and to establish control in the territory of the Eurasian continent. The research hypothesis is that the main purpose of Russia’s foreign policy is the reconstruction of a neo-imperial state, Ukraine’s reintegration into the post-Soviet space, and ensuring Russia’s domination in the region. The research task was completed using the research methods of a detailed study of sources and literature and a critical analysis of the information available to the author. Conclusions: Russia is trying to take revenge for its defeat in the Cold War, to regain control over the former Soviet Union republics, to defeat the West, and to establish control over the Eurasian continent. Russia considers Ukraine and Poland as dangerous agents of Atlanticism. That is why the Russian Eurasian geopolitical project aims for the Ukrainian and Polish states to be neutralized in a radical way. To this end, Russia has started a “hybrid war” against Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic countries will be the next targets of Russian aggression. It is profitable for Russian neo-imperialism to destroy trust and the strategic partnership between Poland and Ukraine, and to act in accordance with the divide-and-conquer algorithm. In such circumstances, Ukraine and Poland need to work out a new “Doctrine of restraining Russia’s aggression,” to pursue gradual and coordinated policy for the sake of the victory over Russian neo-imperialism and the dismantlement of the Russian imperial social system. The article describes the peculiarities of the modernization of the Russian imperial system at the present stage, analyzes the content of the Russian neo-imperialistic policy against Ukraine, Poland and the West, the reasons for the failure of Ukraine to neutralize Russian expansion, and also shows possible geopolitical consequences for the national security of Poland in the event of the successful implementation of Russia’s geopolitical strategy.

Military Spending and Employment

ABSTRACT This paper constructs a theoretical model involving supply-side effect, demand-side effect, and security effect produced by military spending to explore the effects of military spending and foreign military threat on employment. This paper proves that the relationship between defense burden and employment is nonlinear (i.e., reverse U shape.). Hence, we find the defense burden of maximizing employment. In addition, we argue that a rise in foreign military threat will be detrimental to the level of output and in turn lead to a reduction in employment. Finally, we show that an increase in the variance of the foreign military spending shocks will raise the level of output and then lead to an increase in employment.

The construction of threats by intelligence agencies: analysing the language of official documents in Slovakia

ABSTRACT Intelligence agencies play a prominent role in the production of knowledge about national security threats and their evaluation. This function is not just a value-neutral technical activity, but a social and political action. The purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which the Slovak Information Service, an intelligence agency responsible for the protection of national security, discursively constructs security threats and assigns enemy images to specific actors. The analysis was conducted on the publicly available parts of the agency’s Annual Reports. It utilised qualitative document analysis, supplemented by quantitative analysis of the frequency of use of specific keywords. The analysis, which identified the main threats connected to internal security, is constructed in a manner which connects terrorism with migration and the Muslim faith, assigning terror identities to specific groups. The agency’s constructions of internal threats were also utilised in the political discourse. Moreover, securitisation rhetoric was used in connection to the movements promoting human rights and fighting fascism, labelling them as left-wing extremists. In the field of foreign threats, their construction depends on both international developments and domestic political dynamics.

Everything Like Before by Kjell Askildsen

BOOKS IN REVIEW Kjell Askildsen Everything Like Before Trans. Seán Kinsella. New York. Archipelago Books. 2021. 275 pages. “I LIVE IN A basement; a result of having come down in the world, in every sense.” So begins “A Sudden Liberating Thought,” one of thirty-seven stories that comprise Everything Like Before, Norwegian writer Kjell Askilden’s newest collection of fiction , which typifies his darkly ironic take on the absurd. Askilden’s characters tend to experience spiritual injury in the form of an amorphous stab from the distant past, unknowable and condemning, that is brought into the present through an almost arbitrary impetus: the page number of a book, opening a second bottle of wine, or sharing a park bench with a stranger. In the aforementioned story, an unnamed narrator’s peaceful walk through the park is interrupted by a stranger who seemstomirrorthenarrator’sownthoughts and actions. Only later is it revealed that the stranger is actually a judge and the narrator a convicted criminal from an age-old court case. Both crime and punishment are blurred by lack of detail, so this insight provides no resolution and instead preserves his life in the basement. Askilden’s interest in the condemned is further developed in “I’m not like this, I’m not like this.” While visiting his disabled sister, the dutiful narrator befriends her elderly neighbor, a man who appears strikingly familiar but is ultimately unplaceable. It takes another family member to recognize the man as an infamous convicted murderer from years before. This man later confides in the narrator about his anxiety, only to self-interrupt by politely asking if he is being a bother. The narrator exits in a flurry of silent confusion; meanwhile violence and punishment, lodged so far in the past as to be almost prehistoric, obscure the tortured condition of this man’s soul. Resolution cannot be realized without first pinpointing the origin of conflict, and that is not within the remit of Askilden’s fiction. Despite the dark subject matter, the stories make for bracing reading due to Askilden’s spare prose and the sly humor that arrives unexpectedly in the middle of a character’s downfall. One character’s bender is thus punctuated with a line such as “He drank, and it grew dark, and he got on well with himself,” and an old man at the park idly ponders, “If for some reason an airplane were to explode in the sky, I wouldn’t mind being one of the people— preferably the only one—who witnessed it.” Such rueful quips abound throughout this collection and lend a refreshing lightness to Askilden’s bleak vision of the absurd. Phillip Garland St. Louis, Missouri Yamen Manai The Ardent Swarm Trans. Lara Vergnaud. Seattle. Amazon Crossing. 2021. 204 pages. COMMITTED TO KEEPING Tunisian works available in Tunisia, Yamen Manai has hitherto published with Éditions Elyzad. Now, Amazon Crossing and award-winning translator Lara Vergnaud have brought The Ardent Swarm from the French into English, and we can only hope that Manai’s other novels will follow. Opening with “The Bee” from the Quran, The Ardent Swarm takes place in the fictional mountain village of Nawa, North Africa. We meet and quickly fall in love with the humble Sidi, a beekeeper devoted to the safety and prosperity of “his girls,” the honeybee hive he has grown and lovingly tends. A foreign threat has appeared, however. Unknown to importers , an aggressive species of hornets has stowed away in their cargo, goods that provide the link to the other component of Manai’s story. The country is in transition with its first democratic election on the horizon. Soldiers patrol the road from Nawa as the villagers make their way to the city to sell their meager harvest. A party of fundamentalists comes to solicit votes from the people, who would be wise to “beware Greeks bearing gifts.” The campaigners arrive with cargo crates full of food, blankets , and other luxuries as a preview of their platform and tell the people to simply “vote for the Pigeon on the ballot,” since most of the Nawa residents are unable to read and write. Shaw’s Major Barbara comes to mind...

Do External Threats Unite or Divide? Security Crises, Rivalries, and Polarization in American Foreign Policy

AbstractA common explanation for the increasing polarization in contemporary American foreign policy is the absence of external threat. I identify two mechanisms through which threats could reduce polarization: by revealing information about an adversary that elicits a bipartisan response from policymakers (information mechanism) and by heightening the salience of national relative to partisan identity (identity mechanism). To evaluate the information mechanism, study 1 uses computational text analysis of congressional speeches to explore whether security threats reduce partisanship in attitudes toward foreign adversaries. To evaluate the identity mechanism, study 2 uses public opinion polls to assess whether threats reduce affective polarization among the public. Study 3 tests both mechanisms in a survey experiment that heightens a security threat from China. I find that the external threat hypothesis has limited ability to explain either polarization in US foreign policy or affective polarization among the American public. Instead, responses to external threats reflect the domestic political environment in which they are introduced. The findings cast doubt on predictions that new foreign threats will inherently create partisan unity.

THE FORMATION OF NORMS AND IDENTITY CONDITIONING THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE ARMENIAN RULING ELITES IN THE RELATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA AND RUSSIAN FEDERATION: A CONSTRUCTIVIST LOOK

The objective of the article is to reveal the constructivist factors determining the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia that are relevant to the Armenian-Russian relation. To that end, the study employs the theoretical and methodological toolkit of International Relations school of Constructivism. The article examines the formation of identities, discourses and perceptions of ruling elites vis-à-vis the domestic and foreign threats, the ways to overcome them, the foreign support and the policy of alliance. The article reveals those foreign policy norms and their life-cycle, which in addition to the factors emanating from the material reality, condition, encourage or limit the policy of the ruling elites towards Russian Federation and act as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion of political subjects. The article underlines the similarities and disparities between the first and second administrations of the RA in terms of the above mentioned matters, points out the debates therein and their influence on the life cycles of developing norms.

The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai

BOOKS IN REVIEW Kjell Askildsen Everything Like Before Trans. Seán Kinsella. New York. Archipelago Books. 2021. 275 pages. “I LIVE IN A basement; a result of having come down in the world, in every sense.” So begins “A Sudden Liberating Thought,” one of thirty-seven stories that comprise Everything Like Before, Norwegian writer Kjell Askilden’s newest collection of fiction , which typifies his darkly ironic take on the absurd. Askilden’s characters tend to experience spiritual injury in the form of an amorphous stab from the distant past, unknowable and condemning, that is brought into the present through an almost arbitrary impetus: the page number of a book, opening a second bottle of wine, or sharing a park bench with a stranger. In the aforementioned story, an unnamed narrator’s peaceful walk through the park is interrupted by a stranger who seemstomirrorthenarrator’sownthoughts and actions. Only later is it revealed that the stranger is actually a judge and the narrator a convicted criminal from an age-old court case. Both crime and punishment are blurred by lack of detail, so this insight provides no resolution and instead preserves his life in the basement. Askilden’s interest in the condemned is further developed in “I’m not like this, I’m not like this.” While visiting his disabled sister, the dutiful narrator befriends her elderly neighbor, a man who appears strikingly familiar but is ultimately unplaceable. It takes another family member to recognize the man as an infamous convicted murderer from years before. This man later confides in the narrator about his anxiety, only to self-interrupt by politely asking if he is being a bother. The narrator exits in a flurry of silent confusion; meanwhile violence and punishment, lodged so far in the past as to be almost prehistoric, obscure the tortured condition of this man’s soul. Resolution cannot be realized without first pinpointing the origin of conflict, and that is not within the remit of Askilden’s fiction. Despite the dark subject matter, the stories make for bracing reading due to Askilden’s spare prose and the sly humor that arrives unexpectedly in the middle of a character’s downfall. One character’s bender is thus punctuated with a line such as “He drank, and it grew dark, and he got on well with himself,” and an old man at the park idly ponders, “If for some reason an airplane were to explode in the sky, I wouldn’t mind being one of the people— preferably the only one—who witnessed it.” Such rueful quips abound throughout this collection and lend a refreshing lightness to Askilden’s bleak vision of the absurd. Phillip Garland St. Louis, Missouri Yamen Manai The Ardent Swarm Trans. Lara Vergnaud. Seattle. Amazon Crossing. 2021. 204 pages. COMMITTED TO KEEPING Tunisian works available in Tunisia, Yamen Manai has hitherto published with Éditions Elyzad. Now, Amazon Crossing and award-winning translator Lara Vergnaud have brought The Ardent Swarm from the French into English, and we can only hope that Manai’s other novels will follow. Opening with “The Bee” from the Quran, The Ardent Swarm takes place in the fictional mountain village of Nawa, North Africa. We meet and quickly fall in love with the humble Sidi, a beekeeper devoted to the safety and prosperity of “his girls,” the honeybee hive he has grown and lovingly tends. A foreign threat has appeared, however. Unknown to importers , an aggressive species of hornets has stowed away in their cargo, goods that provide the link to the other component of Manai’s story. The country is in transition with its first democratic election on the horizon. Soldiers patrol the road from Nawa as the villagers make their way to the city to sell their meager harvest. A party of fundamentalists comes to solicit votes from the people, who would be wise to “beware Greeks bearing gifts.” The campaigners arrive with cargo crates full of food, blankets , and other luxuries as a preview of their platform and tell the people to simply “vote for the Pigeon on the ballot,” since most of the Nawa residents are unable to read and write. Shaw’s Major Barbara comes to mind...

МІЖНАРОДНІ ВІДНОСИНИ МІЖ КРАЇНАМИ ЛЮБЛІНСЬКОГО ТРИКУТНИКА – НОВИЙ ФОРМАТ СПІВПРАЦІ КРІЗЬ ПРИЗМУ ІСТОРИЧНОГО МИНУЛОГО

The article examines the historical origins and further cooperation of the Lublin Triangle countries - Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania – Central and Eastern Europe, the history of which reflects the development of this region in the east of this part of the world. Combined by geographical proximity, foreign policy threats and a common socio-cultural tradition, they have a complex history of development and coexistence. The agreements made during a certain period of time are analyzed, conclusions are made. Opportunities have been identified for strengthening cooperation between the OSCE, the European Union, the Council of Europe, NATO and the Eastern Partnership countries. The possibility of joining the Republic of Belarus to a new format of relations and turning the triangle into a square for further joint cooperation in the direction of expanding opportunities in the field of energy, defense, cultural and social spheres was considered. The youth initiative on creation of a platform for interaction of youth of Ukraine with youth of Lithuania and Poland for the purpose of expansion of cultural, social and educational communications and an exchange of experience for creation of joint projects is considered. The future development of states and interstate initiatives depends on the active work of young people, the creation of the youth wing of the Lublin Triangle is a logical continuation of the interstate initiative, which will not only ensure youth participation in social and political life, but also positively affect Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian relations. thanks to youth diplomacy, will promote the development of European integration processes in Ukraine. An important initiative within the Lublin Triangle was the creation of a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade – LitPolUkrBrig, which provides for international peacekeeping and security operations under the auspices of the UN, EU, NATO and other international security organizations. Conclusions are made on the advantages and disadvantages of countries' participation in the new format of relations between the countries of the Lublin Triangle.

Our Suffering Brethren: Foreign Captivity and Nationalism in the Early United States by David J. Dzurec III

Reviewed by: Our Suffering Brethren: Foreign Captivity and Nationalism in the Early United States by David J. Dzurec III Sarah Sillin (bio) Our Suffering Brethren: Foreign Captivity and Nationalism in the Early United States david j. dzurec iii University of Massachusetts Press, 2019 236 pp. David J. Dzurec III's Our Suffering Brethren traces a history of white American captivity from the American Revolution to the end of the Barbary War. Throughout this era, the British navy and Barbary corsairs repeatedly captured American ships—whether to impress, imprison, ransom, or enslave those aboard—thereby evoking a sense of American vulnerability (7). Dzurec's history demonstrates that captivity profoundly influenced early US politics by eliciting widespread public concern; it thereby became a source of nationalism that served complex, sometimes contradictory interests. Americans' loss of freedom offered a key justification first for the Revolutionaries' cause and then for a stronger federal government. Yet rather than simply unifying the country, captivity became the subject of fierce political debates. Indeed, Dzurec argues that Federalists' and Republicans' responses established a key pattern in US politics: each party asserted its unique ability to provide national security, even as both invoked the same nationalist rhetoric by playing on fear of a foreign threat (194). In examining such rhetoric, Dzurec develops a nuanced reading of how international encounters shaped the government's relation to citizens. Federalists and Republicans alike located political capital in American captives' suffering, as they claimed authority to enter into new wars, negotiate for US captives, or forge treaties. But even as politicians played on voters' anxieties, he suggests, so too did public discourse inform US politics. The apparent arbitrariness of captivity, which elicited concerns that "any American could be taken captive," also thereby fostered a sense that "any American could join the debate about the nature of Independence" (38). Though the nation's early presidents responded to this sentiment with [End Page 300] calls for limiting public involvement—like the private fundraising efforts to redeem Americans captive in Algeria—public opinion and political policies continued to shape one another. To understand the reciprocal influence of public opinion and political rhetoric, Dzurec explores a rich historical archive. His readings of sailors' letters and narratives (with particular attention to Ethan Allen's and John Dodge's memoirs) highlight the influential role of their accounts in circulating news of captivity and shaping Americans' impressions of these events. Moreover, he delves into Americans' responses to such accounts by analyzing the more official discourse of political policies and representatives' correspondence, alongside public commentary in news editorials, plays, and printed accounts of local festivities. Together, these texts allow him to argue that politicians' and private citizens' responses informed one another, while considering how they shifted over time. Captivity became first a touchstone in arguments for American independence and confederation in the late eighteenth century and then a lightning rod in early nineteenth-century political debates as the Federalist and Republican parties both purported to be the party of national security. Dzurec moves chronologically, so that the first half of Our Suffering Brethren identifies how captivity fostered American nationalism, starting with British impressment. Of course, captivity was not a new experience or trope; rather, Dzurec contends, colonial-era captivity narratives provided revolutionaries with "a historical precedent for the type of threat they faced" (37). Moreover, he suggests that stories of captivity became a means for revolutionaries to claim sympathy. Yet rather than halt captivity, the end of the war left Americans unprotected by British treaties with Barbary states. When Algerian corsairs captured American merchant ships in 1785, captivity took on new importance in US politics by fostering interest in a stronger federal government. Even as Americans' captivity strengthened arguments for the federal government, though, it also raised new possibilities for individual Americans to participate in foreign relations. Dzurec explores how such private involvement ebbed and flowed. In the 1780s, Americans began fundraising to help ransom their countrymen, then paused this involvement when the Constitutional Convention afforded the government more power to act on their behalf. Although Washington and the Federalists believed "public sentiment ought not play a role in politics outside of election" (63), the [End Page 301] formation of Democratic...

Zwitterionic 3D-Printed Non-Immunogenic Stealth Microrobots.

Microrobots offer transformative solutions for non-invasive medical interventions due to their small size and untethered operation inside the human body. However, they must face the immune system as a natural protection mechanism against foreign threats. Here, non-immunogenic stealth zwitterionic microrobots that avoid recognition from immune cells are introduced. Fully zwitterionic photoresists are developed for two-photon polymerization 3D microprinting of hydrogel microrobots with ample functionalization: tunable mechanical properties, anti-biofouling and non-immunogenic properties, functionalization for magnetic actuation, encapsulation of biomolecules, and surface functionalization for drug delivery. Stealth microrobots avoid detection by macrophage cells of the innate immune system after exhaustive inspection (>90 hours), which has not been achieved in any microrobotic platform to date. These versatile zwitterionic materials eliminate a major roadblock in the development of biocompatible microrobots, and will serve as a toolbox of non-immunogenic materials for medical microrobot and other device technologies for bioengineering and biomedical applications.

Discovery of Potent and Orally Bioavailable Small Molecule Antagonists of Toll-like Receptors 7/8/9 (TLR7/8/9).

The toll-like receptor (TLR) family is an evolutionarily conserved component of the innate immune system, responsible for the early detection of foreign or endogenous threat signals. In the context of autoimmunity, the unintended recognition of self-motifs as foreign promotes initiation or propagation of disease. Overactivation of TLR7 and TLR9 have been implicated as factors contributing to autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis, arthritis, and lupus. In our search for small molecule antagonists of TLR7/9, 7f was identified as possessing excellent on-target potency for human TLR7/9 as well as for TLR8, with selectivity against other representative TLR family members. Good pharmacokinetic properties and a relatively balanced potency against TLR7 and TLR9 in mouse systems (systems which lack functional TLR8) made this an excellent in vivo tool compound, and efficacy from oral dosing in preclinical models of autoimmune disease was demonstrated.

Autocratic Stability in the Shadow of Foreign Threats

Autocrats confront a number of threats to their power, some from within the regime and others from foreign actors. To understand how these threats interact and affect autocratic survival, we build a model where an autocratic leader can be ousted by a domestic opposition and a foreign actor. We concentrate on the impact that foreign threats have on the stability of autocratic leadership and show that the presence of foreign threats increases the probability an autocrat retains power. Focusing on two cases, one where a foreign actor and the domestic opposition have aligned interests and one where their interests are misaligned, we elucidate two distinct mechanisms. First, when interests are aligned, autocrats are compelled to increase domestic security to alleviate international pressure. Second, when interests are misaligned, autocrats exploit the downstream threat of foreign intervention to deter domestic threats. We also show that autocrats have incentives to cultivate ideological views hostile to broader interests among politically influential domestic actors.

Determining and assessing the risks of commercial and recreational complex building projects in developing countries: a survey of experts in Iran

PurposeAs construction of commercial and recreational complex building projects (CRCBPs) is one of the most important issues in many developing countries and requires a very high cost of implementation, it is important to identify and prioritize the risks of such projects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and rank the risks of CRCBPs by studying the case of the “Hamedanian Memorial,” a CRCBP in Iran.Design/methodology/approachTo pursue this aim, a descriptive-survey method was used. The statistical population of the study consists of 30 experienced experts (consultants, contractors and employers) of the “Hamedanian Memorial” project selected according to the Cochran formula and minimum population census. A questionnaire was used as the data collection tool, administered in all stages of risk identification and evaluation, and was devised by using library and field methods based on the literature and research background, as well as interviewing experts in the risk identification and evaluation stages. Kendall’s coefficient of agreement was used to validate the experts’ opinions in the risk identification stage. The ranking in qualitative evaluation was done based on the risk intensity and the cumulative risk index.FindingsThe results show that the risks are associated with exchange rate fluctuation, inflation fluctuation, access to skilled workers, contractors’ claims and foreign threats from international relations.Originality/valueThe results and findings of the present study can be of interest to the executives of large commercial, leisure, public and private projects in developing and developed countries; understanding risks can significantly improve the decision-making process of CRCBPs.

Narrative Framing and the United States’ Threat Construction of Rivals

Abstract Constructing a credible foreign threat is a key activity in the US national security community. By adopting a narrative approach to threat formation, we attempt to delineate the contours of the Soviet Union, Japan, and China in the US threat discourse spectrum. The Soviet threat is constructed through a story of two ideologically opposed rivals competing for world domination and the Japan-bashing narrative is of victimisation due to Japan’s unfair competition. China threat stories, however, are now more complex, conflating a story of US victimhood at the hands of China’s unfair competition, advocated by President Trump, with a widely embedded but malleable epic tale of power competition between a rising power and the ruling power, and a new Cold War script propagated by the 'deep state' hawks. We have found that as long as a country may potentially threaten the United States’ hegemonic identity, be it a formidable power with an antagonistic outlook like the Soviet Union, an ally from inside like Japan, or a rising peer competitor like China, the United States will invariably construct a diametrical self-other story in a zero-sum mindset and resort relentlessly to its superior Self while customising its threat story scripts in accordance with the rival’s characteristics and dimensions of challenges.

When Perceptions Are Fragile But Also Enduring: An Asian American Reflection on COVID-19

With the increasing death tolls and economic downfall, COVID-19 has also unearthed anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States and globally. In this article, we examine how the current anti-Asian sentiments are not new occurrences risen with COVID-19. Instead, the perceptions about people of Asian descent as foreign threats have become more visible due to the pandemic. As we grapple with and heal from the traumas of COVID-19, there is a great need to acknowledge not only the shared humanity and interconnectedness among people but also to note the legacies of racialization and inequity that affect the experiences of the current pandemic that are lived differently.

A Risk Analysis Framework for Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection of the U.S. Electric Power Grid.

The purpose of this article is to introduce a risk analysis framework to enhance the cyber security of and to protect the critical infrastructure of the electric power grid of the United States. Building on the fundamental questions of risk assessment and management, this framework aims to advance the current risk analysis discussions pertaining to the electric power grid. Most of the previous risk-related studies on the electric power grid focus mainly on the recovery of the network from hurricanes and other natural disasters. In contrast, a disproportionately small number of studies explicitly investigate the vulnerability of the electric power grid to cyber-attack scenarios, and how they could be prevented or mitigated. Such a limited approach leaves the United States vulnerable to foreign and domestic threats (both state-sponsored and "lone wolf") to infiltrate a network that lacks a comprehensive security environment or coordinated government response. By conducting a review of the literature and presenting a risk-based framework, this article underscores the need for a coordinated U.S. cyber security effort toward formulating strategies and responses conducive to protecting the nation against attacks on the electric power grid.

An Indochinese Dominion

Across the French Empire, the interwar period was critical to the political mobilization that would come to drive the struggles for independence in the post-1945 era. In French Indochina, and especially in its three Vietnamese regions, dynamic debates over reform, modernization, and the colonial relationship with France marked this period. Reformers included integrationists seeking a closer rapport with France, separatists seeking complete independence, and autonomists seeking a middle ground between the two. The advent of the Popular Front in June 1936 acted as a catalyst for reformers of all stripes, who hoped that the new regime would live up to its progressive credentials. This article explores the case for Indochinese autonomy through an analysis of the French-language Vietnamese newspaper L’Effort indochinois, which was founded in October 1936. It explores the domestic and global frameworks of this campaign, and it demonstrates how foreign models of autonomous states like Canada and foreign threats to Indochinese security fundamentally shaped L’Effort’s demands for Indochinese autonomy. It further seeks to contribute to the existing scholarship on the diversity of the Vietnamese reformist landscape on the eve of decolonization.