Search

This study examines the complex and dynamic relationship between Kosovo and NATO. It argues that Kosovo’s prospects for NATO membership are shaped by an array of contradictory and often confusing international and domestic political forces. It draws on theoretical sources, media reports, and descriptive statistical data to the factors shaping expectations for NATO membership. The study relies on theories and concepts from the established and evolving literature on alliance formation and expansion to explain how states aspiring for membership in security organizations must navigate a pattern of political and security hurdles in their quest for membership accession. It then explores Kosovo’s case for NATO membership by examining whether Kosovo has met key political and security benchmarks and devotes significant attention to the settlement dispute with Serbia, the roles played by the U.S. and E.U., and identifies alternative paths for Kosovo’s membership in NATO.

This study analyzes the domestic political, economic, and social conditions in the Western Balkans that provide fertile ground for hostile and maligned actors to manipulate and exploit governments and societies with hybrid war measures, namely cyberattacks and cyber intrusions and disinformation and fake news. It begins with a review and assessment of the prevailing empirical and theoretical literature on hybrid warfare. It then describes two leading empirical indices that measure degrees of permeability and structural vulnerability that elevate or reduce the risks associated with maligned and hostile interventions. The article also examines leading indicators measuring resilience levels in cybersecurity and media/information literacy, highlighting political, social, and economic vulnerabilities. It concludes by suggesting that domestic conditions in the region encourage maligned and hostile actors, especially Russia and for different reasons and to a lesser extent China and Turkey, to use hybrid measures to exploit the region. The article proposes that in addition to strengthening institutions and trust, membership in NATO and the E.U. are directly related to mitigating structural vulnerability and reducing uncertainty and insecurity in the Western Balkans.

Research has demonstrated considerable diversity in the evolution of foreign policy beliefs of elite opinion leaders. Holsti and Rosenau's three-headed eagle, Wittkopf 's four-headed eagle, and Rosati and Creed's six-headed [...]

The article discusses the different factors that will determine the frequency of executive agreements irrespective of the nature of presidential and Senate relations. Factors like presidential approval, bureaucratic growth, macroeconomic conditions, globalization, etc all help determine the frequency of executive agreements.

In recent years, terrorist organizations have become increasingly dependent on drug trafficking as one of several primary sources of revenue to fund terrorist activities. In response, the United States' security and intelligence efforts against narco-terrorism have increasingly merged into one unified policy approach. Moreover, the convergence of United States policy wars against terrorism and illicit drugs have produced complex and dynamic contingency factors. As a result, a relatively coherent nexus now exists between the United States' antinarcotics and antiterrorist policies. The objective of this article is to explain and assess the contingency factors and implications resulting from this convergence and to provide policy scholars with an analytical perspective into the implications of the United States' narco-terrorism policy. It is believed that this article is significant to both policy practitioners and policy scholars concerned with the domestic impact of the United States' narco-terrorism policy., Prevailing research suggests that theories of policy convergence have allowed policy studies scholars and analysts to explain the dynamic contingency factors that account for similarities and parallels across policies as [...]

ABSTRACT America's current war on terrorism has led presidency scholars to revisit past U.S. antiterrorism measures. This study employs a case study approach to examine President Ronald Reagan's decision to [...]

This article advances a theoretical model of the National Economic Council (NEC) based on a policy network approach and group decision-making theory to explain why the U.S. president's NEC represents a significant development in the rise of the intermestic policymaking and decision-making processes. It develops theoretical conceptions of interests and manipulation based on a Policy Network Approach and the Advocacy Coalition Framework in policy studies research to illustrate the complexity of NEC group dynamics. Hopefully, such a contribution can further existing theoretical frameworks in the field of policy studies and analysis and can add to assessments of the NEC in policymaking and decision-making. Unlike much of the prevailing research, this article perceives the NEC as a political instrument used by policymakers and decision makers to protect their policy interests and engage in forms of political manipulation to increase their power over economic policy., Research demonstrates that the roles of the U.S. president's National Economic Council (NEC) and the policymaking process through which both international and domestic economic factors must pass continues to be [...]

ABSTRACT Much of what we know about contemporary presidential decision-making in both domestic and foreign economic policy has been influenced by the evolution of issues, events, and institutions since the [...]

ABSTRACT The Carter administration fashioned a multi-faceted strategy to help push the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 through the Congress: Administrative (relaxation of aviation regulation through the Civil Aeronautics Board); [...]

Scholarship on the American presidency and the making of U.S. foreign policy has overlooked the emergence of a new player in the foreign policy process--the White House chief of staff. We propose that the emergence of the chief of staff in foreign policy is an institutional response to systemic change in the political and foreign policy environment, as well as a function of idiopathic factors that exist within particular presidencies. With the rise of global interdependence and the decline of the imperial presidency since the Vietnam War and Watergate, it has become increasingly difficult, and indeed imprudent, to separate domestic and foreign policy. Rather, the rise of intermestic issues has forced the chief of staff to have a more prominent position in foreign and national security policy.

Presidential Decisions for War: Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf. By Gary Hess. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. President George W. Bush's recent decision to use military force in [...]

Forged In War: Roosevelt, Churchill, and the Second World War. By Warren F. Kimball. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 1997. The following scenario seems like deja vu: An American president [...]