How and why did the United States lose its war in Afghanistan? Even before the final withdrawal of American forces in September 2021, a scholarly consensus emerged that the US had always faced an uphill battle to meet its more ambitious goals. The combination of ever-shifting objectives, the gap between the costs of the war…
Jervis Forum Review 190: Fraise on Lubot, Keeping a Finger on the Button
The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which organizes presidential succession in the event of an incumbent’s inability to exercise office, has enjoyed attention recently. Numerous elected officials called for its invocation in the face of President Donald Trump’s statement, regarding Iran, that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” which was interpreted as evidence of…
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-51 on Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy
In Strategy and Grand Strategy, Joshua Rovner sets out to examine the relationship between strategy and grand strategy, guided by two key objectives. One is to properly delimit each concept’s scope: “theory of security” (grand strategy) and “theory of victory” (strategy) (10-11). The second, and this is a significant commitment, is to reorient the discussion…
Jervis Forum Review 189: Schrader on Neagle, Chasing Bandits
The scholarship on banditry long debated a central question: was banditry important to political development and change, and particularly to revolution? Because banditry was largely rural and took the form of unorganized resistance, scholars did not traditionally understand it as political, and bandits were not part of the project of revolution according to orthodox Marxist…
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-50 on Kimura, Cultures of Modernity and the U.S.-Japan Cold War Alliance
How the United States and Japan, merciless enemies in World War II, fostered an amicable relationship soon after the war that endured as a pillar of the US-led international order is an inherently fascinating question. And because this history seems to say so much about the present of US-Japan relations, no matter at which time…
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-49 on Bhungalia, Elastic Empire
On 23 February 2025, President Trump shuttered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), forcing about 300,000 people out of work in the US and around the world; abruptly terminating critical primary health care, treatment for malnourished children, family planning programs, and medications for diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria; and shifting control over…
Jervis Forum Review 188: Spalińska on James, Global Crisis and Insecurity
Global Crisis and Insecurity: The Human Condition, Darkly by Paul James is a profound exploration of the global existential threats that affect human life after modernity and globalization. He calls the current condition of the world the “Great Unsettling,” marked by the “continuing disjunctures of modernity and generalising its many crises into a crisis of…
Jervis Forum Review 187: Stieb on Thomson and Biegon, The War on Terror
Andrew Thomson and Roderick Biegon’s concise book examines the full span of the War on Terror, the effort by the US and its allies to counter international terrorism following the 9/11 attacks. The authors summarize a wide range of scholarship, provide a basic narrative of events, and explicate some of the key issues of the…
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-48 on Beverton, Exceptionalism in Crisis
In the past decade or so, the field of Civil War studies has opened up more than ever before to include a growing body of work that seeks to understand the era and its war in continental, hemispheric, and transnational contexts. The last few years have seen a series of works published by historians who…
Boardwalk Empire? Donald Trump and the Future of US Grand Strategy
Donald Trump’s grand strategy defies easy categorization. That is by design. Trump believes that ambiguity and flexibility are critical sources of bargaining leverage, an idea he gathered as a real estate developer long before his political career began. Keeping his true preferences hidden keeps his counterparts off-balance and prevents them from driving up the price…