In-Depth Archive

Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. Despite the amplified role of celebrities in global affairs, the notion that celebrities have assumed the role of diplomats is much contested. The classic definition of diplomats as agents of the state and the national interest would appear to exclude celebrities, just as it does all nonstate actors. This restrictive view, however, does not reflect the degree to which at least some top-tier celebrities have gained recognition as actors with an elevated […]

Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. In June 2012, Google’s acrimonious relationship with the People’s Republic of China took a couple of new turns. In order to assist Chinese users to access information freely from behind the controls of the Great Firewall of China, Google created a unique feature for its popular search engine: When users attempt to search for banned keywords, Google warns them that this might cause their Google connection to be interrupted and suggests alternative […]

Think tank analyst is one of those jobs that can be hard to explain to friends and relatives. Taken together, Washington’s many international affairs institutes could be described as the American foreign policy “industry.” This industry is sustained by a branch of American philanthropy that takes a keen interest in how the United States carries out its special global role. And the role of the analysts who work in this industry is to scrutinize the myriad official actions of the world’s governments, with an eye not only to explaining them, but to influencing them as well. As a matter of […]

In the run-up to Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA and the 15 other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community were increasingly preoccupied by the terrorist threat emanating from the Middle East. The previous decade had represented a long and difficult transition for U.S. intelligence from the requirements of Cold War espionage and denied-area tradecraft as well as the more brutal operational tasks associated with helping the Afghan mujahedeen chase the Soviets from Afghanistan. Al-Qaida’s brutal attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Dar-es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998 and on the USS Cole in 2000 had already raised the alarm. But […]

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the hostilities that historically divided the Cold War’s political and military opponents have cooled, but a heightened intensity in espionage has become evident as well. New antagonists have surfaced as old enemies seemingly became allies; nonstate actors occasionally have become as dangerous and influential as nations with standing armies; and the computer and satellite have replaced lapel cameras and microfilm stashed in shoe heels as preferred methods of espionage. Predictably, the playing field of global espionage has become more sophisticated as well. Cyberspace and outer space have become espionage battlegrounds where fortunes are […]

In recent years, cyberattacks against the governments and business entities of economically developed and technologically advanced nations have proliferated, with the purpose of such attacks increasingly turning toward economic information collection and industrial espionage. As adversaries have expanded their computer network operations, the use of new venues for intrusions has increased, and the increasing use of portable devices that connect to the Internet and other networks will only create new opportunities for malicious actors to conduct espionage. Meanwhile, the trend among both corporations and government organizations toward the pooling of information processing and storage will present even greater challenges to […]