Strategic Thinking
Niblett disagrees with this concept, named after an Ancient Greek, which describes how a rising power will be blocked by an existing great power.
What is the Thucydides Trap?
This Chinese leader has made National Rejuvenation a grand strategy for the CCP.
Who is Xi Jinping?
This island between the East and South China Seas is considered a likely flashpoint of conflict between the United States and China.
What is Taiwan?
Russia invested heavily in this region of Africa to drive illegal migration and siphon funds from mineral riches, hoping to destabilize European supply lines.
What is the Sahel?
The collapse of the Soviet Union caused former Warsaw Pact territories to join this western military alliance.
What is NATO?
Clausewitz used this term to describe assets key to the enemy’s ability to ”survive and carry out warfare.”
What are Centers of Gravity?
This Chinese leader promoted the Great Leap Forward.
Who was Mao Zedong?
This massive infrastructure project, also known as the New Silk Road, includes maritime, aviation, and rail networks connecting China to 150 countries.
What is the Belt and Road Initiative?
This is the only nation to have developed a nuclear arsenal and then voluntarily dismantled it.
What is South Africa?
Russia has used this tactic of spreading false information and influencing social media to interfere in Western democratic elections.
What is disinformation?
This Cold War doctrine of nuclear deterrence is abbreviated MAD.
What is Mutual Assured Destruction?
This Soviet leader introduced glasnost and perestroika, and was also in power when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?
China uses these tactics to advance maritime claims of territory without setting off international alarms.
What are gray-zone tactics?
This term is used to describe Global South countries that refuse to take sides between the US and China in the New Cold War.
What is non-aligned?
Mackinder’s theory holds that whoever controls this geographic region of Russia and Central Asia controls the world.
What is the Heartland?
Intelligence failures sometimes result from this tendency to frame our interpretations based on personal beliefs.
What is cognitive bias?
This leader returned from exile in Paris to lead the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Who was Ayatollah Khomeini?
Deng Xiaoping used this strategy to conceal China’s ambitions while also joining the International order.
What is ”hide and bide”?
Iran accepted Chinese mediation in 2023 to restore diplomatic ties to this regional rival.
What is Saudi Arabia?
Once part of the Soviet Union, Russia refused to accept this country’s independence, and in 2022 invaded to prevent a NATO alliance.
What is Ukraine?
Pearl Harbor is an example of this sort of surprise.
What is strategic?
This Iraqi leader feared Shia influence would ignite an Islamic revolution, so he invaded Iran in 1980.
Who is Saddam Hussein?
This neighboring state, which China shields diplomatically, funds a significant portion of its military budget through state-sponsored crypto theft.
What is North Korea?
This South Asian country continues to purchase Russian-made weapons to counter Pakistan and China.
What is India?
Russia and the United States each maintain approximately 1500 nuclear warhead, a number this country has vowed to match by 2030.
What is China?