2023 was marked by deep volatility worldwide. Amid the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, a historic Iran-Saudi diplomatic deal brokered by China in March, and the surprise brutal attacks by Hamas across Israel on October 7, these are the Stimson publications that were most read in 2023 –
On the Middle East...
Launched in February 2023, Middle East Voices has produced more than 100 pieces of timely analysis and commentary from journalists, academics, and political analysts across the region.
As a first-of-its-kind source of lived experiences, breaking news analysis, and local expertise, Middle East Voices commentary provided unmatched commentary on the regional implications of the Gaza war – particularly the role of Iran and its partners – in 2023.
On the Korean Peninsula
38 North was at the forefront of policy discussions about security of the Korean Peninsula.
In 2023, with growing public support in South Korea for an indigenous nuclear deterrent, 38 North partnered with South Asian Voices publication to discuss the various ways in which South Asia’s experience with nuclearization can inform Seoul as it considers its way forward.
Much of the program’s work in 2023 focused on the rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable geopolitical situation, including the major advancements in North Korea’s WMD programs and its growing cooperation with Russia and China, and their implications for US national security, US-ROK alliance and growing US-ROK-Japan trilateral security cooperation.
On the consequences of the arms trade...
Stimson’s Managing the Arms Trade commentary series tracked some of the most complex global conflicts in 2023, providing concise but analytically rich write-ups on fast-moving developments in the world of U.S. security cooperation for stakeholders in civil society, the media, and Congress.
The write ups on Ukraine and Israel were widely read and cited, including by the Washington Post.
Among the 80+ public events hosted this year, the Stimson Center had the honor of hosting Ambassador Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China, as he reflected on the state of the US-China relationship since taking the oath of office in December 2021. The Ambassador called in from Beijing to join event hosts, Yun Sun, China Program Director and John Bellinger, member of the Board of Directors.
“It’s a complicated relationship, it’s very competitive, and it’s one that matters a lot to the United States. We have a very clear policy, and what we’ve been trying to do since the President came into office is to invest in the strength of our own country for this long-term competition with China in the economic, technological, and military security realms.”
In September, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West joined Elizabeth Threlkeld, South Asia Program Director, in a conversation on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and on-going engagement with partners, allies, and Afghans regarding humanitarian needs, grave human rights concerns, and shared security interests, among other issues.
“We have an interest in protecting humanitarian needs and preventing economic implosion in Afghanistan. While there has been some macroeconomic stability, this does not trickle down and many Afghans simply cannot make ends meet,”
Cited in more than 25,000 news stories in 2023, Stimson Center researchers have been the go-to experts for global, regional, and local media outlets, from the Associated Press to the Japan Times. Our experts pushed audiences to interrogate long-held assumptions, shaping the public discourse through opinion pieces and columns in Foreign Policy, TIME, the Hill, Just Security, and more in 2023.
2023 marked two major milestones for our South Asia program: the 10th anniversary of the South Asian Voices publication, and the 30th anniversary of the program, writ large.
Pioneered by the late Michael Krepon, the program has produced in-depth research and analysis, hosted high-level events, and conducted outreach in the region to promote stability and deepen understanding of security dynamics in South Asia. Since 1993, the program has hosted 127 fellows from India and Pakistan to highlight and mainstream independent analysis from the region.
Our signature publication South Asian Voices commemorated 10 years of nuanced analysis and cross-border debate in the subcontinent in 2023. A flagship publication of the Stimson Center, South Asia Voices surpassed 4.6 million lifetime pageviews and has amassed close to 500 regional contributors.
Our experts were well positioned to anticipate some of the most significant UN platforms and convenings in 2023, including the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, and the 78th UN General Assembly in September. Video interviews with Stimson researchers breaks down the importance of these platforms – and what you need to know.
Stimson Center scholars, Barbara Slavin, Jenny Town, and Sally Yozell, were called to testify as expert witnesses in multiple hearings by the U.S. Congress. Their expertise was sought on emerging and breaking issues, from the Iranian hostage release, to labor and human rights abuses in the seafood industry, to security on the Korean peninsula.
With a track record of nearly 35 years of independent research and unbiased analysis on foreign affairs, the Stimson Center’s policy-relevant work has cemented its reputation with Congressional policymakers and staff as the go-to for authoritative and trusted voices on the most pressing issues of the day.
Distinguished Fellow Barbara Slavin called to testify to the House Oversight and Accountability hearing on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs.
Senior Fellow and 38 North Program Director Jenny Town called to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy
Senior Fellow and Environmental Security Program Director Sally Yozell testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission regarding the impacts of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Improving climate security for coastal communities
Stimson’s Environmental Security program is developing solutions to help improve the economic, food and environmental security for least developed countries and island states. In 2023, Stimson’s Environmental Security program launched four new CORVI climate risk assessments across Aruba, Dominica, Mauritius, and Belize.
With these four new assessments, Stimson’s signature CORVI tool has assessed coastal community vulnerability in 16 countries spanning the Global South, from Barbados to Bangladesh.
Increasing transparency along the Mekong
This Summer, the Mekong Dam Monitor team traveled with Stimson CEO, Brian Finlay, to the Ban Saeo Village in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, where they met with community leaders, who shared the impact that the Mekong Dam Monitor has had on securing their livelihoods. The Mekong Dam Monitor, a groundbreaking near-real time remote sensing platform that tracks the impact of dams on the Mekong River, provides alerts of upstream dam holdback and releases, allowing vulnerable hundreds of thousands of people along the Mekong to take anticipatory action that save their assets and, in some cases, their lives.
The Mekong Dam Monitor was mentioned and cited in a recently passed U.S. bipartisan resolution recognizing the importance of the Mekong River and the Mekong-US Partnership
Tracking the trade of dangerous chemicals
International trade of chemicals, that can often lead to the production of chemical weapons, has to be reported to international authorities. But too often, that reporting is incomplete, inconsistent, or wrong. MATCH, launched in 2022, is a prototype distributed ledger tool designed to reduce those data discrepancies and in turn reduce the risk of chemical weapons proliferation. This year, the prototype was completed to support the platform.
Stimson’s presentation on the project at the Chemical Weapons Convention Fifth Review Conference in May 2023 drew significant interest from industry and government representatives in attendance.
Bringing the Global South to the table
Stimson’s Global South in the World Order project launched early this year, which seeks to question long-established Western policies and assumptions rooted in an outdated era of the West’s dominance over the world order.
The Global South Experts Turn the Table series has featured a number of high profile participants, with a goal of elevating non-Western voices and expertise in Washington. A key highlight of this series was June’s meeting with Avinash Persaud, special advisor to Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who led the meeting about climate financing. Since its inception in March 2023, the series has produced eight roundtables, which gathered a total of 170 experts, and six publications, which featured 13 authors from the Global South.
Examining AI in developing countries
Our newly established Strategic Foresight Hub partnered with Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI in 2023 to establish a fellowship program designed to convene stakeholders from the Global South in order to examine AI applications and evaluate their impacts in developing countries.
Together, these Fellows seek to understand how AI-related harms and benefits may manifest themselves in various social, cultural, economic, and environmental contexts, and identify technological as well as regulatory solutions that can help mitigate risks and maximize opportunities. The initiative was mentioned by Microsoft’s leadership on multiple occasion, lead to actual product improvements, and advanced the global conversation on responsible AI.
Discussing the US-Japan Alliance
In December 2023, Stimson’s Japan Program hosted our annual flagship Voices from Japan, welcoming General Koji Yamazaki (ret., JGSDF), the 6th Chief of Staff of Japan Self-Defense Force as this year’s distinguished guest from Japan. In a livestreamed event on December 7, General Yamazaki engaged in a conversation with Kelly Grieco, Senior Fellow with Stimson’s Grand Strategy Program, to explore the transformation of Japan‘s national defense policy under his watch.
Understanding the Dynamics in East Asia
The Stimson Center’s East Asia program explored the complex and evolving power dynamics across the region in 2023, particularly in Myanmar and Taiwan. Through a series of commentaries, analysis, and events, the Stimson Center explored pressures and opportunities across the region.
A March 2023 event, hosted by East Asia co-director Yun Sun, discussed the growth and sophistication of the Arakan Army in Myanmar’s Rahine State together with Kyaw Hsan Hlaing, a journalist and expert on human rights and social justice in Rahine State.
Meanwhile, a November event moderated by East Asia co-director Yuki Tatsumi, tapped experts on human rights and social justice, as well as political sociology, social psychology, transpacific relations, and the security of Taiwan to examine the findings of a recent Taiwan public opinion survey on the state of US-China-Taiwan relations.
In a coordinated series of news, research, and public and private engagements in 2023, Stimson’s Reimagining US Grand Strategy program has disrupted conventional foreign policy thinking to transform the national security debate.
Experts Emma Ashford and Evan Cooper’s assumption testing piece details emerging multipolarity being the subject of much online debate, along with their companion piece in Foreign Policy, while Kelly Grieco tackles new airpower thinking as the concept of air denial increasingly shapes USAF debates about strategy and procurement priorities in War on the Rocks.
Moderating High-Level Meetings in Abu Dhabi
The Powering Peace program promotes increased energy access in fragile states by encouraging policies and practices that accelerate the adoption of renewable energy by UN peace operations. Throughout 2023, the Powering Peace team leveraged interest among UN member states, the UN Secretariat, multilateral development banks, the private sector and philanthropic partners to advance from dialogue toward system change and implementation.
In January, the Powering Peace team moderated a High-Level meeting in Abu Dhabi on the Energy Compact on Renewable for UN Peacekeeping and enabled the sharing of their research in mapping an implementation plan to harness public-private partnerships for the development of renewable energy projects in the countries that host the largest UN peace operations.
Attending COP28 in Dubai
Stimson experts travelled to Dubai Expo City for the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), joining conversations hosted by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, USAID, the US Department of State, NOAA, and more. In a December field note, Environmental Security program scholars Sally Yozell and Natalie Fiertz outline three key themes that emerged from this COP – namely, the ocean in a changing climate, the need for integrated and inclusive planning, and the urgency of increasing and simplifying climate adaptation finance.
The Powering Peace program also attended the conference to spotlight the progress in they’ve made in the field and to mobilize political and financial support to capitalize on the energy transitions of humanitarian and peacekeeping missions to deliver a positive and lasting legacy in critical fragile settings.
Addressing Cyber issues globally
Our Cyber Program has taken leading research and analysis around the globe to events organized by the US Pacific Command and Pacific Forum, the German Council on Foreign Relations, and others. Cyber Program Lead Allison Pytlak traveled to Manila, the Bahamas, and Montreal to address issues of gender diversity and cyber security, human rights and emerging technology, and the intersection of cyber and women, peace, and security.
Improving Global Governance
In introducing novel ideas ahead of the September 2024 Summit of the Future and New Agenda for Peace, the GGIR’23 report – including an innovative new Global Governance Survey and Global Governance Index, which ranks the performance of influential countries in multilateral institutions – has sought to encourage more ambitious, forward- looking thinking and deliberation on global governance renewal and innovation.
In addition to being featured at major international fora in Washington, D.C., Berlin, and during the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week in New York, some twenty UN Ambassadors and senior UN officials have welcomed briefings on the report’s recommendations.
The report team was also awarded first prize – out of 171 applicants worldwide – in the Geneva Centre for Security Policy’s inaugural “Transformative Futures in Peace and Security” fellowship contest.
Examining the challenge for UN peacekeeping missions
The result of two years of interviews with peacekeeping personnel combined with extensive desk research, the Host Country Consent in UN Peacekeeping report was released in September 2023, on the margins of the 78th UN General Assembly. In the report, Julie Gregory and Lisa Sharland examine the challenges Blue Helmet peacekeeping missions face to host-country consent amidst geopolitical shifts and anti-UN sentiment. The report’s publication garnered significant interest from senior UN officials and member states, with the report authors invited to brief UN officials in New York on its findings.
The report also attracted media attention with a dedicated television interview on the report’s findings on France 24.
Understanding the Impact of the U.S. Arms Trade
Casting a critical eye on the longstanding assumption in the arms trade world, “If we don’t sell it, someone else will,” in March, Stimson’s Conventional Defense program considered the actual impact of conditioning or restricting arms sales to problematic recipients. The brief was widely cited and read in 2023, including among government sources who have spoken publicly about the value of the research and communicated privately how the work influenced their thinking on the issue.
A March launch event on the same topic featured a strong substantive endorsement from Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs, who spoke at the event.
Three scholars at the Stimson Center are the proud recipients of a first-of-its-kind grant to cultivate entrepreneurship and innovation among women in the think tank sector, through the unique Evermay Visionaries program provided by S&R Evermay. The Stimson Center is pleased to recognize Aude Darnal, Natalie Fiertz, and Julie Gregory as the 2023 recipients of this new award, which provides awardees with $50,000 in research funding, as well as access to professional development opportunities, and meeting space at Evermay to conduct this research.
“As we look at ongoing conflicts around the world, such as in Gaza, Sudan, or Ukraine, it’s clear that more must be done at a global level to ensure the safety and security of civilians. Through this grant, I look forward to adding to a crucial body of emerging research on how UN special political missions – deployed in a wide range of contexts around the world – can and do contribute to the protection of civilians.”
“The project I lead aims to provide a platform to Global South experts, who are underrepresented in Western policy circles, to elevate their voices and expertise to challenge the status quo in global governance. The S&R Evermay grant is critical in supporting this work as it enables me, for instance, to publish Global South scholars and to organize in-person events.”
“For millions of individuals living in vulnerable communities around the world, climate change is not a future risk – it is a clear and present danger. The Evermay Visionaries grant has greatly supported my work to integrate community resilience and social capital into climate resilience planning.”
Evaluating Chinese Coercive Tactics
The Defense Strategy and Planning project published a book analyzing when, how, why, and to what effect China has used its armed forces in recent decades to coerce other actors in the international system, and has won early praise from leading scholars in the field.
In late January, James Siebens (editor) is hosting a public event, officially launching the publication, and discussing China’s use of armed force short of war in the 21st century, drawing heavily from the book’s contributions and lessons learned.
“No one should evaluate Chinese coercive tactics from this point without reference to this rich and deeply researched book.”
- Past
- Event
- January 23, 2024
- 1:00 - 2:30 PM
- (US Eastern)
Addressing Bias and Mitigating Risks in Nuclear Security
The Stimson Center’s Partnerships in Proliferation Prevention program is developing practical tools to address bias, identify and mitigate threats, and keep the worst weapons out of the worst hands. Toward this goal, in 2023 our experts convened nuclear security stakeholders from government, industry, and civil society to explore how traditional framing of external and foreign threats to nuclear security may inadvertently reproduce and code exclusionary biases into personnel security programs.
In a report to be launched in early 2024, Stimson Center experts provide recommendations for the development of a U.S. DEI nuclear security culture that will not only address long-standing diversity challenges in the nuclear security sector, but also strengthen the nuclear security community’s ability to identify and mitigate threats in a shifting national security landscape.
- Past
- Event
- January 17, 2024
- 9:30 - 10:30 AM Eastern
- (US Eastern)
