Active Measures is the student-run academic journal of The Institute of World Politics. Its name refers to a set of influence operations and propaganda — disinformation and deception — used by the Soviet Union to persuade and to have a strategic impact.
An Evaluation of the Economic Espionage Act 18 U.S. Code § 1831
This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 edition of IWP’s student journal, Active Measures. This paper seeks to examine the technicalities that limit the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) and offer policy recommendations for enhancing its practicality and bolstering its usefulness as a tool to fight economic espionage found to be committed against the United States. The…
Read More from An Evaluation of the Economic Espionage Act 18 U.S. Code § 1831 ›A Review of the Trump Administration’s National Cyber Strategy: Need for Renewal and Rethinking of the Public-Private Partnership in U.S. National Security Policy
This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 edition of IWP’s student journal, Active Measures. The Trump Administration’s National Cyber Strategy (NCS) was published in 2018 in a rapidly evolving threat environment due to the verification of increasingly sophisticated threats in cyber espionage, cyber physical attacks, and electoral manipulations. The NCS attempts to use a “whole of…
Read More from A Review of the Trump Administration’s National Cyber Strategy: Need for Renewal and Rethinking of the Public-Private Partnership in U.S. National Security Policy ›China-Taiwan Cross-Strait Relations: Evaluating Taiwan’s Response to China’s Reunification Quest
This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 edition of IWP’s student journal, Active Measures. Reunification with Taiwan has been a top priority for Beijing since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Recently, President Xi Jinping declared that China will not tolerate the separation of even one inch of its territory. To achieve this…
Read More from China-Taiwan Cross-Strait Relations: Evaluating Taiwan’s Response to China’s Reunification Quest ›Don’t Take Your Base: How the Cancelation of the 2018 MLB-FCB Agreement Impacts Prospects for Normalized U.S.-Cuban Relations
This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 edition of IWP’s student journal, Active Measures. Nathan Bader gave a lecture on this topic at IWP in May 2020. Since the 1960s, Cold War tensions between the United States and Cuba have left ordinary Cubans as well as athletes as pawns in an ideological struggle.…
Read More from Don’t Take Your Base: How the Cancelation of the 2018 MLB-FCB Agreement Impacts Prospects for Normalized U.S.-Cuban Relations ›Motivations of an Ideologue: A Case Study of Cuban Spy Ana Belen Montes
The article below was published in the Spring 2019 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. This paper discusses the unique motivations of spy Ana Belen Montes, former military analyst for the DIA who spied on behalf of the Cuban government for over 16 years. The paper highlights the differences between Montes and other notable…
Read More from Motivations of an Ideologue: A Case Study of Cuban Spy Ana Belen Montes ›Upsetting the Balance of Deterrence: The Vulnerabilities Leading to Potential War Between Israel and Hezbollah
The article below was published in the Spring 2019 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. The high level of tension between Israel and Hezbollah since the conclusion of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war has convinced experts on the conflict that another war between the two parties is all but certain. Yet, thirteen years later Israel…
Read More from Upsetting the Balance of Deterrence: The Vulnerabilities Leading to Potential War Between Israel and Hezbollah ›Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations’ Exploitation of the Sonoran Desert and the Tohono O’odham Nation
The article below was published in the Spring 2019 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. This paper will discuss the Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations’ (TCOs) use of the Sonoran Desert in order to smuggle illegal drugs across the United States-Mexico border, specifically between the Tohono O’odham Nation’s portion of the Arizona and Sonora borders.…
Read More from Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations’ Exploitation of the Sonoran Desert and the Tohono O’odham Nation ›Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Germany: An Assessment of the Threat and Strategy Options
The article below was published in the Spring 2019 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. In the wake of the Arab Spring, nearly one thousand German citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamist terrorist groups. About a third of these are now back in the Federal Republic. Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs)…
Read More from Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Germany: An Assessment of the Threat and Strategy Options ›The United States’ Response to Corruption in Afghanistan
The article below was published in the Spring 2018 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. This paper offers an analysis of how systemic corruption impacted U.S. nation building efforts in Afghanistan, and briefly overviews how corruption has grown in and impacted Afghan politics since the days of the Soviet invasion. The paper then looks at anti-corruption…
Read More from The United States’ Response to Corruption in Afghanistan ›The Successes of the Islamic State in Comparison to Al Qaeda: Near Enemy Focus and Social Media Persuasion
The article below was published in the Spring 2018 edition of Active Measures, IWP’s student journal. The Islamic State is currently the most successful jihadist group in the Middle East because, unlike Al Qaeda (AQ) that focuses on anti-Westernism, they present themselves as religious crusaders. This is important because by not expressing an anti-Western goal,…
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