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Gene Poteat (1930-2022) was a Southern gentleman, first and foremost. Always dressed with understated elegance, he scrutinized his surroundings with his kind eyes of steel. Gene was also “Q”. At least, that is how I liked to introduce him. As in James Bond’s “Q,” he served as the chief of new technologies at the CIA.…

Israel’s maritime border agreement with Lebanon has met with extravagant praise and vituperative condemnation, but neither side is right. After many years of off-and-on negotiations, Israel and Lebanon have finally reached a deal concerning their offshore waters and the gas fields under them. The deal, brokered by the U.S., has set off a firestorm of…

On February 24, 2022, Russia started the largest European war since 1945 as it intensified its invasion of Ukraine to a new level and threatened escalation to nuclear war. Though Vladimir Putin has not detonated a nuclear weapon, he used, and continues to use, his nuclear arsenal to threaten the United States and other NATO nations against…

The prestigious Louis DeJoy and Aldona Z. Woś Family Foundation Scholarship has been awarded to three new students in 2022: Ashton Earl, Robert Bankowski, and Jacob Bosen. Established in 2017 through a generous $1 million gift by Louis DeJoy and Amb. Aldona Woś, this scholarship will be available to exemplary IWP students up to 2027. The…

Above: The 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion with Mr. Paul Binsfeld, the Honorary Consul of Luxembourg, at the completion of the Marche Internationale de Diekirch.  This past summer, James Gavin (’21) worked closely with the Luxembourg Embassy to develop a plan for his U.S. Army unit, the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion, to conduct the Marche Internationale…

An obscure maritime law hit the news recently because of catastrophic weather and its consequences. Let’s hope we never have to hear about it again. Just a few years ago, very few people knew or discussed the Jones Act. Now everyone is talking about it. In a colossal but somewhat predictable fiasco, while Puerto Rico…

The best book on American nationalism was written by a foreigner. This is not unusual but typical. Hans Kohn (d. 1971) was born in 1891 inside the old Austro-Hungarian Empire in what is now The Czech Republic (Prague). He is widely known as the “architect” of nationalism, having devoted his life to the subject; he…

The Monroe Doctrine (1823) may well be the most famous and long-lasting foreign policy in world history – certainly since the beginning of the “nation-state” system (1648) that ended historic “empires” and inaugurated “countries” as the main participants in world politics. Two things, however, are beyond challenge: 1) it is the only item in his…

The United States, properly speaking, has always been a “maritime” world power, defined as a country that takes priority on its navy, rather than its army, for its “first line of defense.” In practical terms, that means that the country’s status as a global power has depended on its control of the sea lines and…

IWP is pleased to welcome Dr. Amanda Won, a 2022 graduate of our Doctor of Statecraft and National Security program, as the Director of the school’s new China/Asia Program. Amanda is also the founder of IWP’s Asia Initiative Lecture Series (AILS) through which diverse scholar-practitioners have presented their expertise on Asia. In her new role,…