Vol. 20 No. 1 (2025):

The first article in this issue by Philip J. Candreva on the current state of budgeting for defense in the U.S. marks the second case study in our defense initiative. This initiative started in the last issue with Smith’s description of the unaffordability and inadequacy of defense spending in the U.K. and the difficult challenges facing the Strategic Defense Review committee. Candreva’s U.S. case-study focuses on key changes in the last few decades in three categories: the strategic, political, and fiscal context for defense budgeting; the allocation to defense and the distribution within that budget; and core processes in both the Pentagon and in Congress. We are continuing to solicit more case studies covering the same issues for other countries which will be published in future issues.

The subsequent article by Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Meia Nouwens, and Veerle Nouwens discusses how Chinese arms transfers (as opposed to “regular” arms transfers) have evolved during the first ten years of Xi Jinping’s rule and what it tell us of China’s foreign policy.

Oana Secrieru and Ugurhan Berkok’s article presents a game-theoretic model and analysis of sender, target, and third party options, costs, and benefits in the arena of sanctions, sanctions-busting, and secondary sanctions. The model takes into account exogeneity, illustrating both the uncertainty of detecting sanction-busting and the uncertainty about the criteria for imposing secondary sanctions. A full range of equilibria consistent with actual sanctions episodes are obtained.

Finally, Jackson Tamunosaki Jack provides a cultural perspective on the cycle of violent conflicts in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to explain the experience of the oil-producing communities where violence has proved persistent. It illustrates that an increasing general acceptance of emergent cultural norms that legitimize violence used to achieve socially desirable goals incentivizes hitherto peaceful individuals to absorb the culture of violence.