West Point Journal of Politics and Security, Volume 2 Issue 1 (Fall 2023)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14216/1376

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    Rethinking Preemption And Prevention: War, Imminence, And Certainty
    (West Point Press, 2023) Vergara, Ezekiel
    This paper answers the following two questions: (1) What differentiates preemptive wars from preventive wars? (2) Can prevention ever be a just cause for war? With respect to the first question, it contends that the certainty of unjustified rights violations, as opposed to their temporal imminence, differentiates preemptive wars from preventive wars. To show this, it utilizes two hypothetical cases, which illustrate the certainty-based distinction. It also suggests that Derek Parfit’s “bias towards the near” can explain the literature’s focus on temporal imminence, as opposed to the certainty of unjustified rights violations. With respect to the second question, it argues that preventive justifications for armed conflicts, understood in terms of the certainty of unjustified rights violations, do not justify armed conflicts.
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    Non-Interference Or Neo-Colonialism? Assessing The Implications Of Chinese Foreign Policy And Influence In East Africa Via The Belt And Road Initiative
    (West Point Press, 2023) Chi, Xiang
    In March 2021, the US Interim National Security Strategic Guidance identified China as one of the primary threats to American national security. The guidance accused China of combining “its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.” One of the alleged mechanisms for China’s challenge of international status quo is through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a transnational infrastructure project development strategy. Some experts believe BRI is solely an economic initiative that aims to enhance global economic connectivity and cooperation, while others argue BRI is a geopolitical tool, part of a larger Chinese grand strategy seeking to further China’s influence abroad.3 Is China’s BRI reflective of a China that is consistent with its traditional foreign policy of “non-interference” or does it portend a neocolonial power seeking to further its influence abroad and undermining the sovereignty of other states? Does the BRI actually benefit the participating countries or has China utilized debt-trap tactics to seize control of strategic assets from heavily indebted countries? This paper will examine China’s campaign in East Africa as a case study of the BRI’s influence abroad by exploring specific BRI countries and projects in the region. This empirical inquiry into China’s East African presence will identify trends and patterns of Chinese foreign policy in the region, and potentially explain China’s underlying motivations behind the BRI at large. While China has long engaged in a policy of non-interference with its East African partners, this study argues that China’s current foreign policy—spearheaded by BRI—has transformed into one characterized by soft-power projection with neocolonial undertones. Although China’s engagements abroad fall short of the popular debt-trap diplomacy narrative (defined later in this paper), Beijing nonetheless seeks to elevate itself toward a Sino-centric international order that resembles its former imperial tributary system.
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    West Point Journal of Politics and Security, Volume 2 Issue 1 (Fall 2023)
    (West Point Press, 2023) Editing Team
    The West Point Journal of Politics and Security (WPJPS) is an undergraduate journal based in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). Published annually online and in print, it aims to be the premiere publication in the United States for undergraduate research on topics germane to U.S. and international political and security interests, broadly defined. To that end, the journal welcomes innovative undergraduate research primarily situated in political science and security studies, but extending into economics, history, and sociology.
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    The Empire Strikes Back From The Air? British Airpower On The Road To Falklands
    (West Point Press, 2023) Li, Deye
    This research seeks to fill a gap in the existing scholarly literature concerning overall preparedness of British airpower for the Falklands War. The British defense establishment and airpower-related services fell victim to preparing for war against the Warsaw Pact and were not well-prepared for the Falklands War. However, British combined forces still won the war by a large margin. This paper examines the UK’s strategic background, operational contingency planning, force structure, doctrine, training, and posture to assess the RAF and RNFAA in the 1970s and compare them with the actual operational contingency, the required airpower-related military forces, and the performance of the existing RAF and RNFAA forces in the Falklands War. Yet it concludes that the risk of unpreparedness for peripheral contingencies might be warranted because of the imperative of strategic prioritization. The implication of this research suggests that the US, as it faces similarly conflicting demands on its strategic assets, might also have to prioritize and make hard choices on its political commitments.
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    Cybersecurity As An Instrument Of State Power: Evaluating The Republic Of China’s (Roc’s) Information, Communications, And Electronic Force Command (Icefcom) Against The People’s Republic Of China’s (Prc’s) Escalating Threats
    (West Point Press, 2023) Wang, Willis
    Was the Republic of China’s (ROC’s) decision to form a new cyber defense command due to an increasing number of cyberattacks from external threats, especially from the People’s Republic of China (PRC)? This paper examines how increasing Chinese cybersecurity threats targeted at the ROC led to the establishment of ICEFCOM under President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration. Specifically, this paper seeks to unravel whether the formation of ICEFCOM under President Tsai Ing-wen's administration was a direct response to various Chinese cybersecurity attacks, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, SQL Injection, and Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Groups. By scrutinizing the intricate dynamics of these cyber confrontations and the subsequent defensive measures taken by the ROC, this study endeavors to illuminate the pivotal role of ICEFCOM in bolstering its cybersecurity capacity. The paper concludes, with empirical analysis, that a correlation exists between the ROC's response to the Chinese cyber threats and the strategic formation of the ICEFCOM during President Tsai Ing-wen's tenure.
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    Revising DOD Directive 1344.10 To Enforce Nonpartisanship In The Military
    (West Point Press, 2023) Franzoni, Julia; Omey, Olivia; Richardson, Caleb; West, Edwin
    Civilian trust in the military in the 21st century is nearing a record low, while the perception that the military is partisan is reaching a new high. DoD Directive (DoDD) 1344.10, which addresses the permissible and impermissible partisan activities of military members, was last updated in 2008 and needs an incremental revision. The revision proposes adding a ‘reasonable person test’ (mirroring current equal opportunity regulations) for acts with any appearance of partisanship and establishing a minimum punishment standard for violations of the directive. Since the appearance that the military is partisan is a likely contributor to distrust in the military, soldiers should be incentivized to refrain from activities that could be perceived as partisan. Attacking the perception of partisanship in the military will reinforce the norm of nonpartisanship needed for high levels of trust. Through the use of a punitive based incentive structure as opposed to a reward-based structure, our policy proposal will punish impermissible behavior and more effectively inculcate the norm of nonpartisanship in the Armed Forces.
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    Front Matter
    (West Point Press, 2023) Editing Team
    In this volume of the West Point Journal of Politics and Security (WPJPS), we are proud to present works by scholars who are tackling questions central to international security, from the impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in East Africa to the ethics of preventive versus preemptive war, and vital to American politics, including congressional polarization, election security, and nonpartisanship in the military. Our third issue begins with articles by graduates of the United States Military Academy. First, Second Lieutenant (2LT) Bryce Johnston examines the negative consequences of a “one size fits all” approach to allocating US federal grants to states for election security purposes. Then, 2LT Seth Benson considers how high periods of congressional party polarization drive minority parties to weaponize institutional rules to obstruct voting, thereby setting in motion a cycle of retaliation by the majority. 2LTs Julia Franzoni, Olivia Omey, Caleb Richardson, and Edwin West propose a policy solution to the worrisome, combined trend of low civilian trust and high perceptions of partisanship in the military. The WPJPS team sincerely hopes that these contributions spark new thinking and shed fresh light on topics of central importance to American politics today. Later in the issue, Deye Li, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, considers what lessons US policymakers in particular might draw from the British Cold War challenge of strategic prioritization amid peripheral contingencies that culminated in the Falklands War. Willis Wang, a recent Georgetown undergraduate, assesses how China's increasing cyberattacks against Taiwan shaped the formation of Taiwan's new cyber defense command. Then, Ensign Xiang Chi, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, examines China’s foreign policy approach in East Africa through the lens of the Belt and Road Initiative, addressing the tension between its stated commitment to non-interference and evidence of a neocolonial agenda. Ezekiel Vergara, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, closes out this issue with a thoughtful examination of the distinction between preemptive wars and preventive wars. In advancing a novel approach to distinguishing the two – focusing on the certainty of unjustified rights violations as opposed to their imminence – he addresses questions about war that remain all-too relevant in the world today. We hope that the ideas in this issue inspire, provoke, and challenge our readers. Thank you for your support of the early scholars whose ideas we aim to advance at the West Point Journal of Politics and Security.
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    Modeling Majoritarian Congressional Rule Changes In A Polarized Environment
    (West Point Press, 2023) Benson, Seth
    Legislative rules can have a profound impact on the legislative process. However, amid record levels of congressional polarization, little work has been done to project polarization’s impact on congressional development through rule changes. This study theorizes that, in a polarized environment, Congress will act in accordance with a proposed Partisan Distributive Game, in which increased minority obstruction is met with majoritarian rule changes. This theory is applied to three case studies: the removal of the filibuster for Federal Judicial appointments, the enactment of Reed’s rules in the late 19th Century, and the passage of the 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act. The study analysis of all three cases affirms the conclusion that congressional polarization is tied to majoritarian rule changes.
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    One Size Fits All? A Study On State Professionalism And Election Security Grant Expenditures
    (West Point Press, 2023) Johnston, Bryce
    Currently, the United States pursues a “one size fits all” policy for federal grants to states by conflating their legislative capacity. This may not be effective: many states have differing levels of professionalization measured by frequency of sessions, staffing resources for legislatures, and pay. This study examines state expenditures of grant funding made available through the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Variations in state expenditures potentially illustrate how professionalism affects state spending on election security. The study finds that more professional state legislatures tend to spend more on election security regardless of political affiliation. The effect of professionalism on election expenditure is more pronounced when the Federal Government increases requirements on state legislatures during the application process. While this study is focused on grants geared towards election expenditures, it could have broad applications for how the Federal Government incentivizes states to spend money on national initiatives.