When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

Our first week was a successful one and that is thanks to all of you: our readers, supporters, and Kickstarter funders – many of whom were able to join us at our launch party last Friday here in Washington, DC.

What sets us apart from similar platforms and publications? Experience. In fact, I am confident that no other web-based publication on conflict and foreign policy has been blessed with this much experience from its collection of regular contributors and its editorial team.

It has already been such a fun and rewarding project for all of us. We have gotten an amazing reception so far.

And we have three new WOTR contributors to welcome to the team:

• Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where his studies focus on violent non-state actors, in particular the al-Qaeda network and other salafi jihadist groups.  He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown University.  Daveed is the author or volume editor of twelve books and monographs, including Bin Laden’s Legacy. Daveed is a Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, and has served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)–The Hague. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in World Politics at the Catholic University of America.

• Steven Metz has been an analyst and writer on national security politcy and military strategy for three decades specializing in American strategy, strategic futures, and insurgency.  He is the author of Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy and writes a weekly column on defense issues for World Politics Review.

• Christopher Swift is an Adjunct Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown University and a Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Center for National Security Law. An attorney and political scientist, Dr. Swift brings more than fifteen years of multidisciplinary experience spanning law, foreign policy, and national security to his research on contemporary Islamic militancy, the future of armed conflict, and associated legal regimes.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to take a look at what we produced in our first week:

• An introductory note by Ryan Evans.
• A review by Admiral James Staviridis of Atkinson’s The Guns At Last Light.
• A podcast interview with Will McCants, Bill Rosenau, and Afshan Ostovar of the Center for Naval Analyses Strategic Studies Center recorded at the exquisite Jefferson Hotel.
• An essay by the well-regarded scholar Sean Kay on how indecision in Syria and Europe is undermining the “pivot” to Asia.
• A fun and pragmatic article by Managing Editor John Amble on how “Everybody Spies.”
• A piece by Senior Editor Stephen Tankel on Pakistani militants reinvigorating the Kashmir jihad, based on Stephen’s recent field research in Kashmir.
• Senior Editor Jason Fritz’s musings on “causal realism” based on the New Hume School.
• Contributing Editor Frank Hoffman’s brilliant review of  War From the Ground Up by Emile Simpson.
• A pessimistic piece on the “after” of any overthrow of Assad in Syria by Senior Editor Mark Stout.
• The always excellent Bill Park of King’s College London on the prospects of a Turkish-Kurdish peace deal.
• A review by Robert Goldich, a manpower and conscription expert, that offers other insights into Atkinson’s book, The Guns At Last Light.

We also highlighted Contributing Editor John Bew’s recent cover essay for The New Statesman on intervention in Syria and a talk I gave with WOTR Contributor Peter Neumann and Ambassador Omar Samad at the New America Foundation on negotiations with the Taliban.

Not bad for one week!

And don’t miss Bryan McGrath’s “5 Myths about AirSea Battle,” or my piece on the lessons for Egypt from the aftermath of the 1980 Turkish coup, Tankel on the Abbottabad Commission Report, Fritz on intervention in Syria, Maxwell on a preemptive strike on North Korea, and Amble on Iraq (remember that place? We do).

Enjoy the ride!

Photo Credit: UK Ministry of Defence