Meisel, C. (2025, August 21). Right-sizing Africa’s “China challenge”. ISS African Futures. https://futures.issafrica.org/blog/2025/Right-sizing-Africas-China-challenge

Burrows, M., Meisel, C. (2025, April 16). Why Russia Isn’t Doomed. The National Interest. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-russia-isnt-doomed

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Meisel, C. (2025, January 13). From Myanmar to Gaza, Ukraine to Sudan – 2024 was another grim year, according to our mass atrocity index. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/from-myanmar-to-gaza-ukraine-to-sudan-2024-was-another-grim-year-accord

Meisel, C. (2024, December 12). In Syria, be careful what you wish for. Modern War Institute. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/in-syria-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/

Meisel, C., Lin, B., Greitens, S.C., & Shugart, T. (2024, July 24). In brief: China’s third plenum. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2024/ 07/in-brief-chinas-third-plenum

Last week, the Chinese Communist Party held its third plenum, a closed door meeting of high-level party officials that has historically indicated the country’s policy direction on major issues, such as the economy. This was the first third plenum held since 2018 and was hotly anticipated, especially considering China’s faltering economic growth. We asked four experts to tell us more about the outcomes of the meeting and what this might indicate about China’s strategy in the coming months and years.

Meisel, C., Studeman, M., Sun, Y., & Daniels, R. (2024, May 8). In brief: U.S-Chinese relationship. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2024/05/in-brief-the-u-s-chinese-relationship/

Meisel, C. (2024, April 9). Opinion: There is more to NATO burden sharing than the 2% spending dogma. Defense News. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/2024/04/09/there-is-more-to-nato-burden-sharing-than-the-2-spending-dogma

As the NATO alliance prepares to gather this summer to celebrate its 75th birthday, rhetoric around “burden sharing” – specifically whether member countries are paying enough, where “enough” is typically defined as military spending equal to 2% of GDP – is likely to heat up. With a war raging just off NATO’s eastern flank as Ukraine defends itself against an aggressor that has become NATO’s raison d’etre, it’s a fair question: Are NATO member countries doing enough?

Meisel, C. (2024, February 20). Accelerating Change But Not Necessarily an Inflection Point. Stimson. https://www.stimson.org/2024/accelerating-change-but-not-necessarily-an-inflection-point/

Today’s world is characterized by enormous change — but also tremendous continuity. By overemphasizing the former at the expense of the latter, policymakers risk underestimating the applicability of past lessons to today’s challenges. They also risk “inflection-point fatigue,” where assertions that “this time it is different” are ignored when “this time” it actually is different. For the term “inflection point” to meaningfully inform strategic planning efforts, decision-makers need to be clear about what does and does not qualify as such, and assess situations accordingly.

Meisel, C., & Petry, C. (2024, January 8). Scanning the horizon: If the future is unknowable, why bother with forecasting? Modern War Institute. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/scanning-the-horizon-if-the-future-is-unknowable-why-bother-with-forecasting/