1. For an understanding of the significance of tribal culture more broadly in terms of strategic behavior, see:
Philip Carl Salzman, “The Middle East’s Tribal DNA,” Middle East Quarterly 15, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 23-33, https://www.meforum.org/1813/the-middle-easts-tribal-dna.
Philip Carl Salzman, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Amherst: Humanity Books, 2008).
2. David Cook, Understanding Jihad (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015).
Gerhard Bowering, “Muhammad,” in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, ed. Gerhard Bowering (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).
Michael Cook, Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014).
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, “Shari’a and Basic Human Rights Concerns,” in Toward an Islamic Reformation (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996), 161-181.
3. Clinton Rossiter, “The Political Theory of the American Revolution” The Review of Politics 15, no. 1 (January 1953): 97-108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404751.
Clinton Rossier, 1787: The Grand Convention (New York: W.W. Norton, 1966).
4. Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Rev. ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017).
5. U.S. Department of State, Report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 2020, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Draft-Report-of-the-Commission-on-Unalienable-Rights.pdf (accessed October 25, 2021).
6. Larry Diamond and Orville Schell, China’s Influence and American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2019).
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Washington, D.C.: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2021, https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-2021-Unclassified-Report.pdf (accessed October 25, 2021).
7. See:
Elham Manea, The Perils of Non-Violent Islamism (Candor, NY: Telos Publishing, 2021).
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Challenge of Dawa: Political Islam as Ideology and Movement and How to Counter it (Stanford: the Hoover Institution Press, 2017).
Dutch Ministry of the Interior, From Dawa to Jihad: The Various Threats from Radical Islam to the Democratic Legal Order, The Hague: Dutch Ministry of the Interior, 2004, https://english.aivd.nl/binaries/aivd-en/documents/publications/2005/03/30/from-dawa-to-jihad/fromdawatojihad.pdf (accessed October 25, 2021).
Lorenzo Vidino, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds., Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).
Asra Q. Nomani, “Meet the Honor Brigade, an Organized Campaign to Silence Debate on Islam,” The Washington Post, January 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-the-honor-brigade-an-organized-campaign-to-silence-critics-of-islam/2015/01/16/0b002e5a-9aaf-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?utm_term=.38a5385719d5.
Jeffrey Bale, “Islamism and Totalitarianism” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 10, no. 2 (2009): 73-96.
8. Vincent Ni and Helen Davidson, “China’s Cultural Crackdown: Few Areas Untouched as Xi Reshapes Society,” The Guardian, September 10, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/chinas-cultural-crackdown-few-areas-untouched-as-xi-reshapes-society.
9. Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).
Amber Haque, ed., Muslims and Islamization in North America: Problems and Prospects (Beltsville: Amana Publications, 1999).
Shaykh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase (Swansea: Awakening Publications, 2000).
Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana Publications, 1991).
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, “Shari’a and Basic Human Rights Concerns,” in Toward an Islamic Reformation (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996), 161-181.
10. See note 5 above.
11. Joseph A. Bosco, “Who Defines Islam?: Saying Extremists Aren’t True Muslims isn’t Enough,” The National Interest, March 30, 2015, http://nationalinterest.org/feature/who-defines-islam-12501.
David E. Kaplan, Aamir Latif, Kevin Whitelaw, and Julian Barnes, “Hearts, Minds and Dollars: Investigative Report,” U.S. News and World Report, April 25, 2005.
William Rosenau, “Waging the ‘War of Ideas,’” in The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook, ed. David G. Kamien (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), 1132-3, cited in Jeffrey Bale, “Losing the ‘War of Ideas’ in Europe: What is to be Done?” (Monterey: Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, 2009).
Patrick Poole, 10 Failures of the U.S. Government on the Domestic Islamist Threat (Washington, D.C.: Center for Security Policy, 2010).
Judicial Watch, U.S. Government Purges of Law Enforcement Training Material Deemed “Offensive” to Muslims: Documentation and Analysis of Islamist Active Measures and Influence Operations Targeting Anti-Terrorism Training, Washington, D.C.: Judicial Watch, 2015, https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/JWSRGovtPurgeActiveMeasures1SEP2015.pdf (accessed October 25, 2021).
Kerry Picket, “Muslim Advocacy Groups Influence Heavily on U.S. National Security Protocol Lexicon,” The Washington Times, September 24, 2012, http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/sep/24/picket-muslim-advocacy-groups-influence-heavily-us/.
Catherine Herridge and Judson Berger, “FBI Removes Hundreds of Training Documents After Probe on Treatment of Islam,” Fox News, February 21, 2012, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/21/fbi-purges-hundreds-training-documents-after-probe-on-treatment-islam.html.
Zevno Baran, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. Network,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology 6 (2008): 95-122, Hudson Institute.
Nina Wiedl, “Dawa and the Islamist Revival in the West,” Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, ed. Hillel Fradkin (December 2009): 120-150, Hudson Institute, https://www.hudson.org/research/9789-dawa-and-the-islamist-revival-in-the-west.
Steven Merley, “The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States,” Hudson Institute: Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World, April 2009, https://www.hudson.org/content/researchattachments/attachment/1163/20090411_merley.usbrotherhood.pdf.
Lorenzo Vidino, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
12. Eric Trager, “Shame on Anyone Who Ever Thought Mohammad Morsi was a Moderate,” The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, November 26, 2012, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/shame-on-anyone-who-ever-thought-mohammad-morsi-was-a-moderate.
13. Victor Davis Hanson, “China Continues to Show its Contempt for the U.S,” National Review, March 25, 2021, https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/china-continues-to-show-its-contempt-for-the-u-s/.
14. Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas, eds., “Introduction,” in Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (New York: The New Press, 1995).
Margaret M. Zamudio, Christopher Russell, Francisco A. Rios, and Jacquelyn L. Bridgeman, Critical Race Theory Matters: Education and Ideology (Florence, Kentucky: Routledge, 2010).
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An introduction, 3rd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2017).
15. Vince Bielski, “The Racial-Justice War on Merit-Based Schools is an Injustice Against Excellence, Critics Say,” Thomas Fordham Institute, November 12, 2020, https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/racial-justice-war-merit-based-schools-injustice-against-excellence-critics-say.
16. See:
Patrick O’Donnell, Into the Rising Sun: World War II’s Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat (New York: Free Press, 2002).
Matthew Rozell, The Things Our Fathers Saw. The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation from Hometown, USA- Voices of the Pacific Theater (Hartford: Woodchuck Hollow Press, 2015).
17. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorships & Double Standards: The Classic Essay that Shaped Reagan’s Foreign Policy,” Commentary, November 1979, https://www.commentary.org/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/.
18. Lee Edwards, ed., The Collapse of Communism (Stanford: Hoover University Press, 2000).
Richard Pipes, “The Collapse of the Soviet Union” in The Collapse of Communism, ed. Lee Edwards (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2000), 35-50.
19. “New Initiative Explores Deep, Persistent Divides Between Biden and Trump Voters,” Table 3, University of Virginia Center for Politics, September 30, 2021, https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/new-initiative-explores-deep-persistent-divides-between-biden-and-trump-voters/.
1. “United Nations Charter (full text),” United Nations, accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text.
The Purposes of the United Nations are: 1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace; 2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; 3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and 4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.”
2. Ibid.
Article 6 states, “A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.”
3. “Voting Practices in the United Nations,” U.S. Department of State, accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.state.gov/voting-practices-in-the-united-nations/.
4. The Security Council was originally comprised of 11 member states (5 permanent members and six elected members). In 1965, the Security Council was expanded to 15 member states (5 permanent members and 10 elected members). Originally, the five permanent members of the Security Council were France, China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1971, U.N. recognition shifted from Taipei to Beijing and the People’s Republic of China represented China in the U.N., including its permanent membership on the Security Council. In 1991, the Russian Federation succeeded the Soviet Union, including its permanent seat on the Security Council.
5. “UN Security Council Working Methods: The Veto,” Security Council Report, December 16, 2020, https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-security-council-working-methods/the-veto.php.
Specifically, the Soviet Union cast 107 vetoes from 1946 to 1970.
6. “The Security Council Veto,” Security Council Report, accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/working_methods_veto.pdf.
China (1), France (4), and the United Kingdom (3).
7. See note 5 above.
Many of these vetoes were cast to block Security Council resolutions deemed harmful to Israel.
8. Brett D. Schaefer, The History of the Bloated U.N. Budget: How the U.S. can Rein it in (Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2012) accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.heritage.org/report/the-history-the-bloated-un-budget-how-the-us-can-rein-it.
9. Brett D. Schaefer and Danielle Pletka, The Human Rights Council Must Reform to Earn U.S. Re-Engagement (Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2020) accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/IB6015.pdf.
10. “Membership of the Human Rights Council,” United Nations Human Rights Council, accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/pages/membership.aspx.
11. Thomas Adamson, “U.S. and Israel officially withdraw from UNESCO,” PBS News Hour, January 1, 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-and-israel-officially-withdraw-from-unesco.
12. Brett Schaefer, “A U.S. Victory at the Universal Postal Union,” September 27, 2019, https://www.heritage.org/global-politics/commentary/us-victory-the-universal-postal-union.
13. Brett Schaefer, “US Shouldn’t Squander Financial Leverage at United Nations,” The Daily Signal, March 31, 2021, https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/31/us-shouldnt-squander-financial-leverage-at-united-nations/.
Brett D. Schaefer, “A Rash Decision to Rejoin the World Health Organization Before Securing Reforms,” January 21, 2021, https://www.heritage.org/global-politics/commentary/rash-decision-rejoin-the-world-health-organization-securing-reforms.
Brett D. Schaefer and Danielle Pletka, “America Should Not Have Rejoined the Flawed United Nations Human Rights Council,” February 10, 2021, https://www.heritage.org/civil-rights/commentary/america-should-not-have-rejoined-the-flawed-united-nations-human-rights.
14. “Secretary Blinken: Remarks to the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council,” U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, February 24, 2021, https://geneva.usmission.gov/2021/02/24/secretary-hrc/.
For instance, when informing the HRC of the decision to reengage with and seek election to the Council, Secretary Blinken noted, “As the United States reengages, we urge the Human Rights Council to look at how it conducts its business. That includes its disproportionate focus on Israel. We need to eliminate Agenda Item 7 and treat the human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories the same way as this body handles any other country. In addition, we will focus on ensuring that the Council membership reflects high standards for upholding human rights. Those with the worst human rights records should not be members of this Council. We must work together to improve the work and membership of the Council so it can do even more to advance the rights of people around the world.” No progress on this reform agenda has been reported.
15. An exception is when scandals, such as the corrupt Iraqi Oil-for-Food program, come to light and expose failings to public scrutiny. In such situations, the pressure to adopt reforms can lead to significant changes.
16. “Revenue by Government Donor and by Financing Instrument,” UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, accessed September 3, 2021, https://unsceb.org/fs-revenue-government-donor.
17. Brett D. Schaefer, Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing U.S. Interests in the United Nations System (Washington, D.C.: Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and
International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Committee on Foreign Relations in the U.S. Senate, 2019) accessed September 3, 2021, https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/112019_Schaefer_Testimony.pdf.
18. For instance, the Clinton Administration decided to withdraw from the World Tourism Organization and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization on the basis that they, respectively, provided poor value for money and were unable to “define its purpose and function very well.” More recently, the Trump Administration withdrew from the International Coffee Organization in 2018 after concluding that U.S. stakeholders can represent their interests without the U.S. government. See Schaefer, “Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing U.S. Interests in the United Nations System.”