Background:
Divergent Options is a non-politically aligned national security website that, in 1,000 words or less, provides unbiased, dispassionate, candid articles that assess a national security situation, present multiple options to address the situation, and articulate the risk and gain of each option. Please note that while we assess a national security situation and may provide options, we never recommend a specific option.
Call for Papers:
Divergent Options is calling for papers assessing situations or discussing options related to national security interests with a Pacific Ocean nexus.
Please limit your article to 1,000 words and write using our Options Paper or Assessment Paper templates which are designed for ease of use by both writers and readers alike.
Please send your article to submissions@divergentoptions.org by April 13th, 2018.
If you are not interested in writing on this topic, we always welcome individual articles on virtually any national security situation an author is passionate about. Please do not let our call for papers cause you to hesitate to send us your idea. We look forward to hearing from you!
One of our Strategic Advisors, Dr. Kori Schake, offered the following prompts to inspire potential writers:
– Assess the potential second-order effects of a U.S. preventative strike on North Korea.
– Develop options to compensate for the U.S. losing blue water invulnerability and air superiority in potential conflicts with China.
Our Twitter and Facebook followers offered the following prompts to inspire potential writers:
– Assess U.S. national interests regarding North Korea and their associated intensities.
– What options does the U.S. have regarding North Korea?
– Assess the threat of sea-based missile capabilities.
– What options do countries have to defend against sea-based missile capabilities?
– Assess the threat to freedom of navigation posed by Chinese man-made islands in the Pacific.
– What additional options does China have in a military conflict in the Pacific now that they have built and militarized islands?
– What options does the U.S. have towards the tri border region of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines?
– What options does the U.S. have regarding joint military training with China?
– Assess if a U.S. military-to-military relationship with Japan prior to World War 2 would have impacted the likelihood of war.
– Assess the impact narratives about World War 2 have on today’s security environment.
– What options does the U.S. have to balance its priorities and risk as it shifts away from the Middle East and towards the Pacific? A specific focus on shifting strategic air assets, munitions, and wartime reserve and prepositioned stocks stocks away from two still active wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and partner activities in Yemen is welcome.
