Security dilemma theorists have long recognized the importance of empathy to the de-escalation of conflict between actors caught in security dilemma dynamics, but they have left empathy undertheorized and have neglected to recognize its deeply contested nature. This article responds to this omission by bringing multidisciplinary literature on empathy to bear on security dilemma thinking. Contrary to some contemporary empathy research that draws attention to its automatic, unconscious, and intuitive properties, the article highlights the deliberate, effortful, and reflexive capacity to empathize across complex social contexts such as security dilemma dynamics. It shows how empathy of this kind can lead actors to moderate their positions on key issues at the heart of a conflict, reinterpret their interests, and broaden the zone of possible agreement between themselves and an adversary. The article demonstrates these notions empirically by locating empathy within the de-escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran between 2009 and 2016. Drawing on primary interview material with former U.S. officials, the argument is made that the development of specific empathic capacities by key U.S. officials played an important and unrecognized role in the de-escalation of security dilemma dynamics between the United States and Iran.

The purpose of this work is to provide an analysis of the contemporary state of the Russian internet in regards to both the freedom of information within it and the government's influence over it. This project also examines the potential state of that situation in the coming years. Public statements, government actions, and media interactions with the government were analyzed in an effort to find trends relating to the government's influence over the media since the collapse of the Soviet Union. These trends show an increased tightening of the Kremlin's control over the media (especially since the rise to power of Vladimir Putin) as well as a pattern of the government undercutting its own statements about speech protection with its actions. In addition, an examination of the strategies and tools utilized by the United States and China in regard to the internet was conducted in order to determine the options available to the Russian government. This was also done to find shared practices and ways that they might further evolve in the future. The Kremlin has both publicly stated and inferred its desire to look into the practices of these states. Both the U.S. and China have shown their ability to intimidate organizations and businesses in an effort to influence internet content, and have enhanced their legal ability to control it. They also utilize technical means to filter content and disrupt websites and use their influence to coerce individuals into self-censorship. The findings, including leaked government documents and interviews, provide a basis for concluding that the Russian government has greatly tightened its grip over the internet in recent years. This analysis also suggests governmental controls over the internet will only increase as the amount of Russian internet users continues to grow (as projections show it will). Russian Internet Censorship and Its Future Perspectives in Comparative Context "It's possible to go on to the Internet and get basically anything you want. In that regard, there are no problems of closed access to information in Russia today, there weren't any yesterday and there won't be any tomorrow,"-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (Baldwin). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union there has been a general feeling that the "old media" in Russia is in the Kremlin's pocket, mainly because of the close relationship that the government has with many of the owners and ownership groups that are running television stations and newspapers, but also because of the tactics that the government led by Vladimir Putin has used in order to intimidate and coerce those that were not aligned with the Kremlin. There was a general consensus, however, due in large part to the statements from President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin concerning the internet as a medium open to free communication and necessary as part of a free flowing exchange of ideas, that unlike traditional media, the internet would be a safe haven of sorts for independent thought and speech. While there was a point when the in...