New Atlanticist

Washington: Just Say No To Pakistan

By Robert A. Manning and James Clad

Another day, another calamity: thirty killed by a suicide bomber at a funeral in Quetta; the commanding General in Swat blown up by Pakistani Taliban; renewed Indo-Pakistani fighting along the Kashmir border threatens to torpedo fragile reconciliation efforts. These events—all in the past six weeks—reinforce recent disclosures in the Washington Post confirming deep-seated official US doubts and […]

UN Global Compact to Adopt “Global Rule of Law Business Principles”

LexisNexis® Legal & Professional—a Reed Elsevier business and a leading global provider of content and technology solutions— and the Atlantic Council formally presented the initial draft of the Global Rule of Law Business Principles to the United Nations Secretary-General at a special event Thursday night in NYC. The United Nations Global Compact will work to […]

Can Germany Be a Civil Superpower?

By Julian Lindley-French

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘superpower’ as a “very powerful and influential nation.” On September 22, democratic Germany will go to the polls. Some commentators and politicians are posing what they believe to be a fundamental and existential question implicit in the election – a German Europe or a European Germany? The Economist in a […]

The Syrian Sisyphus

By Harlan Ullman

The framework for elimination of Syrian chemical weapons agreed to last week by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could, and could is the operative word, potentially become the most stunning geostrategic event in global security since Richard Nixon’s outreach to China and the demise of the Soviet Union. […]

Iran’s Footprint in Syria

By Henry Johnson

While US strategy towards Syria has been mired by indecision, Iran has steadily entrenched its interests in the war-torn country. Iran has pursued a two-track policy of, on the one hand, directly propping up the regime, and, on the other, equipping and training militias loyal to Bashar al-Assad. It has also promoted the convergence of […]

European Values, not Geopolitics, Should Decide Ukraine’s European Integration

By Taras Kuzio

The European Parliament on September 12 called on Russia to respect the right of EU Eastern Partnership members such as Ukraine to enter Association Agreements and not use trade sanctions, forcing them to choose the Eurasian over the European Union. The trade war is music to the ears of the authoritarian Ukrainian authorities who have […]

It Isn’t the Military’s Place to Weigh in on the Syria Debate

By James Joyner

America’s generals and admirals, junior officers, and enlisted people overwhelmingly oppose military intervention in Syria. We should not know that.

Diplomacy to the Rescue in Syria?

By R. Nicholas Burns

A huge collective sigh of relief from the White House, Congress, and Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus was heard round the world earlier this week when the Russians came to the rescue. The unlikely savior — the cynical and calculating Vladimir Putin — seized the moment in the Syria quagmire by offering a lifeline of […]