New Atlanticist

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 […]

Initial Reaction to the Geneva Joint Statement

Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and UN Special Representative Lakhdar just emerged from their discussion about a potential Geneva 2 peace conference to make brief, individual statements. Questions were not taken. According to Kerry, if progress can be made on the chemical issue he and Lavrov would likely meet in […]

China in the Regional Order: It’s not about Parity

By Robert A. Manning and James Przystup

To answer Hugh White’s initial question, ‘what is America’s ultimate aim in Asia today?’, there is no mystery about American aims in Asia: it is simply a rules-based order with unimpeded access to the global commons.

Jakarta’s Counterproductive Counterterrorism Approach

By Tyler McBrien

Opacity, lack of accountability, and extra-judicial killings are not criticisms reserved solely for US counterterrorism policies. The Indonesian government faces similar grievances, domestically and internationally, in its own counterterrorism campaign. With the ongoing pivot to Asia, the United States is looking to Indonesia, already a regional economic powerhouse, as a like-minded democratic partner. Encouragingly, Indonesia’s […]

President Obama’s Syria Confusion

By Rajan Menon

President Barack Obama’s Tuesday evening speech explaining his plans for a military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, though deftly delivered, will not put to rest the doubts that a large majority of Americans have about what the president aims to achieve with what he insisted would be a limited, targeted operation.

Obama’s Goldilocks Syria Plan

By James Joyner

In a speech to the nation, President Obama warned that if the United States does not launch a punitive strike against Syria, Iran will pursue nuclear weapons, Al Qaeda will try to kill Americans, and bad men will do bad things.