New Atlanticist

Kissinger Offers Mixed Reviews of Obama China Policy

By James Joyner

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wonders whether something like the opening to China he and President Nixon undertook would be possible today. He believes that the U.S. government is "too complex" these days, with "too many urgent things" forcing a focus on the everyday and preventing bold, strategic moves. Furthermore, even if a strategic […]

Soft Power Disarmament Will All End in Tiers

By Julian Lindley-French

Leiden. The Netherlands, 16 June. America’s greatest thinker, Groucho Marks, once famously said that military intelligence is a contradiction in terms. One might say the same about European strategic intelligence. I have now just about read every single European security and defence strategy available and they all share a profound similarity. The joke goes something […]

Increasing U.S. Power in an Age of Economic Decline

By Bart Szewczyk

The Great Recession has appropriately focused America’s attention on its expected long-term economic decline relative to rising economies such as China, India, and Brazil. However, commentators have misconstrued this trend as necessarily implying a decrease in aggregate U.S. power without exploring potential strategic readjustments.

NATO Defense Ministers Send Mixed Signals

By Jorge Benitez

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ provocative speech in Brussels attracted widespread media attention, but several important decisions were made during the two-day NATO defense ministers meetings which will have a more immediate impact on the future of the alliance.  The most prominent of these issues is NATO reform. Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that agreements […]

Three Deadly Flaws

By Harlan Ullman

U.S. President Barack Obama is putting in place a new national security team from the Pentagon to the CIA. The new team will have to respond to what everyone knows will be “tough choices,” made tougher by budget cuts likely to be a lot bigger than people think. But, unless fixed, three deadly flaws make […]

NATO’s Half Pregnant Strategy

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Exeunt Pakistan Experts, Pursued by Bear

By Shuja Nawaz

With apologies to Shakespeare’s for appropriating his memorable line from A Winter’s Tale, I worry about the state of Pakistan expertise that is fading from the scene in key Washington policy making positions.

Death of Transatlantic Relationship Wildly Exaggerated

By James Joyner

The blistering farewell speech to NATO by U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates warning of a "dim, if not dismal" future for the Alliance drew the Western public’s attention to a longstanding debate about the state of the transatlantic relationship. With prominent commenters voicing concern about much more than just a two-tiered defensive alliance, questioning whether […]

Turkish Election: An AKP Victory with Limits

By Ross Wilson

The unprecedented third consecutive electoral victory won by Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Sunday’s parliamentary elections owes to a widespread feeling of satisfaction with eight years of the Erdogan government’s rule. According to preliminary results, the party won 50 percent of the vote. This was at the top end of expectations and exceeded […]