Category: Blogs

US-Syria Policy: What is Needed to Defeat ISIS and Repair the Damage to the Syrian Society?

By Feras Hanoush

Former US president Barack Obama announced the first airstrike against the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) in Iraq in August 2014. Within a month of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s declaration of the caliphate, aerial operations against the Islamic State were launched, but despite this fact, the costly process of defeating ISIS dragged on for another three […]

Bombardier Ruling: Advantage Trudeau

By James Wholley

US International Trade Commission’s ruling boosts Canadian prime minister The surprise ruling by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) in favor of Canadian aerospace manufacturer Bombardier over Boeing, a US firm, should come as a relief to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whose government has been caught between domestic politics and US President Donald J. […]

Yes, Ukraine’s Oligarchs Own the Airwaves, but Their Days Are Numbered

By Vitalii Rybak

Oligarchs own the airwaves in Ukraine. More than 75 percent of Ukrainians regularly watch TV channels owned by Ukrainian oligarchs Viktor Pinchuk, Ihor Kolomoisky, Dmytro Firtash, and Rinat Akhmetov. But this is hardly news since TV serves as the primary source of information for 58 percent of Ukrainians. While these oligarchs are the biggest media […]

Is China’s Plan to Cut Emissions for Real?

By Craig Hart

China’s new emissions trading scheme (ETS) may set the country on a path to achieving its goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, but concerns regarding effective emissions cuts have raised questions about the efficacy of the new policy. In December of 2017, China launched its national greenhouse gas emissions trading market, creating the world’s largest […]

How the Harmel Report Helped Build the Transatlantic Security Framework

By Jamie Shea

Last December, NATO commemorated the 50th anniversary of the “Report of the Council on the Future Tasks of the Alliance,” more commonly known as the Harmel Report. Initiated by Pierre Harmel, the former Belgian minister of foreign affairs, the report not only averted permanent damage to the Alliance that could have resulted from policy disagreements […]

Is This Russia or Ukraine? Top Anti-Corruption Activist May Face Five Years in Prison on Bogus Charges

By Melinda Haring

In October 14, 2014, activists unveiled a three-meter high set of flesh-colored buttocks in front of Ukraine’s parliament. Giggles aside, the stunt was a serious one, meant to focus Kyiv’s attention on parliament’s foot dragging on corruption. An idiomatic expression in Ukrainian, “to be covered by an ass,” means that something awful will happen. Through […]

The Revolution That Didn’t Happen in Iran and the Reforms That Should

By Sirous Amerian

The protests that spread across Iran in late December and early January turned a lot of people into Iran “experts.” Iranian expatriates ranging from physiotherapists to rocket scientists offered analyses on Twitter, alongside non-Iranians with an interest in the political dynamics of the country. A majority asserted that the protests were the precursors to the […]

Europe’s Strategy to Save the Iran Deal

The fate of the Iran nuclear agreement may rest on whether European governments are able to reach a side agreement with the Trump administration on issues that go beyond the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran’s increasingly sophisticated ballistic arsenal has become a major concern for its neighbors and the United […]

Lethal Weapons to Ukraine: A Primer

By Peter J. Marzalik and Aric Toler

On December 22, 2017, the Trump administration approved supplying Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, capping a nearly three-year debate in Washington over whether the United States should provide lethal defensive weapons to counter further Russian aggression in Europe. A few days prior the US Department of State announced that senior officials had authorized a sizeable […]

Eastern Syria: Overcoming the ‘Original Sin’

By Frederic C. Hof

Celebrations accompanying the forthcoming military defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in Syria east of the Euphrates River will fall somewhere between muted and absent. A three-year campaign to neutralize a criminal gang is ending on an abysmally low note: an escalating bilateral crisis between two NATO allies. What happened? Is it […]