Category: Blogs

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 […]

Kurds Praise Construction of University in Kobani

By Sardar Mlla Drwish

Educational administrators in Kurdish controlled areas of northern Syria believe education and literacy improves people’s lives and helps to build a better future. The Kurds do not believe that the development of education should be dependent on the current Syrian government’s curricula despite the central government’s formal legal authority in this realm to date.

US Envoy for Ukraine Negotiations: West Must ‘Keep Increasing the Costs’ for Russia

By Teri Schultz

Even as Russia escalates military action in eastern Ukraine, diplomatic momentum to resolve the nearly four-year-old conflict has diminished, says Kurt Volker, the US special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Pointing to a significant increase in December in violations by Russia of what’s often referred to as the “ceasefire-in-name-only” Minsk agreement, Volker said: “There’s been no […]

Why Trump’s Vow to Cut Off Cash to the Palestinians Could Be Dangerous

By Ashish Kumar Sen

At a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 25, US President Donald J. Trump suggested that he would withhold more aid from the Palestinians and that Israel “will pay” for his decision to agree upfront to recognize Jerusalem as its capital. […]

Response to Senator Cory Booker on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

With the assistance of Yale Professor Oona A. Hathaway, Senator Cory A. Booker (Democrat of New Jersey) has published an op-ed in The New York Times (“A Syria Plan that Breaks the Law”) accusing the Trump administration of wishing to wage war illegally in Syria, in a manner violating both the American Constitution and international […]

Will the Kremlin’s Most Important Ally in Europe Be Reelected?

By Veronika Víchová, Markéta Krejčí, and Klára Veverka

One day remains until the second round of the Czech presidential election, and polls show a tie with 10 percent of voters undecided. The race pits the current president, Miloš Zeman, against the former chairman of the Academy of Sciences, Jiří Drahoš. New reports allege that there’s a hidden scheme to support pro-Russian president Zeman—at […]

After the Ritz Carlton crackdown, what’s next?

By Mohammed Alyahya

Last week it was reported that the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh would start taking reservations again on February 14, after months of serving as a detainment facility for Saudi elites accused of graft. In a dramatic blitz in the middle of a November night in Riyadh, Saudi security forces moved to detain dozens of powerful suspects […]

Deterring Russian Hacking

By Brian O'Toole and Daniel Fried

The apparent lack of US preparation and defense nearly eighteen months after Russia’s interference in the presidential elections, especially given numerous media reports that Russia aims to interfere in the 2018 US midterm elections, is deeply troubling. We are heartened that Congress has taken up leadership to defend the US electoral process. But notwithstanding its […]