Category: Blogs

The ‘Existential Threat’ Posed by North Korea

The Pentagon has confirmed that North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 28. The missile, which landed in the sea off the Japanese coast, flew higher and for longer than the one North Korea tested on July 4. This means it could hit cities in the United States. Here is what Atlantic Council […]

The Disqualification of Nawaz Sharif: Will Pakistan’s Courts Drain the Swamp?

By Shuja Nawaz

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ouster by the supreme court is a rare example of a country’s leader being held accountable for corruption, but it has also created the possibility of instability in this South Asian nation that is a vital partner in the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. On July 28, Pakistan’s supreme court disqualified […]

France, Italy, and Libya’s Crisis

By Karim Mezran and Elissa Miller

In a major development in Libya’s ongoing conflict, head of the internationally recognized Libyan government Fayez al-Serraj and strongman Khalifa Haftar met in Paris this week, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, to discuss a way out of the country’s current crisis. The meeting between Serraj and Haftar is the second in three months and […]

Religious Tensions Underlying the GCC Rift

By H. A. Hellyer

The speed at which poor relations between Qatar and several Gulf Co-operation Council states escalated was astonishing. It was only a few weeks ago that the Qatari Emir had been invited to Riyadh as part of the grand “Arab-Islamic-American Summit.” But in the space of a few days, the GCC has faced the largest set […]

How Healthy Is Ukrainian Democracy?

By Diane Francis

Hours after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stripped Mikheil Saakashvili of his citizenship to silence him, the former president of Georgia was on CNN in New York City badmouthing the oligarchy. Poroshenko’s latest attack on the anti-corruption movement will backfire as Saakashvili becomes a megaphone to the world. He already is a media darling—and speaks five […]

TRADE IN ACTION July 27, 2017

THIS WEEK IN TRADEBritish Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, arrived in Washington this week to meet with members of the Trump administration and lay the groundwork for a US-UK post Brexit trade deal.

Trump’s Transgender Ban Raises Legal Questions

By Rachel Ansley

Is a tweet legally binding directive, asks former US Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning [Editor’s note: On July 27, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that military policy regarding who may serve will not change until US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis issues new guidelines. “In the meantime, we […]

Thinking About Strategy: Part Two

By Frederic C. Hof

Part One of this series discussed why it is not easy to arrive at a coherent national security objective for Syria. The Trump administration inherited from its predecessor a policy catastrophe: the carcass of a state set upon by a ruling family whose homicidal excesses were protected by Iran (with which the Obama administration desperately […]

Three Issues the Energy Department’s Grid Study Must Address

By Branko Terzic

On July 14, an unofficial draft of the much-anticipated US Department of Energy (DOE) grid study, formally referred to as the Study Examining Electricity Markets and Reliability, was leaked, notably absent any recommendations. The report was requested in an April 14 memo by US Energy Secretary Rick Perry. A number of senators and representatives, based […]

Setting the Record Straight about Reform in Ukraine

By John E. Herbst

Evaluating reform in Ukraine is akin to taking a Rorschach test. For Kremlin propagandists and their witting or unwitting acolytes in the West, Ukraine is an irredeemably corrupt place. To young reformers in Ukraine and some of the country’s well-wishers, progress in transforming the country is agonizingly slow and always in danger of reversal. And […]