Category: Blogs

TRADE in ACTION – March 2

By Global Business & Economics Program

This week in the newsletter: After his first full month in office, US President Donald Trump made his first address to a joint-session of Congress, USTR released its 2017 trade policy agenda, and Wilbur Ross got confirmed as Commerce Secretary on Monday.  On the European side, President of the European Commission Jean- Claude Juncker released A […]

Trump’s ‘Disastrous’ Proposal to Cut Foreign Aid

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Republican official says defense spending should not come at the cost of foreign assistance US President Donald J. Trump’s proposal to ramp up defense spending at the cost of foreign aid is attracting flak from within his Republican Party and retired generals who believe such a move is not in the United States’ best interests. […]

Hezbollah Embedded in Syria

By Mona Alami

In a recent interview with Al-Mayadeen television, Hezbollah’s number two Sheikh Naim Qasssem insisted that “Hezbollah would be the one deciding when to leave Syria, “which will take place when the party is guaranteed that ‘Syria as a resistance’ will remain.”

Russia Buzzed NATO Aircraft Four Times in a Single Day

By Stephen Losey, Defense News

NATO aircraft had four close encounters with Russian planes in separate incidents on Feb. 10, the Air Force’s top general in charge of its forces in Europe said Thursday.

Ukraine Is Sliding Back, Sergii Leshchenko Warns

By Melinda Haring

Anticorruption reform in Ukraine appeared far more promising just a year ago, said Sergii Leshchenko in a March 1 telephone interview from Kyiv. “We are sliding back,” he said definitively. The thirty-six-year old member of parliament, a former deputy editor at Ukrayinska Pravda and one of President Petro Poroshenko’s most outspoken critics, wants the West to […]

Why Ukraine Needs Another Court System Now

By Josh Cohen

Since the Euromaidan, Ukraine has achieved some notable anticorruption successes. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), established in 2015 to target high level crimes committed by Ukraine’s corrupt political class, has demonstrated a high level of independence and has not hesitated to target the senior officials, judges, and state enterprise managers who previously possessed de facto […]

Trump’s Address to Congress: ‘A New Trajectory’

US President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on February 28 marked “a new trajectory” for the administration by reassuring allies while ensuring continuity of US foreign policy when it comes to international alliances, according to Atlantic Council analysts. Trump’s speech “covered some ground that needed to be covered, NATO, commitment to […]

Not the Right Way to Bring Yanukovych to Trial

By Halya Coynash

The Kremlin is well known for pulling former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych out of hiding for its own purposes. Now Ukraine’s leaders have been accused of using Yanukovych as an excuse to push legislation that may have dangerous repercussions for Ukraine’s justice system—while not necessarily bringing Yanukovych and his cronies any closer to justice. Yury […]

It’s Time to Plan for Rebuilding Syria

By Faysal Itani and Tobias Schneider

Caught in the sixth year of its interminable civil war, Syria today is beset by a combination of fleeting ceasefires, bombings, localized offensives, and meandering negotiations. Most of the country is controlled either by terrorist groups or by a weak, isolated central government in Damascus. Meanwhile, the United States finds itself in the midst of […]

Hezbollah’s Diplomacy in Qalamoun

By Rhys Dubin

The past several weeks have been good for Hezbollah—both in their domestic stronghold in Lebanon and their Syrian areas of operation. In Lebanon for example, President Michel Aoun recently went out of his way to uncharacteristically praise the group’s militia. Though many other Lebanese politicians attempted to walk back his phrasing, the President’s words illustrated […]