Category: Blogs

Syria: The High Cost of Taking Russia at its Word

By Frederic C. Hof

The all-out assault on Aleppo by Russian and Assad regime aircraft, targeting as it does aid convoys, hospitals, homes, market places, and mosques, seems to have mildly surprised and deeply upset senior American officials. Saddled with a president content to look the other way while mass murder unfolds, they had persuaded themselves that Moscow’s demands […]

Wanted: Leadership

Strategic planning will play a crucial role in the next US president’s ability to mitigate an amalgamation of political, social, security, and economic threats at home and abroad, according to Mathew Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “We need leadership on a lot of different levels to get us out […]

How Ukraine Can Signal It’s Serious about Reform

By Oksana Bedratenko

Thirteen months since the last tranche, the IMF has finally allocated the third tranche of its program to Ukraine, bringing the total disbursement to $7.6 billion. Although it is less than the originally planned $1.7 billion and came with substantial delays, the receipt of the $1 billion tranche was celebrated by the Ukrainian government as […]

The MOC’s Role in the Collapse of the Southern Opposition

By Youssef Sadaki

The southern fronts in Syria have come to near standstill: the opposition’s dream to topple Damascus is unachievable, while factions in Daraa and Damascus fight amongst themselves. How did this happen when there were such high hopes of victory for factions in the south, especially after they united under an umbrella group called the Southern […]

Seeking to Protect NATO, Britain Could Yet Thwart EU Defense Plans

By Robin Emmott and Andrea Shalal, Reuters

Britain will resist new European Union defense proposals if it feels they undermine NATO, British officials say, in a warning to France and Germany that London will defend its military interests even as it negotiates to leave the EU bloc.

Preparing for the Next Big War

In the face of challenges from a revanchist Russia, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), David Barno, a former senior American commander of US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, wants US Army leadership to reconsider how best to adapt to rising and modern security […]

Neither Washington Nor Riyadh’s Peace Plans Will Work in Yemen

By Bilal Y. Saab

On May 1, 2003, then-President George W. Bush stood in front of a large crowd aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego and famously pronounced with a draped “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him the end of US combat operations in Iraq. The declaration, it turned out, was wildly premature, for Washington’s […]

Rethinking the Medium-Term Demand Outlook for Oil

By Robert J. Johnston

This article is part one of a two-part series. While oil markets agonize over the possibility of a “production freeze” agreement among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members facing political and economic distress from lower oil prices, much larger and strategic data points are receiving less attention. These data points, while too […]