Category: Blogs

This economic crisis is also a crisis for democracy

By Amanda Dickerson

The COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting economic damage across the world. And that damage may be having an insidious knock-on effect: eroding faith in democracy, especially among young people.

Two years on, Algeria’s Hirak is poised for a rebirth

By Andrew G. Farrand

Partisans of the Hirak are quick to point out that they voluntarily paused the movement and can restart it at any time. Two years after the Hirak’s eruption, that possibility appears likely.

Flemming Awards: Celebrating exceptional public service

Established in 1948, the Flemming Awards honor outstanding federal employees. Recognized by the president of the United States, agency heads, and the private sector, the winners are selected from all areas of the federal service.

The post-COVID world this week: The WHO’s vaccine reassurance, a surge in US-China bickering, and the inequity of school closures

By Atlantic Council

What can we expect from a post-COVID world after a pandemic that has reshaped international affairs? A rough education for the world’s young generations.

How the US should respond to the coup in Myanmar

By Andrea R. Mihailescu

The Biden administration’s announcement that it will freeze one billion dollars of Myanmar government funds held in US banks will squeeze military leaders. But sanctions cannot be the only tool that the United States deploys.

Time for transatlantic trade to take off

By Ole Moehr

Trade tariffs continue to pose a threat to a transatlantic economy weakened by COVID-19, but there may now be some light at the end of the tunnel. Keen to rebuild transatlantic ties, Washington and Brussels must walk the talk to reach an agreement on aircraft subsidies and move the US-EU trade agenda forward.

Global Sanctions Dashboard: January

By Michael Albanese and Castellum.AI

Growing use of sanctions in foreign policy, Chinese sanctions against US senators, multilateral coordination on the sanctions policy.

As the United States develops advanced reactors, a new fuel supply chain is critical to national security

By Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. and Admiral Richard Mies

Over the past five years, the United States has made meaningful progress in the development of advanced nuclear reactor designs critical to keeping the country on the cutting edge of nuclear technology. These positive trends signal a growing need for the Department of Energy to address a key challenge that many reactor developers face as they move toward deployment: the lack of a reliable source of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

The rebirth of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination: Guidelines for success

By Daniel Fried, Edward Fishman

While sanctions are increasingly a tool of first resort in US foreign policy, the State Department has lacked a disciplined process for coordinating sanctions policy. But the new Office of Sanctions Coordination is an opportunity to fix this problem.

Reboot or repeat? US-Pakistan relations after the Daniel Pearl ruling

By Safiya Ghori-Ahmad

Pakistan was likely hoping for a reset with the new Biden administration, one that could refocus relations on the country’s most pressing issues. But those hopes have been dashed by The Supreme Court of Pakistan's recent decision on the Daniel Pearl case.