Weapons Trafficking Archives

Content

New Atlanticist

Jun 11, 2013

Will the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Be Effective?

By Alex Ward and Morgan Timme

Earlier this month, states that participated in the UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty last March were allowed to sign the document. The ATT—designed to curb the sale of small arms and ammunition to terrorists, criminal gangs, and organizations committing human rights violations or genocide—passed a UN General Assembly vote with 154 in favor, […]

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2013

US Is Syria’s Only Hope

By R. Nicholas Burns

Syria’s savage civil war may have just entered a new and darker phase. During the past few weeks, momentum has shifted sharply away from the rebels in favor of the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The real possibility that his government, long presumed to be on life support, may now survive is bad news for rebel […]

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

Jun 5, 2013

Lebanon inches toward disaster

By Rajan Menon

It has been Lebanon’s unenviable fate to be the playground for the deadly games of its more powerful and rivalrous neighbors. What has made Lebanon particularly vulnerable to the fears and ambitions of adjacent states—or in the case of Iran, those aligned with them—is the effect outsiders’ machinations have had on the delicate balance among […]

Middle East Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2013

Win Wars Not Battles

By Harlan Ullman

If there is one strategic weakness or Achilles’ heel in U.S. geostrategic thinking, it is a fixation with winning battles and not winning wars. The North Vietnamese famously crowed, “America won every battle and lost the war.” In Afghanistan and Iraq four decades later, the same critique applied. America and the coalition won virtually every […]

Security & Defense United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

May 16, 2013

How Turkey and Israel Could Force US Action in Syria

By Sarah Grebowski and Maksymilian Czuperski

Early this week, the world looked to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a response to the bombings in Reyhanli that killed 47 people and left more than 100 wounded. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkey since the 2003 Istanbul bombings, shocking the nation and fueling anxiety over the war in neighboring […]

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2013

Syria and the Obama Administration’s Loss of Credibility

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

When it comes to maintaining military credibility in the face of potential national security threats, the Obama administration has gone out of its way to convince friend and foe alike that the president and the administration do not bluff when it comes to their foreign policy and national security goals and commitments.

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 3, 2013

What Was Obama Thinking?

By Barry Pavel

What was President Obama thinking in August 2012 when he declared that Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria would alter his calculus and cross a red line, triggering U.S. intervention?

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 30, 2013

Time For Some American Shock and Awe in Syria

By Sarwar Kashmeri

United States’ intelligence agencies and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are still not certain the Syrian government of President Assad has used chemical weapons against its opposition. Nothing has yet emerged from France, Germany or Britain to unequivocally confirm this charge either. But the clamor among the hawkish segment of Washington lawmakers to get the […]

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2013

Lyndon W. Obama

By Harlan Ullman

The shadow of North Korea’s latest provocations for the moment has obscured Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Another war on the Korean Peninsula would be a disaster for the Korean people even though the military defeat of the North that is sure to follow would no doubt end the Kim ruling dynasty.

Security & Defense United States and Canada