Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

National Security Through Partnership

By Derek Reveron

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently asked the international community to support the growth of his country’s military and police. The request is a sure sign that Afghans want to secure their country from threats inside and outside its borders–but needs the international community’s continued support to do it. While helping Afghanistan overcome its security deficit […]

NATO-Russia Missile Defense as an Impossible Dream?

By Jakub Kulhanek

Long gone are the days of overt mistrust and frosty relations between NATO and Russia. Following the rupture in their relations in the wake of the war in Georgia, the two former rivals have managed to put their differences aside and are now in intense discussion to explore new possibilities for cooperation. Nothing, perhaps, better […]

US-Pakistan ‘Strategic Partnership’ After the Raymond Davis Incident

By Michael Cohen

For more than a year and a half supporters of the war in Afghanistan have steadily peddled the argument that one of the reasons that the US must stay militarily engaged in the region (and especially in Afghanistan) is to support Pakistan, particularly in its fight against radical extremists. The Obama Administration has even hailed […]

Cyber Strategy: A New Term for an Age Old Issue

By Anthony Calandra

Violence Has Silenced the Majority

By Mohsin Khan and Shuja Nawaz

The recent assassination of governor Salman Taseer of Punjab in Pakistan has highlighted the ongoing and often violent battle for the future of the country. Taseer had spoken out in favour of reviewing and amending the nation’s blasphemy law to make it less susceptible to abuse, especially against minorities, and to reduce punishments by eliminating […]

Joint Force Provider

By Robert Bracknell

In “Goodbye, JFCOM” [AFJ, November], retired Col. Bob Killebrew argues convincingly for the elimination of U.S. Joint Forces Command as a four-star-led combatant command. He notes correctly that what is really happening at JFCOM is less a standdown and more a reorganization, acknowledging that “three essential functions performed by the command … should be maintained, […]

Strategic Cyber Security and a Commercial Cloud?

By Chris Demchak

Should the United States base its national cyber security strategy around commercially offered “cloud computing,” as many are suggesting? 

On Building an Army

By Derek Reveron

For obvious reasons, coverage of Afghanistan is focused on the 150,000 NATO troops. After all, there are Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and even Coast Guardsmen conducting counterinsurgency operations, developing Afghanistan’s infrastructure, and training the Afghan military and police. All three lines of effort are essential, but developing an independent security force is essential for fulfilling […]

Piracy Presents Opportunity for NATO-Russia Cooperation

By Ronak Desai

Combating the scourge of maritime piracy has emerged as a promising area of cooperation between NATO and the Russian Federation.  During last month’s annual NATO-Russia Council (NRC) meeting, Moscow’s Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, called for “detailed discussions” on how best to coordinate counter-piracy efforts off the Somali coast, and proposed organizing NATO-Russian naval patrols […]

Cyber Security and Freedom: Rules For The Road

By James Joyner

"Cyberspace is changing the way we view and conduct foreign policy as well as transforming our everyday lives," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Munich Security Conference today. He offered to host an international conference to establish global norms. Hague noted just how far ranging the cyber arena has become, touching most aspects of […]

Leviathan in the Levant

By Alexandros Petersen

The recent discovery of the Leviathan natural gas field off the coast of Israel, though not a game changer like shale in terms of global gas supplies, promises to have major implications for the country’s energy security and even the energy balance of the region at large, while setting off competition over other finds in […]

Iran Cracks Down While Egypt Cracks Up

By Barbara Slavin

While the world’s attention has been riveted by Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt this month, Iran’s government has taken the opportunity to execute a record number of prisoners in an apparent bid to head off the return of the dramatic street protests that pushed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government to the brink in June 2009. […]

Turkey’s Dynamic Resurgence in the New Global Era

By Zeynep Dereli and Jean-Pierre Lehmann

In a recent article in Newsweek, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan branded the EU “geriatric” and “comatose.” This reflects not only Ankara’s frustrations with the EU accession process, but also the global transformations of the early 21st century.

Egypt Needs Reform, Not Revolution

By George Grant and Alexandros Petersen

The mounting pro-democracy protests in Egypt against the 30-year tyranny of Hosni Mubarak are an encouraging development in the wake of Tunisia’s ousting of its own long-time autocrat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, earlier this month. It is tempting, indeed altogether proper, to hope for “people power” changes of governance across the autocratic Arab world. […]

Time to Think, Not Spend, Our Way Out of Danger

By Harlan Ullman

The traditional U.S. solution to military threats has generally been to spend rather than think our way clear of danger. With the wind down of the wars in Iraq and hopefully Afghanistan and the state of the economy with debts and deficits that seem endless, U.S. defense budgets will and must decline, probably dramatically. In […]