Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Explore the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s latest insights, commentary, articles, media hits, and in-depth reports

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New Atlanticist

Oct 14, 2010

Pakistan: Dissension in the Ranks

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Pakistan’s most prominent — and vocal — retired chiefs of the army are demanding that the country’s air force be ordered to shoot down drones and helicopters — and increasingly angry active duty officers are voicing their approval in off-the-record conversations with Pakistani journalists. The country’s senior generals on active duty are being blasted as […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 13, 2010

Fueling Growth in Asia: Energy, Investment, and a Home-Grown Middle Class

By Boyko Nitzov and Rustam Makhmudov

Many would argue that export-oriented Asian economies are the paragon of economic success and an engine of global growth. Plenty of evidence supports this opinion: the economies of China and India grew by 10-11% and 6-7% annually for the greater part of the last ten years, and even when the global financial crisis induced a […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 13, 2010

5 Questions for Kurt Volker

By Jorge Benitez

Kurt Volker is a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council and member of the Council’s Strategic Advisors Group. He is also a former US ambassador to NATO and current managing director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. I had the opportunity to discuss his thoughts on some […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 12, 2010

NATO Missile Defense: An American Affair

By James Joyner

 A consistent theme of today’s "Transatlantic Missile Defense" conference hosted by the Atlantic Council was the extent to which the United States dominates the domain.

Event Recap

Oct 12, 2010

Transatlantic Missile Defense: Looking to Lisbon

On Tuesday, October 12th, the Atlantic Council hosted a conference which featured remarks from senior U.S. policymakers, as well as U.S. and European experts to discuss the political, technical, and budgetary issues concerning transatlantic missile defense on the eve of the NATO Defense and Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels and with less than a month […]

Missile Defense NATO

New Atlanticist

Oct 12, 2010

Mistral Between Scylla and Charybdis

By David Smith

As French officials sat on the beaches of the Côte d’Azur last August, some no doubt thought that they were on a well-earned break from negotiations to sell Mistral amphibious assault ships to Russia.  Imagine their surprise when a northeast wind kicked up the seas, instantly transforming what they thought were nearly concluded exclusive negotiations […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2010

Kyrgyzstan’s Historic Elections: A Guide

By Meerim Abdieva and Ross Wilson

Kyrgyzstan’s political drama that began with the overthrow of President Bakiyev in April, violent ethnic clashes in the country’s south in June, and a constitutional referendum two weeks later reaches it next pivot point in parliamentary elections that take place on Sunday.

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2010

The Case Against the Case Against NATO

By James Joyner

 Daniel Larison‘s "The Case Against NATO"  makes compelling reading.  Here’s why it’s wrong. Larison charges: In the end, the main argument for perpetuating the NATO relic is that it provides the support structure for projecting power into remote parts of the globe where American interests are even less clearly defined. In other words, what once was […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2010

Repairing NATO-Pakistan Relations

By Derek Reveron Nikolas Gvosdev and Hayat Alvi

Recent attacks on NATO supply lines in Pakistan and Pakistan’s official suspension of access through the Khyber Pass really underscore the challenges facing NATO in Afghanistan. Shuja Nawaz recently explained This situation could easily careen out of control. The Obama administration, which is unhappy with what it perceives as Pakistan’s lack of action against anti-American […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2010

Pakistan: Is It Over, Over There?

By Harlan Ullman

Just when it seemed that things could not get worse, they do. One would have thought that given the ongoing catastrophic floods, conditions in Pakistan were at a nadir. But last week, several incidents lowered even that bar regarding U.S.-Pakistani ties. NATO forces in Afghanistan made two unauthorized incursions into Pakistan, the second killing three […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 5, 2010

Pipeline Politics Play Out in Istanbul

By Alexandros Petersen

The Southern Corridor, the planned natural gas link to non-Russian resources in the Caspian and Middle East, will largely determine the future energy security of the European Union.  At the moment, the corridor is merely a concept.  Only piecemeal infrastructure is in place on the ground in Turkey, which is the key bridge between gas […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 5, 2010

NATO’s Future: An Adaptable and Unifying Strategic Concept

By David Capezza

Over the course of the last few years, NATO member states have been pondering the very future and relevance of the transatlantic organization.

New Atlanticist

Oct 5, 2010

Pakistan: Nervy One-Star

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

It was at the officers club in the military garrison town of Rawalpindi, a short drive from the capital of Islamabad. The one-star brigadier general, holding a glass of mango juice, asked for permission to speak to the three-star corps commander. They spoke in English as Pakistani generals are prone to do when speaking among […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 4, 2010

Developments in Pakistan Won’t Help Relationship with the U.S.

By Shuja Nawaz

Even as the recently released tell-all Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward raises fresh doubts about the U.S.-Pakistan relationship and will likely stoke mistrust in the United States about Pakistan as a partner against the Afghan Taliban, a series of stories that paint the Pakistani army in a negative light will undoubtedly contribute to the tensions.

New Atlanticist

Oct 4, 2010

Innovantion and Stagnation in Eurasia

By Alexandros Petersen

For the countries of the greater Black Sea region and Central Asia, the question of how to diversify their economies away from resource dependency or government-dominated industry is central to long-term growth and future political stability. Economic diversification is an explicit policy of energy-rich states such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and fostering innovation is a […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2010

General Musharraf’s Return

By Shuja Nawaz

  "Today, God has given me the opportunity to set the tone for my political legacy. Come join me in changing Pakistan’s destiny. It is not an easy task but one we must work for, as Pakistan is ours. ‘All Pakistan Muslim League’ is our platform from where I will work tirelessly to serve Pakistan and […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2010

The Outlook for Unconventional Gas in Eurasia: Resources and Policies

By Boyko Nitzov

In a keynote speech before the Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Istanbul, Ambassador Richard Morningstar, the U.S. Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, reflected on how much has changed about Eurasian energy issues since his work in the Clinton Administration. “On the supply side, shale gas and other developments could emerge as real game […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2010

Pakistan Blocks NATO Supply Lines, Testing Fragile Relationship

By James Joyner

Pakistan has blocked NATO’s primary supply line into Afghanistan in retaliation for an air strike that killed three Pakistani paramilitaries. Reporting for FT, Farhan Bokhari notes that this will not have an immediate impact on operations but would if the embargo held for long, since "Most of the fuel, food and building materials for the […]

Event Recap

Sep 30, 2010

First Workshop: The Strategic Concept’s Impact on US European Command

The Program on International Security hosted the first of three workshops to assess how the new NATO Strategic Concept will impact the future of the United States European Command (USEUCOM).

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 30, 2010

5 Questions for Kori Schake

By Jorge Benitez

Kori Schake is the former Director for Defense Strategy and Requirements at the National Security Council.  She is currently a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an associate professor of international security studies at the United States Military Academy.  I had the opportunity to discuss her thoughts on some key issues of interest to […]

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