Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Afghanistan: In It To Win It?

By Kurt Volker

When Gen. David Petraeus assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, he delivered exactly the right message: “We are in this to win.” Surely, that message was welcomed by Afghan women who fear subjugation; by parents who fear seeing their daughters sprayed with acid for attending school; by decent people trying to […]

Averting Catastrophe in South Asia

By Harlan Ullman

We can joke that the United States and Great Britain are two nations divided by a common language. But the gap between the United States and Pakistan is neither humorous nor easily reconciled. Only a fundamental improvement in mutual understanding can rectify the enormous misunderstandings and misperceptions on both sides that threaten this crucial relationship […]

NATO 2020: SAG Strawman Strategic Concept

Julian Lindley-French and Yves Boyer have led a Strategic Advisors Group project called STRATCON 2010 to provide provocative ideas and fresh thinking concerning the NATO Strategic Concept.Download the PDF

NATO’s Relevance

By James Joyner

“Is NATO irrelevant?”   That’s a question that Harvard’s Steve Walt asked on his Foreign Policy blog last week and a major subtext of the NATO Beyond Afghanistan conference held yesterday at the Atlantic Council.

Afghan Realities

By James Stavridis

Gilles Dorronsoro, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued in the New York Times on Sept. 15 that the Western coalition will not defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan, and “needs to start facing reality and begin negotiating with the Taliban before it’s too late.” NATO’s commander responds.

China displays projection of air power in Central Asian exercises

By Martin Sieff, Central Asia Newswire

Freedom and Defense Spending

By James Joyner

In a rather odd posting at RealClearWorld‘s Compass blog titled “Defense Spending and Freedom,” Greg Scoblette argues: If I’m reading this op-ed from Danielle Pletka and Thomas Donnelly correctly it sounds like they don’t want the Republican party (or the Tea Party) to cut defense spending. Which is fine, so far as it goes. But they […]

Muddling Through to 2025

By James Joyner

Global Governance 2025, a joint effort of the Atlantic Council and its global partners, offers a wide range of trajectories for the international system depending on whether we adequately address known threats.

Please Fence Me In

By Harlan Ullman

Many decades ago, cowboy actor-singer Gene Autry made famous the tune, “Don’t Fence Me In.”   Today, in the diaphanous territory between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a better song could well be “Please fence me in.”  Indeed, that may be one of the few alternatives left if that region is ever to be stabilized and made more […]

NATO and the EU: Achieving Unity of Effort in a Comprehensive Approach

By Leo Michel

Amidst a spate of disturbing reports about Afghanistan and impending deep cuts in the UK, German, and other allied defense budgets and force structures, security affairs cognoscenti could be forgiven for overlooking some positive news about the Euro-Atlantic relationship:  NATO and the EU still enjoy broad support despite their current travails. According to the recently […]

On Strategy in Afghanistan

By Bernard Finel

I think it is worthwhile to spend a little time discussing the issue of “strategy” as a concept because I think a significant source of tension and dispute in recent debates is due to a misunderstanding of some of the key elements of the term.

Nuke Outlaw as Pakistani President?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons renegade, who sold nuclear secrets to America’s enemies (Iran, North Korea and Libya) and spent the best part of the last decade under house arrest, is still Pakistan’s most popular man. Last week, Abdul Qadeer Khan, now a free man, was a guest on ARY, one of Pakistan’s most popular TV channels […]