Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

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

All commentary & analysis

New Atlanticist

Oct 25, 2010

U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue

By Huma Yusuf

What began last week as a strategic dialogue between US and Pakistani civilian and military leaders ended in strategic disconnect. Despite the US State Department’s efforts to make Washington’s relationship with Islamabad less one-dimensional – 13 working groups discussed development issues as wide-ranging as water and women’s empowerment – security issues remained the focus of […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 25, 2010

An Opportunity to Reimagine Eurasia

By Samuel Charap and Alexandros Petersen

Despite the smiles, hearty handshakes and declarations of partnership, President Obama’s meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in New York last month was actually a symptom of waning U.S. influence in Eurasia.

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2010

The U.S. and Pakistan: Uneasy Ties

By Shuja Nawaz

"Pakistan today is like a ship in heavy seas, having lost its propulsion’’ described a recent visitor to Islamabad. The imagery is dramatic but apt as the country reels under the effects of a massive flood and political squabbling that appear to have reduced government to firefighting rather than coming up with a credible long-term […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2010

If Pakistanis Thought Like Americans

By Harlan Ullman

With the U.S.-Pakistani strategic dialogue resuming in Washington today, the relationship could hardly be worse.  The trust deficit, already vast, has been stressed to the breaking point by NATO incursions into Pakistan and the subsequent ten-day closure of the major land supply route from Karachi to Afghanistan in retaliation. But there is a grimmer prospect.  […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2010

Cybered Conflict vs. Cyber War

By Chris Demchak

The US military named cyberspace a military domain and spawned endless repetitive conferences trying to fit cyberspace into concepts tied to the air, land, sea, and even nuclear domains.  The domain designation is useful for parsing the bureaucratic lines of authority among military services. It also makes for more accustomed objectives if our military seeks […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2010

Trans-Atlantic Austerity: Can NATO Remain Relevant Amid Defense Cuts?

By Ian Brzezinski and Damon Wilson

When NATO leaders convene in Lisbon in November to adopt a new Strategic Concept, the alliance’s blueprint for the future, they will find that trans-Atlantic security has entered an age of austerity. Burdened by weakened economies, allied governments are cutting their defense budgets, some significantly. However, retrenchment and reduced ambitions are not NATO’s only options. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2010

The Afghan Peace Process

By Don Snow

There was encouraging news out of Afghanistan this week–for a change. That news was that the Karzai government in Kabul and the Taliban leadership (which part or parts unspecified) have entered into preliminary discussions about meeting face-to-face to pursue a peace settlement to their civil war, in which the United States insinuated itself in 2001 […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 15, 2010

NATO’s Obsolescence is Greatly Exaggerated

By James Joyner

Daniel Larison responds to "The Case Against the Case Against NATO" with a strong Realist rebuttal.  But it continues to conflate legitimate concerns about American interventionism with the Alliance itself.

Issue Brief

Oct 15, 2010

Triple Crown 2010: Can the Transatlantic Alliance be Strategic?

By Marc Grossman

Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Atlantic Council Board Director Marc Grossman encourages the Obama Administration to view the bureaucratic challenge of managing the upcoming NATO, U.S.-EU and OSCE summits as an opportunity to create a more coherent, strategic transatlantic relationship that maximizes the capabilities of all three organizations. Download the PDF

European Union International Organizations

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 […]

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