Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Will China Rule the World?

By Robert Manning

Have the past two centuries of a Western defined and dominated world order — the norms, rules and ways of thinking about the world — the very concept of modernity — been a historical anomaly?

Azerbaijan – Turkey High Stakes Gas Deal

By Boyko Nitzov and Galib Abbaszade

Ever since the beginnings of the modern petroleum industry in Azerbaijan in the mid-19th century, the country has, despite being a major oil exporter, also been a net gas importer. It was only recently that production from Phase I of the Shah Deniz gas-condensate field picked up, along with output of associated gas at the […]

National Security Strategy Preview

By Derek Reveron

Rumors have President Obama’s National Security Strategy, which is about a year overdue, finally being released tomorrow. After 16 months in office, the president has given many hints, most notably his Nobel Peace Prize address that emphasized international cooperation. In Oslo, he said: “America cannot insist that others follow the rules of the road if […]

Pakistan’s Bloody Alphabet Soup

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

The Pakistani army showed no hesitation about pursuing and killing Taliban insurgents everywhere except in North Waziristan, one of the seven tribal areas where different terrorist groups have long enjoyed a privileged sanctuary. When Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was in Washington six weeks ago, he briefed his American interlocutors on the army’s […]

Onward to Kandahar

By Don Snow

The United States and its ISAF allies are inching closer to the next big battleground in Afghanistan–the assault on Kandahar City. Kandahar, of course, is both the hometown of Afghan President and sometimes U.S. buddy Hamid Karzai and the main urban redoubt of the Taliban. This juxtaposition in itself creates the parameters for the mission […]

NATO in the Present and Future: A Conversation with General John Craddock

By Jason Harmala

Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri’s latest New Atlanticist Podcast features General John Craddock, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Atlantic Council Board Director. General Craddock discusses NATO in the Horn of Africa, and European contributions to NATO operations and the planned missile defense shield.

NATO’s Center of Gravity: Political Will

By Jorge Benitez

Whether you call it alliance solidarity, unity, or cohesion, NATO needs political will to overcome the external and internal forces threatening its success in Afghanistan and ultimate survival. A consensus of transatlantic elites will not be sufficient for the Alliance to overcome the economic crisis, military conflicts, and internal friction it is currently facing.

NATO: Reboot or Delete?

By Sarwar Kashmeri

It would be a pity to let NATO fade away; because it will then have to be reinvented someday. And that will not be easy. Today’s NATO is an increasingly dysfunctional organization, still searching for a new role two decades after the end of the Cold War. Left dangling in this state NATO will soon […]

NATO 2020 Group of Experts Report

On 17 May, the Group of Experts appointed by Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to lay the groundwork for a new Strategic Concept for NATO presented its analysis and recommendations to the North Atlantic Council (NAC). Download the PDF

Political Correctness

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

A gaffe in Washington is when someone inadvertently blurts out the truth. There is a reluctance in the nation’s capital, bordering on paralysis, to be politically incorrect. After six decades as a journalist, I have no hesitation in casting political correctness aside if it shades or distorts the truth.

The Trajectory of NATO: An Interview with Andrew Bacevich

By Jason Harmala

In his latest New Atlanticist Podcast, Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri spoke with Boston University Professor of International Relations and History Andrew Bacecvich on NATO’s Strategic Concept and the trajectory of the Alliance.

Renewing the International Order

By Kurt Volker

After eight months of reflection, the senior Group of Experts appointed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, issues its report today. On this basis, the secretary general will prepare a new Strategic Concept for Allies to approve at a summit in Lisbon this November. […]

Shahzad’s Pashtun Connection

By Don Snow

Why Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attempted bomber, decided to mount the terrorist attack against his adopted country has been the subject of a great deal of speculation in the two weeks since it occurred. Most of the analysis has not been very helpful, filled with the kinds of platitudes that run through the terrorism […]

Goodbye to Europe?

By James Joyner

"It is more than a little ironic that NATO has committed itself to defining a new strategic concept at precisely the moment the transatlantic relationship counts for less than at any time since the 1930s."  So begins an FT op-ed by CFR president Richard Haass.

Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

By Laura Hall Gordon Adams

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has rightly been hailed as a great public servant, a stellar Secretary, and a constructive partner to Secretary Clinton.  He also frequently makes the case for building up civilian international affairs capacity in his most prominent policy speeches. Yet a number of his proposals applying this policy in fact undercut […]