Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Obama Missile Defense Blunder

By David Smith

The U.S. decision to cancel deployment of a ballistic missile defense system in Central Europe in favor of boosting shorter-range defenses creates immediate policy problems for the Obama administration

Afghanistan: The Intervention Dilemma

By Don Snow

The military dimension of the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan requires establishing a high enough degree of security in the country that the Afghan people will transfer their loyalty away from the Taliban (or will feel adequately unthreatened by the likelihood of a Taliban return to express opposition to the insurgents). As noted in a previous posting […]

Obama Having Buyer’s Remorse in Afghanistan?

By James Joyner

Obama administration officials are now admitting what has been apparent for weeks: that they are giving serious consideration to radically downsizing the Afghanistan mission.  That this comes only months after unveiling a substantially different strategy to great fanfare is naturally raising questions.

Afghanistan Victory: Translating Goals into Strategy

By Don Snow

Assuming the counterinsurgent partners (in this case, the Afghan and American governments) can agree on a desired outcome that consititutes its version of the better state of the peace (BSOP), the next question is how to achieve that condition? This means determining what political and military conditions must exist to be able to declare the […]

Missile Defense Rollout Rushed

By James Joyner

The rollout of President Obama’s new missile defense policy was “compressed” because news was leaking and leading to rampant speculation, Alexander “Sandy” Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs told an Atlantic Council conference call this morning. As a result, there was “not as much consultation” with our allies in Poland and the […]

Missile Defense Debrief

The Honorable Alexander Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, Director of the Missile Defense Agency, joined the Atlantic Council for an exclusive teleconference briefing on the Obama administration’s decision to pursue alternative technologies and architectures for missile defense in Europe.

Transcript: Missile Defense Debrief

Full transcript of the September 22, 2009 conference call featuring The Honorable Alexander Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, Director of the Missile Defense Agency.

Foreign Policy Community War-Mongers?

By James Joyner

Writing in today’s WSJ, Council on Foreign Relations president emeritus Leslie Gelb pronounces himself “lost on President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan policy” and offers up a middle ground solution for Afghanization of the conflict.

Debating Afghanistan: Beyond the McChrystal Leak

By James Joyner

An interesting sidebar to the debate sparked by the leak of General McChrystal’s Afghanistan strategy review is the question of how such debates should take place to begin with.

McChrystal: More Troops or Failure in Afghanistan

By James Joyner

As widely rumored, NATO’s Afghanistan commander has asked President Obama for another sizable increase in troops, otherwise suffer “likely failure.”

Brzezinski Endorses Obama Missile Decision, Slams Rollout

By James Joyner

Yesterday, I noted that Brent Scowcroft supports President Obama’s missile defense decision.  Another distinguished member of our International Advisory Board,  Zbigniew Brzezinski, has voiced his support as well — albeit in an extremely colorful manner that’s not particularly flattering to the president.

Nabucco and Trans-Caspian Relations

By Alexandros Petersen

This summer’s dispute over undersea Caspian energy resources between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, as well as Ashgabat’s recently stated intention to bolster its maritime military capabilities, have seemingly thrown Trans-Caspian relations into a tailspin, jeopardizing plans for energy cooperation to supply the strategic Nabucco natural gas pipeline.

Obama’s Missile Defense Decision: The View From Europe

By James Joyner

President Obama’s decision to abandon the missile defense systems in Poland and Czech Republic agreed to by his predecessor has created a firestorm of controversy, with quite different reactions in Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and domestically.

NATO – Russia Strategic Partnership?

By James Joyner

New NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for “open-minded and unprecedented dialogue” with Russia to create a “true strategic partnership” on issues ranging from Afghanistan to terrorism to nuclear proliferation. While “Russia should realize that NATO is here and that NATO is a framework for our transatlantic relationship,” he argued, “we should also […]

Afghanistan: Who Cares More?

By Don Snow

The last posting opened with the question of what was between the United States and attaining its goals in Afghanistan. To pose and frame the question, a “formula” of sorts was put forward to describe the process and barriers to reaching the desired end (Goal Attainment=Successful COIN+Successful State-Building). In the first posting, questions were raised […]

Afghanistan: Barriers to Success

By Don Snow

Recent developments in Afghanistan – discontent over the elections, increased violence, likely US military calls for additional manpower, growing U.S. public disaffection with the effort – have all coalesced to increase the intensity of discussions about what the United States seeks to accomplish in that far distant country

Trade War With China?

By Dave Schuler

On Friday President Obama decided to levy a 35% tariff on tires imported from China. This morning China has responded by beginning the process of imposing tariffs on U. S. auto products and chicken white meat

Putin’s Pipeline Pipe Dream

By Alexandros Petersen

In the geopolitical duel that is Eurasian pipeline diplomacy, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s August trip to Ankara was meant to be the riposte to July’s Nabucco pipeline signing ceremony.

9/11 Plus 8: Is Bin Laden a Failure?

By James Joyner

Tony Karon has a provocative piece in TIME arguing that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have failed regardless of how many innocents they have killed or will kill. He’s only half right.