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

Aug 10, 2009

An Alternative Counter-Terrorism Strategy: International Elements

By Bernard Finel

My colleague Evelyn Farkas challenged me to provide a follow-on to my somewhat critical review of John Brennan’s speech outlining the Obama Administration’s counter-terrorism policy. 

New Atlanticist

Aug 10, 2009

Pakistan and the Taliban: Leaders Caught Betwixt and Between

By Shuja Nawaz

Following the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud from an American drone attack, Pakistan faces a number of challenges. Will it be able to take an offensive against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as it faces disarray? Will it be able to resist the US pressure to “do more” against the Afghan Taliban now that the United […]

New Atlanticist

Aug 7, 2009

There Is a Military Option on Iran

By Chuck Wald

In a policy address at the Council on Foreign Relations last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of Iran, “We cannot be afraid or unwilling to engage.” But the Iranian government has yet to accept President Obama’s outstretched hand. Even if Tehran suddenly acceded to talks, U.S. policy makers must prepare for the eventuality […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Aug 7, 2009

U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue

By Patrick deGategno and Damien Tomkins

If you think the first U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue last week lacked substance, you are wrong.  It was a promising step in the growing bilateral relationship.

China United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Aug 4, 2009

The Next Stage in U.S.-China Relations

By Banning Garrett

The China-U.S. relationship for the 21st Century is being forged in a new, strategically interdependent world—a globalized world no longer characterized by the zero-sum strategic competition among the major powers that dominated the Cold War and preceding eras. The United States and China are not strategic competitors but rather face common strategic challenges that can […]

China

New Atlanticist

Aug 4, 2009

Rasmussen: Afghanistan NATO’s Top Priority

By James Joyner

New NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has wasted no time in signaling that the war in Afghanistan is the Alliance’s top priority, holding a teleconference on the conflict, reorganizing the mission’s command structure and calling for more EU help in his first days on the job.

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Aug 3, 2009

Kashmir Self-Determination Revisited

By Luv Puri

On 5 May 1946, People’s Age, a communist newspaper, noted in a commentary that granting the right to complete self-determination to all the nationalities living in India would eliminate the possibility of a constitutional solution along communal lines. The right, it continued, could be conceded after a territorial re-division of provinces, done on a scientific […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 31, 2009

Russia’s Energy Weapon Could Take Aim at USA

By Alexandros Petersen

Recently the European Commission urgently recommended that all European Union member-state governments begin filling natural-gas storage facilities in preparation for energy cutoffs from Russia. If Russia’s Kremlin-controlled energy monopoly Gazprom gets its way, such emergency measures may also become a reality in the United States.

Energy & Environment Russia

New Atlanticist

Jul 30, 2009

Congress, Pork, and the F-22

By Bernard Finel

A frustrating tendency in media coverage of the defense budgeting process is the presumption that anything Congress adds to the Department of Defense’s budget request must be political pork (see, for example, “Pork-Laden Defense Bill Weighed“).

New Atlanticist

Jul 28, 2009

Transatlantic Partnership under the Obama Administration

By Damon Wilson

This month’s G-8 Summit in Italy marked President Obama’s third visit to Europe in the first six months of his Presidency.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 24, 2009

It’s Time to Get Serious on the Southern Corridor

By Alexandros Petersen

Is Western energy policy in the Black Sea-Caspian region finally coming together? Are the fortunes of the ill-fated Nabucco pipeline finally looking up?

New Atlanticist

Jul 22, 2009

Bush’s Third Term

By James Joyner

In an essay for The National Interest, “Bush’s Third Term,” I catalog the remarkable continuity  between Barack Obama’s foreign policy and that of his predecessor.  While noting that real change may be coming on missile defense, Israel, and Cuba, I point out how little has changed on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, al Qaeda, North Korea, […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 21, 2009

The Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

“If the Department of Defense can’t figure out a way to defend the United States on half a trillion dollars a year, then our problems are much bigger than anything that can be cured by buying a few more ships and planes.” So spoke Defense Secretary Robert Gates, angry with the profligate ways of both the Congress […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 20, 2009

Will COIN Work in Afghanistan?

By Don Snow

The Obama administration has invested a great deal (one can argue too much) of its national security capital in the war on Afghanistan, and the chief instrument for realizing that investment has been the application of counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine to the situation. This application, in turn, is based on putting into action the Army and […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 15, 2009

‘International FEMA’ Needed for Contingency Operations?

By James Joyner

Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, argues that we need an “international FEMA” to coordinate complex contingency operations across the various agencies of the American government and institutionalize lessons learned.

New Atlanticist

Jul 14, 2009

At War with Pakistan’s Taliban

By Shuja Nawaz

After years of self-denial, Pakistani society and its government now face the reality of a dangerous – nay, existential – threat to their polity from a home-grown variant of the Afghan Taliban, a movement that was spawned by the U. S. invasion of Afghanistan and grew into a potent political force in the past three […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 14, 2009

U.S.-China Relations: The Changing Climate of Diplomacy

By Banning Garrett

From the start of the global economic crisis, it has become clear that a new world order has emerged. While the world is increasingly interconnected, it is specifically the U.S.-China relationship that will determine how and if our leaders can meet the major global challenges of the 21st century.

China

New Atlanticist

Jul 10, 2009

Afghanistan Caveats Coming to End?

By James Joyner

General John Craddock, the outgoing SACEUR, says the caveats that constrain how some countries’ NATO forces are used “increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success” and are “a detriment to effective command and control.” 

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 9, 2009

Where are the Local Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq?

By Bernard Finel

In both Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has more expansive and ambitious goals than our local allies.

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2009

Are you Passionate about Afghanistan?

By Kenneth Payne

No? That could be a problem. Yesterday, Richard Holmes wrote this in his tribute to Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards commanding officer who was killed in Afghanistan on July 1:

Afghanistan United Kingdom
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