Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

American Hard Power, Delivered Softly

By Magnus Nordenman

Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon on record, has devastated the Philippines. Nearly four thousand people have been confirmed dead, and the casualty figure is mounting quickly. More than twelve thousand people have been injured and almost two million people have been displaced. The United States is responding by sending the George Washington carrier strike group […]

NATO’s Next Challenges

By Barry Pavel and Magnus Nordenman

NATO currently finds itself in a period of transition of strategic importance. The combat mission in Afghanistan, which has pre-occupied the Alliance for over a decade, is slowly but surely coming to a close, while transatlantic austerity has triggered significant cuts in defense budgets and a near-mad scramble to find ways to do more, or […]

The security of cities: ecology and conflict on an urbanizing planet

By Peter Engelke

A new report issued jointly by the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center, The Security of Cities: Ecology and Conflict on an Urbanizing Planet, argues that the environmental security field has yet to incorporate global urbanization, the twenty-first century’s central demographic trend, fully into its purview.

NATO’s Role in Energy Security: Opportunities and Challenges

The Atlantic Council’s Energy and Environment Program and the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted Colonel Romualdas Petkevicius, director of NATO’s Energy Security Center of Excellence (ENSEC COE) in Lithuania, for a discussion moderated by on the functions and structure of the ENSEC COE and how the Center fits into broader NATO policies concerning […]

Examining the Past, Present, and Future of Cyber Conflict

On November 15, 2013 a panel of cyber experts, featuring Mr. Richard Bejtlich, the chief security officer of MANDIANT, Dr. Greg Rattray, senior fellow in the Cyber Statecraft Initiative and chief executive officer of Delta Risk, and Mr. Jason Healey, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative addressed the past, present, and future of cyber conflict.

Combatant Command Task Force Holds First Meeting

On November 14, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security held the first Combatant Command Task Force meeting. This not-for-attribution session served as the first meeting of the Task Force.

Geopolitics of Energy in the Asia Pacific

In the first event of the joint Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and Energy and Environment Program‘s Geopolitics Initiative, this event engaged senior US, Russian, Asian, and European experts in a strategic conversation on multilateral cooperation on the broad issues of energy for the Asia-Pacific region, including sources of supply; climate change impacts on the […]

Future NATO: Deterrence and Collective Defense

On November 12, the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted a conference on NATO’s Deterrence and Collective Defense in partnership with the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies.

Protecting the East Coast from Iranian Missiles

By Ian Brzezinski

In the wake of the government shutdown’s interruption of fiscal 2014 budget deliberations, Congress still faces tough decisions about national defense priorities. One controversial issue that will resurface shortly is the need to protect the East Coast from the threat of Iran’s growing ballistic-missile capability. When it does so, Washington should avoid repeating what has been an unnecessarily bipolar debate […]

Spying: It’s What’s For Dinner

By Alex Ward

Back in September, Brazil’s President Dilma Rouseff canceled her state visit to the United States, which included the rare honor of a state dinner, because she was “incensed over a series of reports that the NSA tapped her personal communications.” This, of course, was only one grievance among many as it was revealed the United States spies on […]

Munich Security Conference Core Group Meets to Discuss NSA Spying Scandal

On November 6, the Atlantic Council partnered with the Brookings Institution and the Munich Security Conference to host the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting. The Core Group Meeting, an offshoot of the larger Munich Security Conference, brings together an exclusive group of top-level policymakers and officials to frankly and openly exchange ideas on the […]

Capitalizing on the Urban Future

On October 31, 2013, the Strategic Foresight Initiative (SFI) of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted the launch event for USAID’s Policy for an Urbanizing World.

Global trends and the future of NATO: alliance security in an era of global competition

By Barry Pavel and Magnus Nordenman

The latest issue brief by Barry Pavel, Atlantic Council VP and director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, and Magnus Nordenman, Brent Scowcroft Center deputy director, argues that global shifts in economic and military power, demographics, resource demand, and other critical megatrends will require NATO to overhaul its long-term strategy for the future. […]

Leveraging Europe’s Potential for Transatlantic Missile Defense

By Ian Brzezinski and Patrick O’Reilly

One of the most important initiatives concerning US and European security has been the Washington-led effort to build a transatlantic missile defense architecture to counter the growing threat posed by the proliferation of missile technologies. This threat includes Iran’s increasingly capable missiles that many project will be soon able to  strike the United States, as well […]

The Geopolitical Contradictions of the NSA Scandal

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

Europe’s infatuation with Barack Obama started and ended in Germany. The European public fell head over heels in 2008, when then-candidate Obama addressed hundreds of thousands of adoring Germans at the Victory Column. His story was compelling and reminded Europeans of everything they loved about America. Best of all, candidate Obama spoke like a European, […]

Discussing Baltic Challenges with Latvian Minister of Defense

On October 29, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted an off-the-record strategy session with the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Latvia, H.E. Artis Pabriks, to discuss current and future security challenges to the Baltic region.