Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Pivot Towards Asia Not Pivot Away From Europe

By James Joyner

While President Obama’s new defense strategy is pivoting towards Asia, it’s “not a pivot away from Europe in any way at all,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter assured his Atlantic Council audience.

Pivotal Partnerships: The Prospects for International Defense Cooperation in an Age of Austerity

By Jason Harmala

On Wednesday, February 15, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter joined the Atlantic Council for a public address and conversation on international defense cooperation.

Libya Revisited: Coalition Building and the Future of NATO Operations

By Adrienne Chuck

On February 14, the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program hosted a Commanders Series public address and discussion with General Charles Bouchard, commander of the NATO military mission in Libya.

Counter-Piracy Task Force: Strategic Approaches to the Piracy Challenge

By Adrienne Chuck

On February 8, 2012, the International Security Program and the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a meeting of the Atlantic Council Maritime Piracy Task Force, chaired by Atlantic Council Board Director Franklin D. Miller. This is the third in a series of meetings looking into the challenge of piracy and possible strategic approaches.

Afghanistan: End Game or No Game?

By Harlan Ullman

Last week was another roller coaster ride for international politics. Violence in Egypt; looming civil war in Syria; and threats and counter-threats over Iran’s nuclear intentions reverberated around the international security community intensifying the gathering sense of impending disaster. In Brussels at the NATO Defense Ministers’ meeting followed by the Munich Security Conference the next […]

Can Egypt Avoid Pakistan’s Fate?

By Michele Dunne and Shuja Nawaz

One year after the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military is closing down civil society organizations and trying to manipulate the constitution-writing process to serve its narrow interests. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, where the military has also held sway for more than half the country’s existence — for much of that time, with […]

Managing US-Russian Relations During the Year of Political Transitions: A Perspective from Moscow

On January 27, the Atlantic Council held an off-the-record discussion on developments in Russia and in US-Russian relations with Dr. Sergey Rogov, the director for the Institute for US and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Ambassador Richard Burt, Senior Advisor at McLarty Associates and member of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors, […]

Communicating with Terror: A Briefing and Discussion with the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications

By Adrienne Chuck

On January 24, the Atlantic Council welcomed Ambassador Richard LeBaron and his team from the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), a center within the Department of State, for a working lunch and discussion.

In Search of Sand Piles and Butterflies

By Banning Garrett

“Disruptive change” that produces “strategic shocks” has become an increasing concern for policymakers, shaken by momentous events of the last couple of decades that were not on their radar screens – from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the 2008 financial crisis and the “Arab Spring.”

A More Practical Approach To National Sovereignty

By James Joyner

Dutch defense minister Hans Hillen argues that transatlantic defense cooperation must be deepened and that this requires “a more practical approach to national sovereignty.”