Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

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New Atlanticist

Jul 28, 2011

India-Pakistan Rivalry Afghanistan’s “Gordian Knot”

By Barbara Slavin

U.S. hopes to withdraw forces and leave behind a stable Afghanistan may rest on whether Pakistan and India can lower bilateral tensions and refrain from using Afghan territory for a new proxy war.

India Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 21, 2011

Has Libya Killed Off Denuclearization of North Korea?

By Banning Garrett

An unnoted consequence of the NATO military effort to topple the Gaddafi regime may be any hope of eventual denuclearization of North Korea or Iran. The September 2005 denuclearization agreement with North Korea made security guarantees to Pyongyang in exchange for verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons. The North Koreans signed, but promptly shunned the deal […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Jul 21, 2011

Bitter Divides Persist Below Bahrain’s Relatively Calm Surface

By Barbara Slavin

When Bahraini ambassador Houda Ezra Nonoo arrived in Washington three years ago, she was greeted as the representative of a close U.S. ally with a reputation for more openness and tolerance than most Gulf nations.

New Atlanticist

Jul 20, 2011

An Effective, Affordable Uncommon Defense

By Harlan Ullman

Intense debate over what the United States can or will do regarding its massive debt and deficits along with its drawdowns from Afghanistan and Iraq, possibly tempered by the Libyan fiasco, will put defense spending under political and public microscopes. This is the first of a series of columns that examine this question and what […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 19, 2011

Drop by Drop, A River is Formed: Transition Begins in Afghanistan

By William B. Caldwell IV

Over the next week, lead security responsibility in Afghanistan will shift from NATO to the Afghan Army and Police in seven areas: the provinces of Bamiyan, Panjshir, Kabul (minus Sarobi District) and the municipalities of Mazar e-Sharif, Herat, Lashkar Gah, and Mehtar Lam. President Karzai trumpeted this important decision earlier this year and offered a […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 14, 2011

Pentagon’s New Cyber Strategy

By Jason Healey

The Department of Defense’s new cyber strategy, (known as “Cyber 3.0” in the Pentagon) is being released this afternoon and many cyber security professionals who read it may be disappointed that it does not say more. While there is some validity to that concern the strategy does cover important new ground on the most pressing needs […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 12, 2011

US-Iran: Tensions Mount Over Iraq, Nuke Sanctions

By Barbara Slavin

Reviving U.S.-Iran friction over Iraq may have more to do with deteriorating relations over Iran’s nuclear programme than with uncertainty over U.S. troop levels in Iraq beyond the end of this year. In recent weeks, a chorus of U.S. officials has accused Iran of providing lethal weapons to Iraqi Shiite militias that have targeted U.S. […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jul 11, 2011

The Necessity of U.S. Naval Power

By Gordon England James L. Jones and Vern Clark

All our citizens, and especially our servicemen and women, expect and deserve a thorough review of critical security decisions. After all, decisions today will affect the nation’s strategic position for future generations. The future security environment underscores two broad security trends. First, international political realities and the internationally agreed-to sovereign rights of nations will increasingly […]

Issue Brief

Jul 11, 2011

Increasing Outreach, Public Understanding and Support for NATO across the Transatlantic Community

By Kurt Volker

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group member Kurt Volker argues that allied political leaders must make a stronger case for NATO and that the Alliance must be seen as successful for it to regain public support in his brief “Increasing Outreach, Public Understanding and Support for NATO across the Transatlantic […]

NATO Security & Defense

Issue Brief

Jul 11, 2011

U.S. European Command and NATO’S Strategic Concept: Post-Afghanistan and Beyond

By Harlan Ullman

In “U.S. European Command and NATO’s Strategic Concept: Post-Afghanistan and Beyond,” Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group member Harlan Ullman argues that after the NATO drawdown from Afghanistan, EUCOM will become even more important as a means of sustaining and building NATO’s capabilities and capacities in an era of limited defense resources. Download the PDF

European Union International Organizations

Issue Brief

Jul 11, 2011

EUCOM’s Future Force Structure

By Kori Schake

In ‘EUCOM’s Future Force Structure,’ Kori Schake warns that EUCOM is losing the argument with the services, particularly the U.S. Army, about the importance and value of U.S. forces stationed in Europe. This Program on International Security issue brief is part of a series of five issue briefs to assess the future roles, missions and […]

Europe & Eurasia NATO

Issue Brief

Jul 11, 2011

Nuclear Issues for NATO After the Strategic Concept

By Walt Slocombe

Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group member and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Walt Slocombe analyzes how the 2010 NATO Strategic Concept will impact Alliance nuclear politics and posture in “Nuclear Issues for NATO After the Strategic Concept.” Download the PDF

NATO Nuclear Deterrence

Issue Brief

Jul 11, 2011

EUCOM and NATO-EU Relations after the Lisbon Summit

By Leo Michel

In “EUCOM and NATO-EU Relations after the Lisbon Summit: Bank Shots Score Too,” Leo Michel urges the United States to ‘embed’ officers with allied and partner defense institutions and for EUCOM to work with other European institutions on the implementation of the Comprehensive Approach. Download the PDF

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2011

Future of the Marine Corps: Looking Beyond Afghanistan

By Magnus Nordenman

I’m zooming across Virginia at 9,000 feet inside a Marine Corps V-22 Osprey, the sometimes maligned aircraft that just recently entered service with the Marine Corps. I am hitching a ride down to Cherry Point, North Carolina to observe part of Exercise Mailed Fist, the largest Marine Corps exercise on the east coast in decades. […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 6, 2011

Keeping Up With Mideast Changes

By Barbara Slavin

The Obama administration took two important steps last week that demonstrated much-needed realism and nuance in the evolving U.S. relationship with political Islam. First, on Wednesday, it unveiled a new counterterrorism strategy that focuses squarely on Al Qaeda and its affiliates. It acknowledges that other groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, might menace U.S. allies and […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 5, 2011

Flying Crocodiles: The Latest Russian Position On Missile Defense Cooperation with NATO

By Barry Pavel

The Russian government is working hard to evolve their latest position opposing cooperation with NATO on a range of potential missile defense projects.  The latest from Dimitry Rogozin, Russian Ambassador to NATO and Special Envoy of President Medvedev on Missile Defense Cooperation with NATO, is that “crocodiles will fly” before any Middle Eastern nation will […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 5, 2011

How to get Pakistan to break with Islamic militants

By Zalmay Khalilzad

In his Afghanistan speech last week, President Obama said we must “address terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.” He vowed to “press Pakistan to expand its participation in securing a more peaceful future,” “work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism” and “insist that it keep its commitments.”

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 5, 2011

Azerbaijan, Armenia will ‘soon be left on their own’ to resolve Karabakh

By Jason Harmala

Borut Grgic, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a member of the advisory board of the European Policy Institute, was interviewed by News.Az on recent developments in the Azerbaijan-Armenia relationship. What are your impressions of the summit in Kazan? Are there grounds for pessimism that no document was signed during this meeting? No, […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 30, 2011

Time for Unity in Europe

By Carles Castello-Catchot

There has not been a time in recent years in which Europe, both as an idea and as a viable political and economic institution, has faced tougher times.

Southern & Southeastern Europe

New Atlanticist

Jun 30, 2011

U.S. Needs Viable Afghan Exit Plan

By Gurmeet Kanwal

There are few people in the United States who understand the American foreign policy better than Henry Kissinger. So, when the former secretary of state, who changed the balance of power in Asia with his “shuttle diplomacy” in the early 1970s, says something about a conflict zone in our part of the world, one has […]

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