Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Brussels Workshop on Protecting the Global Commons

On September 19 the Atlantic Council in partnership with Allied Command Transformation and the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) gathered experts and NATO, EU, and national representatives for a workshop on NATO’s Role in the Global Commons.

Europeans’ Afghan Apathy and Consequences for NATO

By Steve Hynd

Across the pond, public support for NATO’s out-of-area adventure is cratering. The wide-ranging Transatlantic Trends study by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) also saw deep divisions between Europe and the United States on how to handle Iran’s nuclear ambitions. While 51 percent of Americans said they were confident that Afghanistan could […]

NATO in Afghanistan: Perception and Reality

By James Joyner

Anatol Lieven, the eminent journalist and now professor at the King’s College Department of War Studies, argues that the NATO effort in Afghanistan suffers from disparate and implausible motives and a profound lack of understanding of Afghanistan and the Taliban. In a very long book review essay at Current Intelligence, Lieven offers this assessment of […]

It’s time for the Senate to vote on New START

By George Shultz-Madeleine Albright-Gary Hart and Chuck Hagel

The Senate should promptly vote to approve the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START) with Russia for one reason: It increases U.S. national security. This is precisely why Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared at the outset of Senate consideration of the treaty that it has "the unanimous support of America’s military leadership." The treaty […]

Gates’ Remarkable Pentagon Transformation

By James Joyner

Robert Gates has been a reluctant Secretary of Defense, being coaxed out of the cushy presidency of Texas A&M by President Bush and talked into staying by President Obama.  But his impact on the Pentagon has been tremendous. Slate national security columnist Fred Kaplan has an excellent profile in Foreign Policy titled "The Transformer." On why Gates stayed on after […]

Pakistan Relations Poisoned

By Harlan Ullman

In Pakistan, following the catastrophic flooding that literally is drowning an entire nation, could things get much worse? Unfortunately, last week, things did. While trivial by comparison with the human suffering, several snapshots portray the level of poisons within the U.S.-Pakistani relationships as well as with other friends and would-be Pakistani benefactors that could be […]

NATO: A Fat, Bloated, Job Creation Project?

By James Joyner

Lost amidst the welcome news of British-French cooperation on military cost-sharing in some tough talk from their ministers of defense on NATO. Last week, I noted that the FT‘s superb reporter Ben Hall buried the lead, waiting until the 13th paragraph of a story to pass along Liam Fox’s pronouncement that, “We cannot accept a bloated […]

UK MOD Liam Fox: NATO ‘Bloated’

By Ben Hall, FT

From Ben Hall, FT: Speaking after a meeting in Paris, Liam Fox, UK defence secretary, and Hervé Morin, his French counterpart, said they were discussing with “absolute pragmatism” the scope for closer co-operation or even mutualisation of military capabilities and industrial projects amid tight spending constraints.

Cry for me Pakistan

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

The United States spent nine years (1980-89) working closely with Pakistan’s military against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan; followed by 11 years (1990-2001) of punishing Pakistan with all manner of sanctions for its secret nuclear weapons development that it kept denying even existed; followed by nine years (2001-10) making up with Pakistan as "a major […]

European Militaries Shrinking, Becoming More Useful

By Raymond Pritchett

The Germans are talking about military reform and to be honest, it is actually a very interesting issue to follow. This article can bring you up to speed on some of the issues if you are interested, but for more depth to the debate you’ll need to look elsewhere (and most of it is in […]

WikiLeak-Proofing The Pentagon

By James Joyner

Wired‘s Spencer Ackerman reports on the Pentagon’s measures to fix obvious flaws in its security revealed by the Wikileaks debacle.

The Most Significant Threat to NATO

By James Joyner, the New Atlanticist

From James Joyner, the New Atlanticist:  Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, generated quite the buzz with his proclamation last week that, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt."  The same could be said for the NATO alliance.

Pentagon’s Greatest Threat

By Harlan Ullman

Let us be blunt. The U.S. Department of Defense and the entire federal government face a fiscal crisis far worse than any threat posed by al-Qaida, Iran or North Korea. Barring another Sept. 11th shock to the system, the massive debt and deficits will force defense budgets to shrink dramatically. Sadly, the U.S. government may […]

The Most Significant Threat to NATO

By James Joyner

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, generated quite the buzz with his proclamation last week that, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt."  The same could be said for the NATO alliance. Mullen explained that "ability for our country to resource our military" will be "directly proportional" […]

Determining Citizenship: Belgianization of Central Europe

By Matthew Czekaj

Romanian President Traian Basescu is on a mission to right the wrongs of Stalin, and he does not care what the Western European media have to say about it.  In a recent joint interview with Moldovan Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, Basescu affirmed that Romania has granted citizenship to 17,000 Moldovan nationals this year.

Wars of Religion

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

In his 30-year career with the FBI, Oliver "Buck" Revell dealt with all manner of transnational crime and terrorism and held numerous senior positions with the bureau. In mid-1985, he achieved the highest rank in career government service when he became the FBI director’s deputy for counter-terrorism and counterintelligence activities. All manner of awards and […]

West Point Superintendent on Educating Cadets in Complex Global Environment

By Sarwar Kashmeri

In the latest installment of the New Atlanticist Podcast Series Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri interviews LTG David Huntoon, recently-appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. Huntoon discusses how the Academy is adapting to a complex and rapidly-changing global environment, and the importance of instilling tomorrow’s military leaders with a well-rounded […]

Fighting the Peace Spoilers

By Andrew Kessinger

On January 24th the U.N. Security Council – with backing from the Obama administration – decided to remove five former high-ranking Taliban leaders from its global terrorist blacklist. The move was controversial for a reason: it was the first time sanctions had ever been lifted for Taliban members and signaled that the international community was […]