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

Jun 17, 2010

Turkey: Trusted Eurasian Energy Partner?

By Borut Grgic

Can Europe trust Turkey when it comes to energy security any more than we can trust Ukraine? Turkey is becoming a major energy hub, with pipelines from Russia and the Caspian basin crisscrossing the country. The two notable projects are the Blue Stream gas line, which brings Russian gas to Turkey, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 16, 2010

Paralysis in AfPak

By Harlan Ullman

In Afghanistan, the United States and its allies have dealt the cards and made their bets lying as if in suspended animation while events on the ground unfold. Given the Obama administration’s ambiguous statements over next year’s force reductions, taken as a lack of U.S. commitment in Kabul and Islamabad, last week’s announcement of a […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 16, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Outlook for the Future

By Stanley Sloan

At the end of the day, there are two basic requirements for NATO to be perceived as important enough for the member states to ensure its survival. Put most simply, the United States must be convinced that political and military cooperation with the European allies makes an important net contribution to US interests. On the […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 15, 2010

Afghanistan Effort Falling on its Face

By James Joyner

In the midst of testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee defending the progress of the mission in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus fainted.  Thankfully, he appears to be fine.  Alas, the symbolism was powerful. The 57-year-old chief of Central Command apparently was suffering from a combination of a brutal schedule, too little food and drink, […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 15, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Today’s Challenges

By Stanley Sloan

If we acknowledge that nothing in life lasts forever, the transatlantic bargain between the United States, Canada, and its European allies appears as close to a permanent international alliance as has ever been fashioned by sovereign independent states. Its appearance of permanence is based on the fact that it is founded on shared values and […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2010

Pakistan: Friend or Foe?

By James Joyner

One longstanding question is which side the Pakistan military — particularly the ISI — is on in our war with the Taliban.   A new report gives strong credence to the long-held suspicion that they are not only tacitly backing the enemy but actively supporting them "as clear as the sun in the sky." Jeremy Page […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Surviving the Bush Years

By Stanley Sloan

On the other side of the pond, the unilateralist character of US foreign and defense policy under George W. Bush led some Europeans to favor using integration in the European Union to “balance” US power in the international system. This multi-polar temptation, like the US unilateral temptation, threatened trans-Atlantic cooperation and therefore international stability. The […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2010

Afghanistan Mineral Riches: Beware the Hype

By James Joyner

News that "United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself" should be taken with several doses of salt. James Risen of the NYT broke the story, which has the security […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 11, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Surviving Cold War’s End

By Stanley Sloan

The Soviet threat provided NATO’s main rationale and explanation until the Warsaw Pact disbanded and the Soviet Union disintegrated.  What is it about the transatlantic bargain that has ensured its survival beyond its founding raison d’être? In 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the  the allies were left to assert in the early […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

Defending the Afghanistan Experts

By James Joyner

Some anonymous attendees of Central Command’s Af-Pak conference have penned highly critical blog posts, which have appeared at two pre-eminent national security blogs, Christian Bleuer’s  Ghosts of Alexander and Andrew Exum’s Abu Muqawama.

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Introduction

By Stanley Sloan

It has become popular in recent years to argue that NATO is no longer serving the interests of either the Europeans or the Americans.  Many of these arguments end with the suggestion that the European Union should take over responsibility for defense of European interests, variously accomplished by the United States withdrawing from NATO and […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

Collaboration in Space for International Global Maritime Awareness (C-SIGMA)

By George Guy Thomas

National Security Presidential Directive-41/Homeland Security Presidential Directive-13 establishes U.S. policy for enhancing our national security and protecting our interests in the maritime domain. Specifically, it directs that maritime domain awareness (MDA) efforts be undertaken "to develop an enhanced capability to identify threats to the maritime domain as early and as distant from our shores as […]

STOCK - EU

New Atlanticist

Jun 9, 2010

European Model Down – But Too Early To Count Out

By Kurt Volker

Why does the world today no longer see Europe as a model, as it seemed to do only a few years ago? It’s simple: The world can’t be expected to believe in a European model that Europeans don’t seem to believe in themselves. What is the “European model?” It seems to consist of some combination […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 8, 2010

Georgia Drifts Away from the West

By Matthew Czekaj

The West is losing Georgia, and the West has only itself to blame.  Since the April 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, at which the Alliance declared that Georgia (and Ukraine) would become a member, Europe and the United States have done almost nothing to more fully integrate the Caucasian country into the transatlantic community.  The […]

European Union International Organizations

Issue Brief

Jun 7, 2010

Operationalizing the Comprehensive Approach

By Julian Lindley-French

Julian Lindley-French, member of the Strategic Advisors Group (SAG), writes in the latest SAG Issue Brief about the need for the Strategic Concept to correctly address the issue of the Comprehensive Approach, or political-military cooperation. Download the PDF

NATO Security & Defense

Issue Brief

Jun 7, 2010

Reforming and Modernizing NATO Defense Education

By Harlan Ullman

Strategic Advisors Group (SAG) members Harlan Ullman and Julian Lindley-French implore NATO to innovate and modernize its defense education construct in the latest SAG Issue Brief. Download the PDF

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2010

An Indian Perspective on NATO’s Global Role

By Jason Harmala

K. Subrahmanyam, one of India’s leading strategic analysts and journalists, appears in the latest installment of Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri’s New Atlanticist Podcast Series to discuss India’s perception of NATO, as well as the possibility of India participating in a greater global security role with NATO.

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2010

An Aiken Solution in Afghanistan?

By Don Snow

This week marked a dubious watershed in the U.S. military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the number of American forces in Afghanistan passed the troop total in Iraq. The Iraq side of the ledger is the result of the continuing withdrawal of American combat forces from that country, and Admiral Mike Mullen promised today […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 4, 2010

Maritime Security Wake-Up Call

By James Joyner

"Our ports and waterways remain woefully vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Nearly a decade after 9/11 revolutionized aviation security, we are long overdue to apply many of those lessons learned to maritime security." 

New Atlanticist

Jun 4, 2010

End Of This World?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

North Korea can target, attack and sink a South Korean warship, kill 46 of the South Korean crew but South Korea cannot retaliate without triggering a barrage of shells from North Korea’s 11,000 artillery tubes that can lay waste Seoul, a capital city of 11 million. North Korea is also a rogue nuclear power and […]

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