Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

NATO: Reboot or Delete?

By Sarwar Kashmeri

It would be a pity to let NATO fade away; because it will then have to be reinvented someday. And that will not be easy. Today’s NATO is an increasingly dysfunctional organization, still searching for a new role two decades after the end of the Cold War. Left dangling in this state NATO will soon […]

NATO 2020 Group of Experts Report

On 17 May, the Group of Experts appointed by Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to lay the groundwork for a new Strategic Concept for NATO presented its analysis and recommendations to the North Atlantic Council (NAC). Download the PDF

Political Correctness

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

A gaffe in Washington is when someone inadvertently blurts out the truth. There is a reluctance in the nation’s capital, bordering on paralysis, to be politically incorrect. After six decades as a journalist, I have no hesitation in casting political correctness aside if it shades or distorts the truth.

The Trajectory of NATO: An Interview with Andrew Bacevich

By Jason Harmala

In his latest New Atlanticist Podcast, Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri spoke with Boston University Professor of International Relations and History Andrew Bacecvich on NATO’s Strategic Concept and the trajectory of the Alliance.

Renewing the International Order

By Kurt Volker

After eight months of reflection, the senior Group of Experts appointed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, issues its report today. On this basis, the secretary general will prepare a new Strategic Concept for Allies to approve at a summit in Lisbon this November. […]

Shahzad’s Pashtun Connection

By Don Snow

Why Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attempted bomber, decided to mount the terrorist attack against his adopted country has been the subject of a great deal of speculation in the two weeks since it occurred. Most of the analysis has not been very helpful, filled with the kinds of platitudes that run through the terrorism […]

Goodbye to Europe?

By James Joyner

"It is more than a little ironic that NATO has committed itself to defining a new strategic concept at precisely the moment the transatlantic relationship counts for less than at any time since the 1930s."  So begins an FT op-ed by CFR president Richard Haass.

Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

By Laura Hall Gordon Adams

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has rightly been hailed as a great public servant, a stellar Secretary, and a constructive partner to Secretary Clinton.  He also frequently makes the case for building up civilian international affairs capacity in his most prominent policy speeches. Yet a number of his proposals applying this policy in fact undercut […]

Can We Succeed in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

By Harlan Ullman

This week’s very visible visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Washington, combined with the fallout from Faisal Shahzad’s failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square and the specter of forcing Pakistan to go after terrorist training camps in North Waziristan, raises the question of whether or not “we” can succeed in Afghanistan and […]

Pakistan’s Homegrown Extremists

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Pakistan is still producing an estimated 10,000 potential jihadis a year out of 500,000 graduates from Pakistan’s 11,000 madrassas —  young gung-ho boys, mostly 16-year-olds, who finish 10 years of Koranic cramming and who can then recite the holy book by heart in Arabic. That means 114 suras (chapters), 6.247 ayats (verses), or 78,000 words. […]

Pakistan: A Comprehensive Approach

By Luv Puri

Pakistan is one of the most volatile regions in the world today and the situation in that country threatens the world peace. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who masterminded the September 11, 2001 terrorist strike in New York, was arrested in Pakistan; the London bombings of July 7, 2005 were carried out by Pakistani-origin terrorists; and the […]

NATO: Problems with No Solutions?

By James Joyner

NATO risks becoming a relic of the Cold War unless it finds a renewed sense of solidarity and political will while framing its new Strategic Concept.  That’s the central message of  STRATCON 2010: An Alliance for a Global Century, a report by the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group.

STRATCON 2010: An Alliance for a Global Century

NATO risks becoming a relic of the Cold War unless it finds a renewed sense of solidarity and political will while framing its new Strategic Concept.  That’s the central message of  STRATCON 2010: An Alliance for a Global Century, a report by the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group. Download the PDF

North Korea’s Radio Waves of Resistance

By Peter Beck

North Korea remains the most isolated country on earth, with its people effectively cut off from the outside world—or so the world has been told. But there is reason to believe this is no longer the case. My research suggests millions of North Koreans listen to or hear about foreign radio broadcasts. There is evidence […]

China’s Rise Means U.S. Fall in Asia

By Hugh De Santis

Chinese President Hu Jintao’s more conciliatory behavior at the recent nuclear summit is not likely to signal a change in Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in world affairs. Whether China’s reemergence as one of the world’s great powers proves to be advantageous or an impediment to international cooperation, however, remains an open question. How China relates to […]

Ankara and Baku: Much Closer Ties

By Alexandros Petersen

Alexandros Petersen, a nonresident senior fellow at the Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, was interviewed by Azerbaijan’s News.Az on the relations between Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.