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

Nov 3, 2009

Obama Foreign Policy Report Card

By James Joyner

The editors at Foreign Policy magazine used the occasion of the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s election as president to ask a “a group of experts” to grade President Obama’s foreign policy performance.   I was honored to be among the graders.

New Atlanticist

Nov 2, 2009

NATO-Russia Reset Needed

By Donald Bandler and Jakub Kulhanek

In March of 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for pushing a “reset” button in US-Russian relations, and since then officials from both countries have been making tentative inroads in that direction. Yet, the thaw in US-Russian relations should not obscure the need for improvement of the overall state of relations between Russia […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 30, 2009

Afghanistan: Cutting Our Losses

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Not one of the 42 nations involved on the ground in Afghanistan wants to stay the course until the birth of a new nation, cleansed of Taliban insurgents, and a reasonable facsimile of democratic rule. To begin with, no one believes this would be possible short of another 10-year commitment. And untold billions more in […]

Afghanistan
Sarwar Kashmeri

New Atlanticist

Oct 28, 2009

Rajon Menon Afghanistan Elections Interview

By James Joyner

Sarwar Kashmeri, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, has interviewed Rajan Menon, Monroe J. Rathbone Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University, for the New Atlanticist Podcast series. Menon recently penned an oped titled “Nobody wins in the Afghan runoff election” for  the Los Angeles Times.

New Atlanticist

Oct 28, 2009

Influenza and International Security

By Derek Reveron

Earlier this year, a novel influenza captured the world’s attention when what became known as “swine flu” or H1N1 (hemagglutinin type 1 and neuraminidase type 1) emerged in La Gloria, Mexico.

New Atlanticist

Oct 27, 2009

Afghanistan: A Modest Case for Dithering

By Alex Massie

My old chum, and former boss, Iain Martin writes that time is, in fact, of the essence in Afghanistan and that Barack Obama needs to make a decision:

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 27, 2009

While Obama Dithers

By James Joyner

An incredibly junior contractor-for-hire has resigned over disagreement with our AfPak policy, prompting a high level scramble within the administration and a long feature in the Washington Post.

Afghanistan Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 26, 2009

Common Sense and COIN in Afghanistan

By Don Snow

As the Obama administration’s internal debate over what to do in Afghanistan has publicly clarified, two prerequisites for the success of the American effort have risen to the top: good governance and the emegence of effective Afghan security forces. Both represent the triumph of simple common sense over the supposed arcane details of COIN  strategy, […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 26, 2009

Democracy Promotion Done Right

By Derek Reveron

Joe Biden’s recent trip to Central Europe underscores that the United States still supports democracy promotion, is not afraid to state that publicly, and encourages its allies to do the same. In Romania, the vice president said, “you delivered on the promise of your revolution. You are in a position to help others do the […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 23, 2009

Obama and Israel: Different Middle East Peace Strategies

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Unless former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, President Obama’s special Middle Eastern envoy, is prepared to commute by government executive jet for the next five to 10 years, this isn’t a bad time to turn in his badge. Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s vice prime minister and minister for strategic affairs in Israel’s 32nd government, talked his way […]

Israel

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2009

Biden to Bucharest: Why Romania?

By Damon Wilson

Vice President Biden is visiting Central Europe this week as part of the administration’s damage control efforts in the wake of the botched roll-out of its missile defense decisions.  The White House’s objective extends beyond missile defense however; Biden’s task is to reassure allies and demonstrate commitment to a region that is second-guessing the American […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2009

Iranian Regime Under Three-Front Attack

By Jonathan Paris

The terrorist attacks on October 18 killing dozens of Revolutionary Guardsmen, including seven top commanders, and several tribal leaders in Southeastern Iran are the latest episode of a three-fold challenge to the Regime. These attacks were followed two days later by the shooting of two Iranian police officers in Iranshahr in the same Sistan-Baluchistan province. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2009

Give Pakistan Modern Military Tools

By Shuja Nawaz

The battle for Pakistan has finally started in earnest along the northwest frontier. After months of warning of an impending attack, the Pakistani military moved into South Waziristan this weekend to stamp out the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is allied with al Qaeda and allows the terrorist group to operate from the region. The Army […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2009

Beware False Choices

By Harlan Ullman

In politics, catchy phrases often become sound bites. Sound bites become slogans that are transformed into partisan rallying points irrespective of logic or veracity. In this process, highly complex issues are invariably defined in terms of simplistic and misleading false choices.

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Peter Galbraith Afghanistan Elections Interview

By James Joyner

Sarwar Kashmeri, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, has inaugurated the New Atlanticist Podcast series with an interview with Ambassador Peter Galbraith on the Afghanistan election crisis.

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Pakistan’s Government, Not Military, Must Fight Taliban

By Shuja Nawaz

Rising violence, targeted and random, has become a fact of life in Pakistan today. It threatens the country’s political and economic future—and there still does not appear to be a strategy to stop it.

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Beyond Piracy: Maritime Security and Safety Challenges

By Derek Reveron

For the last year, piracy in East Africa has captured the world’s attention, as evidenced by the more than a dozen countries’ warships deployed to the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin. This includes unprecedented out-of-area naval deployments for the European Union, NATO, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. In spite of this, naval […]

East Africa Somalia

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2009

Afghanistan Election: Now What?

By James Joyner

A United Nations panel has ordered a run-off in Afghanistan’s presidential election, ruling that Hamid Karzai got less than fifty percent of the legitimate ballots cast and that nearly a third of the votes previously counted were fraudulent.  It remains to be seen how Karzai and the West will respond.\

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2009

Pakistan’s Nukes Threatened by Taliban Resurgence

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

A Talib is a male student who is attending or who has graduated from a madrassa and can recite the Koran in Arabic by heart. To learn Arabic and use the language of the prophet to recite in rhythmic tones the entire Koran’s 114 chapters and 6,236 verses takes about 10 years. By the time […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2009

American Strategy Migration: Focus Must Shift from Afghanistan to Pakistan

By Paul Bauman

Derek Reveron’s “In Search of Strategy” is an excellent piece on a subject that deserves more attention.  It brought to mind the definition laid out Everett Dolman’s Pure Strategy: “strategy, in its simplest form, is a plan for attaining continuing advantage.”

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