Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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.

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.

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 […]

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.\

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 […]

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.”

Maritime Security Conference: Welcome Remarks Transcript

Back to Maritime Security Conference Speakers: CDR Philip Walker, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council RADM Philip Wisecup, President, U.S. Naval War College Damon Wilson, Vice President and Director, International Security Program, Atlantic Council Ambassador Mary Yates, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Advisor on Strategic Planning, National Security Council

Jonathan Greenert – Keynote Speech Transcript

Back to Maritime Security Conference Speakers: CDR Philip Walker, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council Franklin D. Kramer, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs & Vice Chair, Atlantic Council ADM Jonathan Greenert, Vice Chief of Naval Operations

In Search of Strategy

By Derek Reveron

The Obama administration is rethinking its strategy in Afghanistan. NATO is developing its new strategic concept. And the United States military is conducting its strategic defense review. It seems that one cannot talk about international affairs today without first thinking about strategy.

Defensive on Missile Defense

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

A series of briefings by General Patrick O’Reilly of the Missile Defense Agency, Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher, and Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Nacht at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday provided a strong case and rationale for the administration’s recent decision on missile defense in Europe.

Transcript: Missile Defense in Europe – Ellen Tauscher

Full transcript of Ellen Tauscher’s remarks and discussion at the 2009 missile defense conference “Missile Defense in Europe: Next Steps.”

Transcript: Missile Defense in Europe – Michael Turner

Full transcript of Representative Michael Turner’s remarks and discussion at the 2009 missile defense conference “Missile Defense in Europe: Next Steps.”

Transcript: Missile Defense in Europe – Panel 4

Full transcript of the fourth panel entitled “The Broader Arms Control Agenda” at the 2009 missile defense conference “Missile Defense in Europe: Next Steps.”