Scowcroft Center Commentary, Analysis, & Reports

Explore the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s latest insights, commentary, articles, media hits, and in-depth reports

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New Atlanticist

Jan 19, 2009

Polls: Obama Presidency and Gaza Blame

By James Joyner

The new Atlantic Council poll is on the obvious topic: The presidency of Barack Obama, which begins tomorrow. Readers are asked to predict what kind of president he’ll be: one of America’s greatest presidents; a failed president, overwhelmed by problems; a rather average president.

New Atlanticist

Jan 16, 2009

Henry Kissinger: Optimist!

By James Joyner

Henry Kissinger has been called many names over the years.  But Atlantic Council president and CEO may have found a new one last night after the conclusion of Kissinger’s Makins Lecture:  Optimist.

New Atlanticist

Jan 16, 2009

Kissinger’s Formula: Goal + Capability + Staying Power

By James Joyner

Brent Scowcroft, who followed Henry Kissinger as National Security Advisor to President Ford, introduced his friend last night as “one of the very few people who have truly strategic minds.”  Kissinger demonstrated just that during the far-ranging speech that followed.

New Atlanticist

Jan 16, 2009

Kissinger: Iran Diplomacy More Than Just Talk

By James Joyner

Perhaps the longest running foreign policy argument during the 2008 presidential campaign stemmed from Barack Obama’s vowing during the July 2007 YouTube debate that he would be “willing to meet separately, without precondition . . . with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 16, 2009

Gitmo ‘Recidivism’ Claims Don’t Stand Scrutiny

By James Joyner

Earlier this week, I reported on the U.S. Defense Department’s claims that as many as 61 former Guantanimo detainees had returned to terrorism.  My friend Steve Hynd, who blogs at Newshoggers and elsewhere, passes along a rather convincing rejoinder from Michael J. Ricciardelli of the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy & Research.

New Atlanticist

Jan 15, 2009

Time to Lose War on Terror?

By James Joyner

In a Guardian op-ed and a speech in Mumbai, both today, British foreign secretary David Milibrand says that the “war on terror” was a bad idea.

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Jan 15, 2009

A Grand Opportunity for a Global President

By Shuja Nawaz

Charles Dickens called Washington a “city of magnificent intentions.” When Barack Obama takes over on January 20th as the 44th President of the United States, he will need to translate his own lofty ideas into realities. What makes the challenge bigger for him is that he may also be carrying another title: the first globally-elected […]

New Atlanticist

Jan 13, 2009

Freed Gitmo Inmates Return to Terrorism

By James Joyner

Whether by mischievous intent or happy coincidence, mere hours after Obama people announced that he would order the Guantanamo Bay detention facility closed, the Bush administration announced that 61 former detainees had returned to terrorism

New Atlanticist

Jan 13, 2009

Obama to Close Guantánamo Prison. Eventually.

By James Joyner

Like his erstwhile opponent for the White House, John McCain, President-elect Barack Obama spent the last two years condemning the existence of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and promising to close it if elected. Now, however, he’s hedging his bets a bit.

New Atlanticist

Jan 12, 2009

Pakistan Adrift, Washington Afraid

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

Pakistan is adrift, and Washington is gripped with worry over the competence and prospects of Pakistan’s civilian government. The United States and Pakistan are caught in a dangerous spiral where Pakistani inactivity and incompetence lead to more heavy-handed U.S. policies, which stirs up more anti-Americanism among the Pakistani public.

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jan 12, 2009

Defeating Pakistan Extremism Requires Regional Strategy

By James Joyner

Shuja Nawaz, head of our new South Asia center, was interviewed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty yesterday on the Pakistan-Afghanistan nexus.  The entire feature appears below as a courtesy to our readers.

New Atlanticist

Jan 11, 2009

Hamas’ War Crimes

By James Joyner

I’ve joined what seems to be a consensus of Western observers in decrying Israel’s heavyhanded tactics and callous disregard for civilian casualties in its invasion of Gaza.  It’s worth remembering, however, that it’s fighting a terrorist enemy that commits war crimes with casual impunity.

New Atlanticist

Jan 9, 2009

Can Israel Win?

By James Joyner

Time‘s Tim McGirk asks, “Can Israel Survive its Assault on Gaza?”  While rather hyperbolically phrased, it’s a good question.

Israel

New Atlanticist

Jan 9, 2009

Marriot Bombing Planner Killed in CIA Strike

By James Joyner

The head of  al Qaeda in Pakistan was killed last week, Joby Warrick reports on page 1 of today’s WaPo. A New Year’s Day CIA strike in northern Pakistan killed two top al-Qaeda members long sought by the United States, including the man believed to be behind September’s deadly suicide bombing at a Marriott hotel […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jan 8, 2009

U.S. to Head International Piracy Force

By Peter Cassata

A new international antipiracy task force led by the U.S. is set to be operational in the Gulf of Aden by mid-January.  The Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy, based in Bahrain, said it will be called Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) and will include a U.S. command ship, two more American warships, and air […]

Somalia

New Atlanticist

Jan 8, 2009

Red Cross Condemns Israel

By James Joyner

Just when you thought Israel’s PR couldn’t get any worse: The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had found at least 15 bodies and several children — emaciated but alive — in a row of shattered houses in the Gaza Strip and accused the Israeli military of preventing ambulances from reaching […]

Israel

New Atlanticist

Jan 7, 2009

Gaza Backlash Hits Afghanistan

By James Joyner

In my post on the transatlantic divide over Israel’s Gaza operation, I referred to “America’s virtually automatic support of Israel, even for actions that are not only outside the norms of international law but decidedly unhelpful to our own interests.”

New Atlanticist

Jan 7, 2009

Europe’s Gas Supply Cut Off

By James Joyner

The semi-annual gas war between Russia and Ukraine has ratcheted up another notch, with the announcement that all gas headed from to the rest of Europe through Ukraine — which is to say, virtually all Russian gas headed to Europe — has now been halted. Maria Danilova for AP: Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that Russia […]

Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Dec 30, 2008

From Peshawar to Batumi: Time to Realize the East-West Corridor

By David Smith

Hakimullah Mehsud makes an eloquent practical argument for development of the East-West Corridor that runs from the Black Sea to the Caspian, across Georgia and Azerbaijan.  His Taliban guerillas are attacking NATO supply convoys traveling from Pakistan to Afghanistan and they recently struck a major logistics depot in the Pakistani town of Peshawar. 

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Dec 29, 2008

A Marshall Plan for Afghanistan?

By James Joyner

Former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani — a member of the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board — calls for a Marshall Plan for his country in an op-ed in today’s Independent.   He argues that “The Obama Presidency provides a second chance to get Afghanistan right” and that the way to turn around this failed state […]

Afghanistan
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