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Open Think Tank Articles
Aaron D. Fernando: Terrorism is very much a disease: it is better to take preventive measures to stop it in the first place. The American approach does not take this bigger picture into account. In focusing on killing individuals, the United States is losing the greater war and helping societies to become ever more radicalized.
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Tabish Shah: The on-going conflict in Syria, the anti-American nature of protests in the Middle East, increased Green on Blue attacks, among other issues has created a new set of geopolitical challenges. Could these challenges be better pre-empted by channelling smart defence through a more robust Germany-Turkey-United States partnership in order to advance NATO states’ collective interests?
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Editorial Team: It is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. Occurring during the Cold War, the 1962 crisis was the moment when the world almost faced nuclear disaster. This interview with Graham Allison takes a look back at that incident and what it means for today. Does the past help us understand the Iran situation today?
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Foreign Affairs: Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman interviews Professor Alex Cooley on the geopolitical role of Central Asia, and how outside powers - Russia, China, and the United States - are competing for influence in the region, as the British and Russian empires did a century ago.
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Stanley R. Sloan: The American Euro-fatigue combined with a perception in Europe that Washington is losing interest in its affairs might mark the beginning of the end of transatlantic relations. Ignoring the significance in improving closer ties will only help to jeopardize European and American interests.
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Joshua Clapp: Obama has rapidly escalated the drone campaign. Meanwhile, his administration has not been shy in advertising the use of drones. The White House should be careful however. Increased drone strikes do not actually help America. In fact, these attacks weaken Washington’s position.
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Marek Swierczynski: NATO’s Chicago Summit announced the first phase of Ballistic Missile Defense as operational. The news was welcomed in Warsaw, but nobody rejoiced, as one of the country’s strategic priorities in transatlantic relations had moved far away from its borders. No one knows if it will ever come back.
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NATO: The transatlantic relationship has been the bedrock of NATO for over 60 years, but is it now changing? Is the US going off in new directions which will make it look more to Asia and less to Europe?
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Christopher M Schnaubelt: Disparate political realities among European states will make integration of national forces difficult. But defense ministries can cut costs by streamlining personnel, developing capable reserves, abstaining from new missions and investing in long-term training and education.
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Wolfgang J. Fischer: The transatlantic relationship depends on intercultural understanding and interaction. But children, our future decision makers, have long lacked access to media content. The Children’s Radio Bridge lets kids be active in their own media projects to expand their intercultural horizons.
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James Brian Taylor: Turkey’s relations with the United States and Europe have been strained over the past two years, despite a rich history of cooperation. But the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East provides a golden opportunity for Turkey to realign itself with the US and Europe, beginning with a reconciliation with Israel.
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Nico Segers: The military rise of China is raising concerns over provocative naval pursuits in the East Chinese, South Chinese and adjacent seas. Escalations about disputed areas with Vietnam and the Philippines puts stress on wider Sino-American relationships and may block further military-to-military dialogue.
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Editorial Team: At the culmination of atlantic-community.org’s policy workshop competition, German students Julia Grauvogel, Philipp Große and Sascha Lohmann discussed their team’s policy recommendations with US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy and CDU/CSU Foreign Policy Spokesman Philipp Mißfelder.
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Editorial Team: The media in the United States and Germany has been awash with speculation over the future of transatlantic relations as Obama tries to charm Europe’s strongest leader with a Medal of Freedom. Can Obama’s charm offensive convince Germany to show more global leadership?
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Felix Haass: In the past, Transatlantic-Iranian relations have suffered from mutual mistrust on both sides. This has been a major impediment to a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Any policy aimed at resolving the issue has to address these trust issues in one way or the other.
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Tobias Fella: Competing regulatory rules and policies pose a major challenge to transatlantic relations and to the further development of the multilateral trade order. The EU and US must institutionalize a framework, which supports enhanced liberalization, thus preventing the development of competing regionalism.
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Daniel Fiott: China’s quest for natural resources will lead to the strengthening of its navy and possible confrontation with the US. Energy independence can decrease the chances of possible tensions in the world’s oceans and seas.
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Sebastian Bruns: The new Secretary General of NATO needs to seize momentum to reinvigorate NATO’s influence, now the Eurocentric alliance is in decline. He will need tact and diplomacy to act as a mediator between the French and the Americans, whilst keeping the other member states united.
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Marc Saxer: To use of the window of opportunity for establishing effective global governance, Europeans should accept that not all countries are willing to cede their sovereignty, but should work to increase the representation of emerging powers in multilateral structures.
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Fabian Wendenburg: The stimulus package has been the first real test of Obama’s promised bipartisanship. But after it attracted only three senators and no congressman of the GOP, last week was a vivid reminder that it will be hard to overcome differences of principle and culture.
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Eckart von Klaeden: India has become a new global player. The broadening and deepening of relations with Western powers such as Germany and the United States in recent years has been welcomed in Berlin and Washington.
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Global Must Read Articles
Dr. Patryk Pawlak is a Research Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris where he deals with EU-US relations and US domestic and foreign policies. He also deals with EU Justice and Home Affairs, with particular regard to its external dimension, border management and data protection. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute in Florence.
Prior to
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The United States and China are ‘superficial friends’, whereby each exaggerates their bilateral friendship in order to boost future cooperation as well as current ties. ++ But as Chinese power rises, there will be more competition as the US focuses on Asia and hopes to increase its domination in the Western Pacific. ++ This enhanced competition could lead to a Cold War between China and the
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The US Congress is now returning from summer recess at a time when America needs bold economic leadership. ++ The current congressional polarization and paralysis must end. ++ A multi-prong policy initiative is needed to change numerous critical areas of the economy. ++ Medium reforms of the tax system and entitlements are required to eliminate the looming fiscal cliff. ++ The labor market needs
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Over the past few decades, China and Iran have developed a broad and deep partnership centered on China’s energy needs and Iran’s abundant resources as well as significant non-energy economic ties, arms sales and defense cooperation, and geostrategic balancing against the United States. This partnership presents a unique challenge to U.S. interests and objectives. In particular, China’s policies
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Only hours after reassuming the presidency this month, Vladimir Putin called on the United States to provide “firm guarantees” that its missile-defense system in Europe will not be targeted against Russia. ++ President Obama was unable to offer a “legally binding” guarantee, but was more than willing to provide a political assurance. ++ Any such assurance will be a mistake and violate America’s
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The CIA has recovered a more sophisticated version of the underwear bomb that was meant to be used to destroy a US-bound airline. ++ Officials say that the bomb originated with al-Qaeda’s organization in Yemen, the AQAP. ++ The Obama administration is correct in carrying out drone strikes in Yemen, despite the critics’ claims that drone strikes are “extra-judicial executions” and thus unlawful.
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Over the past several decades, migration has been at the center of heated policy debates in both the United States and Europe. In this report by the Migration Policy Institute, Kathleen Newland evaluates what lessons can be drawn from past experiences involving the policies of developed countries in regards to migration and development.
1) Decision makers have moved away from the idea that
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Advanced economies are feeling the strain of a growing economic recession. ++ The economic crisis has spread from the private sector over to sovereign states. ++ Unlike smaller struggling eurozone countries, the world’s most powerful economies should hold off on austerity measures and stimulate their own economies. ++ Reverting back to the national currency is the only way to restore growth and
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By refusing to apologize to Turkey for its disproportionate use of violence against the Gaza flotilla in May 2010, Israel is effectively isolating itself from the international community and its closest allies. ++ Israel’s defiant stance on the issue is a short term victory for the political far right, but it severely undermines the country’s long-term strategic goals in the region.
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The US is no longer the world’s sole superpower, but it can prevent its relative decline from becoming absolute. ++ Rather than insisting on American preeminence by “vainly” pouring billions into foreign wars, the US should negotiate boundaries on its use of force, establish norms in the global competition for resources, curb the international arms trade, and “focus increased
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Years of economic sanctions and diplomacy have failed to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear program. ++ In fact, Iran’s “pariah status has ironically engendered an esprit de corps within its scientific community” that has led to significant advances in its nuclear infrastructure in the past two decades. ++ Despite having its nuclear program isolated, ostracized and
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In a world of diverse threats and diffuse power, the US must turn to a policy of “restoration” to “rebalance the resources devoted to domestic challenges, as opposed to international ones, in favor of the former.” ++ While an active foreign policy should continue to invigorate alliances, the US must be more discriminating in its military interventions abroad. ++ America
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Tiny Israel has long depended on the United States for military aid and security. But Israel is also vital to the economic interests of the United States. ++ Despite being smaller than the state of New Jersey, Israel is a global leader in microchip design, military technology and water recycling, and many US companies depend on Israel for critical parts and services. ++ Now, in a time of acute
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By making the West the focus of recent diplomatic disclosures, Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, betrays an agenda every bit as sinister as the one of which he accuses his enemies. ++ Where are the “Chinese embassy Cables”, or the “Iran files”? ++ If recent disclosures were really about encouraging whistle blowing about issues that genuinely impact human lives, instead of just weakening
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With the latest elections in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez has become the focus of debate in the United States. ++ For many, Chávez’s plans to implement a Cuban style economic and political model which will rubber stamp his own decrees could prove to be a threat for the US. ++ A new sensation is his alleged clandestine support for Iran’s nuclear program, which if not tackled
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Ignored by those talking up the rise of China, the One Child Policy has created a demographic catastrophe. ++ The traditional support system of the extended family has been destroyed as most people no longer have brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, or cousins. ++ As a result, either spending will have to be cut to shift resources to care for the elderly, or younger workers will be taxed heavily. ++
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With the third of President Obama’s close economic advisers recently resigning, it is clear that the administration’s economic policy must change. ++ According to the theories advanced by Marcur Olson, “advanced democracies eventually grow encrusted with powerful interest groups” that stand in the way of growth. ++ The administration must embrace the concept of
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Fabrice Pothier is the director of Carnegie Europe, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s pan-European foreign policy forum for senior policy makers, experts, and leading journalists. Pothier is a noted commentator on European policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, transatlantic issues, and global drugs policy.
Prior to his appointment, Pothier was head of policy analysis
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The dismal response by the EU to the crisis in Haiti shows the stark contrast between the “world superpower” and the United States. ++ Within hours of the earthquake, the US had already gotten the Port-au-Prince airport functioning and landed, among other things, large contingents of medical staff as well as hospital ships, while Baroness Ashton more or less stood on the sidelines. ++
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Americans fear the heathcare plan is a sign of a shift towards the “lousy” European social democracy. ++ Statistics prove the “Old Continent’s” model to be an economically dynamic one, challenging both the current financial crisis and long-run perspectives. ++ In Europe, freedom and individual responsibility have not been allegedly undermined by collective responsibility, embodied by the
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The U.S. government has all but ignored the conflict in Kashmir and espoused a “hands off” approach on the issue. However, pressure to engage is increasing. After all, a resolution of the Kashmir conflict, which pits two nuclear powers against one another, is closely tied to failure or success in Afghanistan. It is therefore crucial not only to security in South Asia, but to U.S. national
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The United States and India have long agreed on an ideal Pakistan: a stable, democratic, civilian-controlled state with a commitment to nonproliferation. ++ However, the roads to achieving this ideal were divergent until the Mumbai attacks last year. ++ The so-called ‘Kashmiri groups’ had been viewed by the West as India’s problem. ++ Yet, a consensus was forged “that did not previously
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Barack Obama’s
entrance into the White House awoke all manner of hope for a fundamental
turnaround in US energy policy. Yet this is not the first time that the world
has looked to Washington in hope that the US would finally show the world how
to be free of the fetters of fossil fuels. This was in 1977, as Jimmy Carter,
shortly after assuming office, installed solar panels on the roof of
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Only a few years ago, calls for a world without nuclear
weapons were considered mere academic wishful thinking. But today US security
policy experts are themselves advocating full nuclear disarmament, amongst them
Henry Kissinger and William Perry. And beginning with President Obama’s speech
in Prague, if not before, many of these calls for disarmament have become part
of official US
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Warning signs that US superpower status is passé include the loss of trust in US credit safety, instability despite US efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Iran’s strategic gains in the Iraq invasion. ++ The loss of US moral and economic high ground signifies the “self-inflicted…death…of American hegemony.” ++ China’s strategy of “economic conquest”and Iran’s use of “proxy
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Last year
125 vessels were attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of
Aden, one third of which were successfully boarded. Among them was
a hijacked Saudi super tanker laden with oil and a Ukrainian ship carrying 33
Russian armoured vehicles. Both incidents intensified international concern
over the possible capture of more “sensitive cargo,” such as radioactive
material The Somali pirates
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The long proclaimed transatlantic divide
between bloated European welfare states and a lean US government is mythical at best. A
closer look at the facts shows that the social expenditures of the United Sates
and Europe are very similar on healthcare and
education. The Reagan revolution and subsequent “small government” are
illusions, and indeed the only significant difference between the US
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With the changing Presidency comes new thinking on policy; how could the US shift away from Bush’s unilateralism towards cooperation with allies and multilateralism? ++ The policy of ‘going it alone’ is failing the US in Iraq and Afghanistan confirming the point that in a globalized, interdependent world unilateralism is insufficient. ++ In its military operations the US needs
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The last 16 years provide valuable hindsight into the grand strategic approach of the United States and highlight the need to reshape American foreign policy around the principle of restraint, argues Barry R. Posen, director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Writing for the American Interest, he points out that US policy makers have struggled to
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Russia’s influence once again looms over the Baltic countries, and their position within the European Union and NATO is not mitigating the threat, argues International Herald Tribune journalist Adam Ellick. New Russian investments in media and infrastructure, coercive use of strategic energy sources, and instigation of militancy among Russian minorities have rendered Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
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Europe has become heavily reliant on Russia to meet its energy needs. This trend undermines Europe’s self-confidence and jeopardizes its geopolitical position as well as that of the United States, says Ariel Cohen from the Heritage Foundation.
Russia’s agenda seeks to perpetuate dependence by consolidating Gazprom’s position at home and abroad. As foreign companies such as Shell and BP fail to
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reached out to the United States and is willing to bring France back into NATO, an offer America should seize, writes Dr. Ronald Asmus from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and member of the Atlantic Initiative Advisory Board.
In 1995 Presidents Chirac and Clinton came close to an agreement, but sudden political changes threw France back
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As a community based on values, the West must strengthen its cohesiveness in order to grapple with the pace of globalization, and face a geopolitical axis actively shifting toward Asia, argues Stephen Szabo, executive director of the Transatlantic Academy, which is a partnership between the German Marshall Fund and the Bucerius Zeit Stiftung.
A division of the West could prove
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Zogby International publishes results of the latest telephone poll conducted on key current issues. After tensions have risen to an all-time-high between the United States and Iran, the poll shows 52% of those surveyed support a military strike against the Persian country to prevent the success of their nuclear program.
Among presidential candidates, Senator Hillary Clinton was considered by 21
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Sub-national units — namely states or regions — are playing an increasing role in environmental policy-creation find R. Andreas Kraemer and Miranda A. Schreurs in “Federalism and Environmentalism in the United States and Germany”, the latest report by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS). The impact sub-national units have on national governments is becoming stronger,
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The prospect of a bilateral summit between North and South Korea is laudable, but Bruce Klinger from the Heritage Foundation is suspicious of the motives and the timing of South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. With national presidential elections approaching, it is in Roh’s interest to gain public approval for unilateral aid to Pyongyang. Such uncoordinated diplomacy benefits North Korea
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William H. Taft and Frances G. Burwell from the Atlantic Council advise the EU and US to coordinate their positions before the ICC review conference in 2009. The transatlantic partners must set an example for the rest of the world.
With the review conference on the International Criminal Court (ICC) coming up in 2009, a concerted transatlantic effort to build global consensus on international
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