Despite its importance, Russia’s perspective has been missing from many previous analyses of coalition policy in Afghanistan. Moscow is an essential part of the Afghan equation that is often overlooked.
The Carnegie Endowment announces the launch of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, a joint U.S.–China research center based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
Coalition strategy in Afghanistan has reached an impasse: tactical successes will not defeat the Taliban while Pakistan offers sanctuary, nor can security be “Afghanized” by a government that lacks legitimacy and is irreparably unpopular. A less costly and more effective option would be a negotiated agreement with the Taliban that paves the way for a unity government.
While there is virtually no hope that the 2009 Armenian–Turkish Protocols will be ratified soon, the parties should take small steps to rebuild confidence and affirm their faith in the process.
Marwan Muasher, a prominent Jordanian diplomat and politician who served as Jordan’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister, will join the Carnegie Endowment. As vice president for studies, Muasher will oversee the work of the Endowment’s Middle East Program in Washington and its Middle East Center in Beirut.
In Prague, President Obama declared America’s commitment to seeking a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama’s vision has been misinterpreted by the right and the left and, more importantly, key countries have not done enough to help achieve progress. George Perkovich analyzes, country by country, reactions to Obama’s nuclear agenda.
Moisés Naím, editor-in-chief of the award-winning Foreign Policy magazine, will rejoin the Carnegie Endowment. As a senior associate in Carnegie’s International Economics Program, Naím will analyze international economics and politics, trade and investment, multilateral organizations, economic reforms, and the economic, political, and cultural consequences of globalization.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a unique and valuable U.S. development tool that could reach its full potential if protected from Washington’s emphasis on short-term political victories.
Recent arrests of high profile Afghan Taliban leaders by Pakistan do not indicate a strategic change in Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy. In reality, Pakistan wants to assume a leading role in negotiating and reconciling with the Afghan Taliban to ensure a friendlier neighbor after the United States withdraws.
A military campaign against Yemen’s secessionist Southern Movement would only further inflame its supporters and increase support for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Instead a political solution is required that addresses the unresolved problems from the country’s poorly-executed unification in the early 1990s.
Given the reset in U.S.–Russian relations, the time is ripe for the United States, Europe, and Russia to devise a security architecture for a new century, one capable of maintaining peace and stability on the European continent throughout the years to come.
Western policy makers are scrambling to respond decisively to Yemen’s instability after the failed Christmas Day attack. But there are limits to how much foreign intervention can accomplish—Yemen’s political system needs to become less centralized and more inclusive.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has begun to scale back its political engagement, and instead will focus on a traditional religious, educational, and social agenda. The consequence will be an even greater lack of political competition.
The Obama administration’s silence on Egypt’s political crackdown only emboldens the regime and erodes U.S. credibility in the region.
Thomas de Waal, a leading expert on the Caucasus, and Matthew Rojansky, an expert on U.S. and Russian national security and nuclear weapons policies, have joined the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Program.
The London-based Centre for European Reform released a brief by Franklin Miller, George Robertson, and Kori Schake criticizing the new German government for proposing the withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany. The authors’ international standing makes their essay worthy of debate.
The Carnegie Middle East Center, based in Beirut, was ranked "first among the 273 think tanks in the Middle East and North Africa" for 2009 in a study of the world's 6,305 think tanks. Established only three years ago, the Center was also named among "the best five new think tanks in the world."
David Burwell, an expert on U.S. energy security, transportation, and climate policy, has joined the Carnegie Endowment as director of its Energy and Climate Program.
Mark Hibbs, one of the world’s most acclaimed investigative reporters on nuclear energy and proliferation, will join the Carnegie Endowment. For over two decades Hibbs has covered proliferation networks, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and nuclear trade for leading publications, including Nucleonics Week and Nuclear Fuel.
To overcome its current challenges, Moscow must begin thinking strategically. Policy makers need to open space for public debate and engage in substantive discussions on critical global issues, and Western governments and institutions need to open the door to independent Russian voices.