Charles G. Cogan
Associate, International Security Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-864-3959
Email: chuck_cogan@harvard.edu
Website: http://www.drcharlesgcogan.net
AP Photo
June 27, 2012
"Presidency Interruptus: The Possible Curious Fate of Barack Obama"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Assuming there will be no October surprise, or equivalent, to tarnish the record of the Obama presidency, the incumbent will go down to an honorable defeat this fall. This leaves open the question of 2016, when the United States will be even more diverse than it is now and this would be an assist for Obama. Also, there would be an inevitable erosion of support for a (Romney) presidency."
AP Photo
June 21, 2012
"The Warfare State: Considering a Military Attack in a Fourth Muslim Country"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Whether or not the U.S. joined in an Israeli bombing of Iran, it would be blamed for it, and it would be seen throughout the world as America's fourth military intervention in a Muslim country."
AP Photo
June 13, 2012
"Iran: The Solution Is There But the Trust Is Not"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Though military action, with its unpredictable consequences, is to be avoided at all costs, there is very little chance under present circumstances of the above solution being realized. That is why a number of observers of the Iranian scene are advocating the choice of an intermediary, trusted by both sides, to attempt to break the current impasse."
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June 6, 2012
"Take It From Talleyrand: 'It Is Urgent to Wait'"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...[T]he position of the Russians is not all that comfortable, as with each passing day they lose a grain of credibility in the Sunni Muslim world. Continuing Russian deliveries of arms to the Assad regime which are used to mow down Sunni protesters has not escaped the Muslim world's notice. Sunnis constitute 85 percent of the world's Muslim population and 70–75 percent of the Syrian population."
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May 31, 2012
"'A Revolution Needed to Be Waged and a Union Needed to Be Saved'"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...Memorial Day wasn't all that inclusive. It began, after the Civil War, as Decoration Day, an annual ceremony at the end of May, in honor of all those who had fallen on the Union side. By the 20th century, what had become Memorial Day had been expanded to include a tribute to honor all Americans who had died in all of the country's wars."
AP Photo
May 21, 2012
"It Plays Well in Tel Aviv, But How Does It Play in Peoria?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Invariably, Iranians in and around the academic pressure cooker of Cambridge, Mass. will tell you that the one thing that will not work on the Iranian psyche is threatening language. This may or may not be true. Perhaps we will find out on May 23rd, when the Iranians meet in Baghdad with the West, the Chinese and the Russians on Iran's nuclear program."
AP Photo
May 15, 2012
"Sarko: Nothing Became Him Like the Manner of His Leaving"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"On May 8th, Sarkozy invited Hollande to be at his side at the lighting of the eternal flame at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Place d'Etoile in Paris, in commemoration of V-E Day. It was an interlude of correctness, if not unity, in the eternal struggle in France between the Left and the Right."
AP Photo
May 7, 2012
"François Hollande—No More 'Mr. Pudding'?"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Hollande's immediate problem will not be with the US but with Germany — his first foreign destination as president. He has promised to renegotiate a European Union treaty mandating deficit and debt limits. He wants to inject more growth into the pact, but the likely result will be a separate add-on of measures (whose effectiveness remains to be seen), rather than a change in the pact itself (which German Chancellor Angela Merkel firmly opposes)."
AP Photo
May 1, 2012
"The Controversy Over the bin Laden Raid Anniversary: The Real Contrast Is Between Obama and Carter"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Obama is a risk-taker who went ahead with the bin Laden raid against the recommendation of Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the President's No. 2 military adviser, Gen. James Cartwright. Carter, on the other hand, was a pacifist-inclined president who dallied for months before deciding to go ahead with an operation to rescue the hostages in the American Embassy compound in Tehran."
AP Photo
April 8, 2012
"Ariel (Sharon), We Hardly Knew Ye"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"What is not known generally outside Israel is that Ariel Sharon, who as Prime Minister in 2004–2005 orchestrated Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, was planning to follow up with a third unilateral withdrawal, this time from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He had gone ahead with the planning and had assembled an informal team under the aegis of his chef de cabinet, Dov Weissglass, in order to implement the idea."
