Charles G. Cogan
Associate, International Security Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-864-3959
Email: chuck_cogan@harvard.edu
Website: http://www.drcharlesgcogan.net
AP Photo
September 26, 2011
"The Real Theater of the Absurd"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The reason these direct negotiations have been at a dead end is that the present Israeli government does not want a viable, independent Palestinian state alongside it. Under duress, and on one occasion only, Prime Minister Netanyahu pronounced himself in favor of a two-state solution. But it seems clear that he really doesn't want to see a viable Palestinian state. Nor do his right-wing allies in the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, whose leader is the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman."
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September 15, 2011
"The Wars of Afghanistan"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Foreign Policy
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Ambassador Tomsen has poured his energy, his taste for research, and his own recollections into an impressive brick of 849 pages, including footnotes and appendices. Anyone who wants to get up to speed on Afghanistan can profit from reading this book. It is particularly useful in presenting documentation from the Soviet side of the conflict (Tomsen was a former deputy chief of mission in Moscow and also in Beijing). The documents show that the Soviets were as unsuccessful in knocking fractious Afghan heads together as the United States has been over the last decade. The pleas of both superpowers for party unity among their proxies fell (or have fallen) on deaf ears."
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September 14, 2011
"Be Careful What You Wish For"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"These same Washington ruling circles have a poor record on anticipating events in the Middle East. It is clear to the entire Arab world that a critical sub-text of the Arab Spring is the long bottled-up resentment against Israel's 44-year-old occupation of lands it captured from the Palestinians in 1967. The unprecedented attack on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on September 9 is more likely a sign of things to come."
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September 8, 2011
"The Algerian Connection"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Algeria and the Gaddafi regime have had a common enemy: al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), made up largely of former members of the Algerian terrorist movement, the Islamic Armed Group (GIA). The Algerian Government suppressed this group, which rose up following the Government's cancellation in 1992 of an election that would have led to the victory of the Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The 10-year war that followed ended in a defeat of the GIA and at an appalling cost of lives on both sides. The GIA then became the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and later officially joined al Qaeda. AQIM has retreated to the Sahel area south of the Saharan desert...."
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August 25, 2011
"The Return of the West"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"But there are gainsayers, who declare that yet another American military intervention in the Arab world is nothing but counterproductive. Indeed, some Arab commentators see the intervention in Libya as a new manifestation of a colonialism returning to the Arab world, and this is certainly there as an undercurrent in Arab public opinion. But we should never lose sight of the fact that it was this ubuesque Colonel Gaddafi who brought us PAN AM 103 over Lockerbie (1988) and UTA 772 over Niger (1989)."
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July 22, 2011
"The bin Laden Operation: What's Not To Like?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The U.S. was right, of course, not to notify the Pakistani authorities prior to the operation, however much the Pakistanis have come to resent this. What is amazing in this operation is that there were a number of Pakistanis independently recruited to help in the operation (at least one of whom has since been arrested by the Pakistani Government), and yet the operation did not leak."
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July 13, 2011
"At Camp Victory: A Dubious Rationale"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"It is tempting to call this rationale disingenuous but we will call it merely dubious. We would have thought that the effort to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda was a relic of the administration of George W. Bush, the centerpiece of which was the fictitious meeting in Prague between an Iraqi intelligence officer and Mohammed al-Atta, the team leader of the 9/11 attackers."
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June 28, 2011
"Comfort for Gaddafi, Pain for Obama: Is This the Formula We Want?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"On June 24, the House of Representatives rejected a bill to authorize U.S. military operations in Libya, thus registering its displeasure with President Obama for not having consulted it before launching hostilities there. Somewhat contradictorily, the House then voted down a second resolution that would have cut off funds for certain types of operations against the Libyan regime. This was the mixed message about American will that has been sent to Libya's grotesque leader."
AP Photo
June 23, 2011
"President Obama's Drawdown in Afghanistan"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"We do not have a moral responsibility in Afghanistan. In late 2001 we overthrew the Taliban government that was sheltering al-Qaeda. It is not our responsibility as to how many Afghan children go to school. It is our responsibility to fix the American school system."
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June 10, 2011
"A Subliminal Message from President Obama"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The count of al-Qaeda operatives remaining in Afghanistan, now without their charismatic leader, is supposedly in the low hundreds, if even that many. Why waste time over there? President Obama has pointed the way: in approving a (second) surge in late 2009, he stipulated that the withdrawal of American forces in Afghanistan would take place starting in July 2011. Let the withdrawal begin!"
