OP-EDS
June 19, 2013
"Trans-Atlantic Trade and Its Discontents"
New York Times
By Pierpaolo Barbieri, Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy, International Security Program and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
"...[N]ow there is a new trade horizon. At the Group of 8 summit meeting, official talks were launched for an E.U.-U.S. free-trade agreement....On the surface, this is good news for everyone. The collective interests of the world's first- and second-largest markets would be served by an agreement that would boost combined G.D.P. by almost 1 percent. There is great hope that cooperation would reduce unnecessary regulation on both sides of the Atlantic."
June 16, 2013
"Win a Few, Lose a Few"
The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The United States and its Allies outsmarted the Russians on Libya — by enticing it into supporting a UN Security Council vote against Qadhafi. So far, Russia has outsmarted the West on Syria, by blocking a move in the Security Council against Bashar al-Asad."
iStock
June 15, 2013
"Apocalyptic Words from Men in Hiding"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"The fact that both [Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah] must remain in hiding and cannot openly take a stroll among their compatriots in their lovely capital city, Beirut, reflects at one level the seriousness and dangers of this war. They both fear being assassinated, and for good reason: Several of their predecessors and warriors in arms in fact have been assassinated in recent years. This also mirrors the intensity and the stakes of the war, which both sides see as a zero-sum contest in which one side will win and the other will disappear from history."
June 13, 2013
Edward Snowden's Misplaced Idealism
Washington Post
By David Ignatius, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project
In June 13th's edition of the Washington Post, David Ignatius discusses his skepticism regarding Edward Snowden's claims that leaking information about NSA surveillance programs is justified.
Wig Zamore STEP Photo
June 13, 2013
"Dangerous Cargo: Action Needed on Hazardous Materials"
Power & Policy Blog
By Lewis M. Branscomb, Director Emeritus of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program; Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Corporate Management and Ryan Ellis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age
"The threat of terrorism complicates matters even further. In April, two men in Canada were arrested for plotting an attack on rail lines near Toronto. In the US, homeland security officials have warned that shipments of hazardous materials are an attractive terrorist target."
June 12, 2013
"Insights Into Arab Youth Today"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"Young Arabs continue to use the new public spheres that they created -- in civil society, on the street, in the communications world -- to achieve the full promises of their revolutions. Many of them define those promises in ways that far transcend merely the end of dictatorship and creating a functioning democracy, to include the central demands for “social justice,” citizen empowerment, equitable access to food and social services, more social trust and less polarization, and a voice in the shaping of the state and its values and policies."
White House Photo
June 12, 2013
"A Smarter Way to Deal with China"
Los Angeles Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"In meeting many of the new transnational challenges, the U.S. has to get away from thinking just about power over others and think about power with others. We do not want to become so fearful that we are not able to find ways to cooperate with China."
June 11, 2013
"Qusayr Portends Great Danger, Waste and Stupidity for All"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"Pro- and anti-Syria/Hezbollah groups in Lebanon have been quarreling and shooting each other for decades. That dynamic now will expand, as the Syrian and Lebanese arenas merge into a single battleground, fuelled by the active determination to fight for their survival by both Hezbollah and by Lebanese Salafists and others who see Hezbollah’s bold new militarism as spearheading Shiite-Iranian-Syrian domination of Lebanon. It remains unclear if Lebanon’s heightened tensions and shootouts will remain confined to traditional arenas in the north, northeast and south, or expand into Beirut and other regions."
June 10, 2013
"Original Sin and the American Constitution"
The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"What the original Constitution did was to implicitly recognize slavery and to put down in black and white for history what was part of the genesis of the American republic....it gave the impression that a black man was worth three-fifths of a white man. (Indians were not part of the counting and were not taxed)."
Jun 10, 2013
"On Iran's Nuclear Program, Obama Should Take a Cue From JFK and 'Go First'"
Christian Science Monitor
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
"Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy delivered a commencement address at American University whose message echoes down the decades to the challenges America faces today – including the challenge of Iran."
