Section: Research Organizations & Think Tanks about Ukraine
The Purge of John Bolton
John Bolton, photo by Gage Skidmore via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,327, October 29, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In Syria, President Trump, like Obama before him, seems oblivious to the reality that when the US withdraws, its enemies advance and fill the vacuum. Ousted NSA John Bolton has said that America is constraining its range...
Trump cancels the pullout from Syria then flip-flops, threatens war with Turkey and gives money to terrorists
The long nightmare in Syria might finally be coming to an end, but not thanks to the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump’s boast that “this was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else” was as empty as all the other rhetoric coming out of the White House over the past two and a half...
In the Aegean, Energy Sustainability = Increased Security
Tasos Aliferis, Tilos, Greece, photo via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,325, October 28, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The challenging geography of Greece makes it hard for the country to take full advantage of its natural resources and expand its energy grid. Though it has doubled its share of renewables, it needs to redouble those...
Clarity Amidst Chaos: The Implications of Trump’s Syria Policy
President Donald Trump, US Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Tony Harp – released via Air Force Special Operations CommandBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,324, October 27, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The American withdrawal from Syria has produced chaotic results – but as with many aspects of President Trump’s presidency, it...
The Power of Civic Engagement: What Europeans can learn from Americans
Recently, my husband, myself, and our three-year-old daughter had a vacation together with 10 other family members and friends. We had only one family with a child in the group. The group made all decisions concerning the group activities by simply voting. Most of the times our small family did not take part in the group fun as no one voted to...
The Art of the Back-Pedal
It is a hallmark of right-wing populists to make a preposterous policy and then be forced — by opposition, by circumstance, by the laws of physics — to retreat. Three very recent examples involve Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The backpedaling might look very similar in all three cases,...
The 1919 Pogroms in Ukraine and Poland: One Hundred Years Later
In 1919, nearly one hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine and Poland in pogroms. These ethnic riots dominated headlines and international affairs of their time as aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions came true. This talk will examine how the...
Trans-Atlantic Scorecard – October 2019
Welcome to the fifth edition of the Trans-Atlantic Scorecard, a quarterly evaluation of U.S.-European relations produced by Brookings’s Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE), as part of the Brookings – Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Initiative. To produce the Scorecard, we poll Brookings scholars and other experts on the...
Turkey and the Kurds: What Goes Around Comes Around
Kurdish YPG fighters, image via Kurdishstruggle on Flickr CCBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,318, October 23, 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey, like much of the Middle East, is discovering that what goes around comes around. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to have miscalculated the fallout of what may prove to be a foolhardy intervention...
FBI/DOJ Likely to Throw the CIA and Clapper Under the Bus
Law Enforcement versus the Intel Community. That’s the battle we will likely see unleashed when the Horowitz report comes out next week. The New York Times came out Saturday with info clearly leaked from DOJ that can be summarized simply–the FBI was relying on the intel community (products from the CIA and NSA) under the leadership of...
