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atlantic-community.org: We are excited to announce our newest policy workshop! We want you to tell us your ideas for promoting NATO values, building partnerships, and engaging members in the Smart Defense initiative. Winners receive a cash prize and a trip to Berlin to present their ideas to policymakers!
Atlantic-community.org invites students and young professionals to contribute their policy ideas on key issues of the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago in our new policy workshop, “Your Ideas, Your NATO”. We want to feature ideas from young people in all NATO Member and Partner countries on how the Alliance can build a sense of community, reach out to new partners in North Africa and the Middle East, and encourage ...More
Vince A.M. Klösters: Western rapprochement towards Iran is the only rational course of action serving long-term stability and peace in the Middle East. We can use models of past détente with China to plot a course towards a pragmatic and secure status quo in the region.
The Iranian nuclear program remains a perceived threat to most, and an enigma to all but Iran itself. There has been widespread discussion on the dangers of possible weaponization and US, Israeli and others' policy responses to various scenarios. The purpose here is not to synthesise these views, nor is it to either support or oppose the various courses of action proposed. The goal is to offer a more optimistic course of action. More ...More
Mohammad Saber: The Afghan conflict has ethnic and language roots. A long term resolution of the conflict requires recognition of the rights of minorities to their human right of speaking, educating and promoting their language and culture.
This paper will look into the Afghan conflict from a human rights perspective. It will argue that the ongoing conflict has been partially fueled by violations of minority rights, and language rights of minority groups specifically. This paper does not cover various linguistic issues in Afghanistan, but does make a case study of the language related tensions between Farsi speaking groups and the dominant group (traditionally Pashtuns) in ...More
Dave Roddenberry: As Yemen continues its downward trajectory, its strategic position means a multinational intervention must be considered. Though this would be a heavy undertaking, if Western nations learn from previous interventions and peace-keeping operations, they could turn Yemen from a liability into an ally.
The small Middle Eastern state of Yemen stands at the edge of ruin. A dysfunctional government combined with the fervor and uproar of the Arab Spring has left Yemen teetering on the edge of failure. Political protests have given way to armed conflict thus begging the question of the prospects of international intervention. Yemen owes much of its importance to the fact that it is a frontline in the wars on terror and piracy. Unrest in the small Gulf state has drawn ...More
Sascha Lohmann: A fear-based policy by the US and its allies toward Iran is not likely to solve the nuclear standoff peacefully any time soon. Instead, a strategy of engagement that takes the psychological predispositions of the actors seriously is the only way to achieve this goal.
With sanctions and covert action apparently failing to significantly constrain Tehran's nuclear program, the coercive US approach - at first fully supported by Israel and recently also by the EU - now shifts toward the next stage: military action. The recent posturing of US and Iranian naval forces around the Strait of Hormuz and the accompanying rhetorical exchanges to either close or keep this vital chokepoint for the global oil supply open, is only the ...More
Jason Naselli: Demands that Iran (or anyone else) do not seek nuclear weapons are hard to swallow while the US clings to so many. The only real solution for solving problems like Iranian proliferation is a legitimate nuclear regime that treats all countries equally. This means getting more serious about disarmament.
Over two-thirds of Atlantic Community members who voted in our 2012 topics poll listed Iran as a major issue, the top vote-getter. Certainly, the prospect of Iran developing nuclear weapons is of grave concern to the international community. But imagine an American explaining to your average Iranian why. Is the Iranian government too hostile to be trusted with such weaponry? "We aren’t the ones who’ve actually used the ...More
Aaron Ellis: In the perennial debate over what to do about Iran, those who think they have a solution to the problem rarely put it in the context of a broader strategy or explain their trade-offs and indirect consequences. Overall strategy and the ensuing consequences are precisely what we should be considering when debating Iran.
How do we solve a problem like Iran?
This question dominates the news once a year and every politician, pundit, and foreign policy expert has an answer to it. Helpfully, they reduce their answers to a single phrase around the likes of "sanctions" or "war". Then something else happens in the world and Iran and its nuclear program fade from the headlines until next year.And every year these solutions contain the same flaw: they are not ...More
NATO: One of the main topics at the Munich Security Conference was America’s defense review and changes to the US military presence in Europe. Political leaders and experts from around the world discussed what this means for international security and the transatlantic partnership.
Source: NATO's Youtube channel: NATO - Defence cuts demand closer cooperation (Munich Security Conference)
Background Information
Interoperability: Connecting NATO Forces
Smart Defense
Secretary General's Remarks at MSC 2012
Atlantic-community.org's web module "NATO's Agenda" is sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We encourage you to comment and submit op-ed articles with your analyses and policy recommendations for "NATO's Agenda."
Editorial Team: Your Opinion articles are where the main debates on the Atlantic Community happen. They are a way of sharing your ideas and recommendations in short, focused 500-700 word articles. The editorial team would like to offer some advice on writing a good opinion piece.
Planning Your Article
Pick Your Argument: You can't save the world in 500-700 words! Pick one specific argument that you want to make and explain it with two or three key points. Use a few examples for each point in order to demonstrate what you mean.
Policy Focus: As a think tank the Atlantic Community aims to generate well thought out policy recommendations. We don't need to know the whole history of a country in your op-ed. Quickly ...More
Editorial Team: We’re excited to reveal the results of our latest members’ poll and inform you of what our priorities will be in 2012. As well as displaying your decisions on the most important issues of 2012, we’re also announcing our first theme week and what we plan to do with the topics you requested throughout the rest of the year.
We asked you "Which Topics Should atlantic-community.org Focus on in 2012?" and received some clear guidance on what to make our priorities this year. Thank you to all those who shared their views, helping us shape the Atlantic Community agenda.
Throughout the year the editorial team will be soliciting articles from leading experts on the top 5 issues you have chosen; Iran & the Middle East, Russia, "China in the Global Order", ...More
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