by Paul R. Pillar The principal motivation for Donald Trump’s pardon of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby is obvious, as many commentators have quickly discerned. The explanation flows directly from how Trump has used the power to pardon, how he has… Continue Reading
by Robert E. Hunter The conflict in Syria could soon take on dimensions that no one outside of that country really wants and with consequences that will have destructive effects far beyond the local issues at stake, notably intensifying US-Russian… Continue Reading
by Emile Nakhleh This year, American policymakers and regimes across the Middle East face three inauspicious anniversaries, which continue to bedevil this country and the region. In the seventeen years since 9/11, the fifteen years since the invasion of Iraq,… Continue Reading
by Shireen T. Hunter When the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany signed a deal that effectively prevents Iran from developing nuclear weapons, those in Iran and in other signatory states who did not want… Continue Reading
by Eldar Mamedov John Bolton, the newly appointed national security advisor to the President Donald Trump, summarized in his memoirs his experiences as the US ambassador to the United Nations by saying that “surrender is not an option.” Throughout his… Continue Reading