Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced that Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group, has joined its Board of Trustees.
Minister Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission and China’s top climate negotiator, signaled the Chinese government’s willingness to work with the United States on reducing both countries’ greenhouse gas emissions.
To meet long-term domestic challenges, oil-producing Gulf States should focus on improving economic governance to better manage diminishing oil revenues and attract foreign investment.
Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center from 2006 to 2008, has been nominated as assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance. In particular, she will be responsible for negotiating a follow-on to the START Treaty expiring next December.
Aggressive action is needed to address the global financial crisis, but bailing out banks and domestic industries are measures that could—if not orchestrated carefully—provoke a devastating global trade war.
Although Europe actively tries to manage Middle East crises, it undermines its economic, political, and security interests by assuming a secondary role to the United States and following its policy line.
Pakistan’s new and fragile government must reform the country’s intelligence agencies to counter their influence on civil society and politics.
Negotiations over a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have reached a dead end. International efforts should focus on a short-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that can pave the way for a sustainable armistice.
Greater transparency about their holdings and investment strategies would help Sovereign Wealth Funds to overcome concerns and to play a role in resolving the economic crisis.
The Obama administration faces pressure to pull back U.S. democracy promotion efforts, given the Bush’s administration’s legacy and increasing talk of a global “democratic recession.” However, by building a new approach to democracy promotion the United States can regain its place as a respected, trusted, and influential ally of democracy around the world.
While President Obama inherits a cordial and generally stable relationship with China, building goodwill early on and cultivating direct personal ties with Chinese leaders will be the best way to continue the largely productive relations of the last eight years.
Arabs expect the Obama administration to focus immediately on the Palestinian issue, using its influence with Israel to halt settlement activity and acting as an honest broker in peace negotiations.
Focusing U.S. policy in the Caspian on containing Russian and Chinese influence has done little to advance U.S. security interests, and reduced its standing in the region to its lowest level in decades. The Obama administration needs a new approach that provides opportunities for local leaders to engage with the United States in economic and political development.
The invasion of Iraq has surfaced long-suppressed nationalist aspirations among the Kurds, most notably the emergence of the federal Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). If ignored or mishandled, Kurdish aspirations have the potential to ignite violence and instability in Iraq, as well as the region, at a particularly delicate time.
The international community has yet to create the conditions for a sustainable Afghan state and a viable government in Kabul that can survive a U.S. withdrawal. The focus needs to shift to an alternative strategy that de-escalates combat, thereby neutralizing insurgency momentum and Taliban appeals for Jihad, while protecting infrastructure that allows stable Afghan institutions to develop.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced that Dmitri Trenin has been appointed director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
It will be impossible to manage, much less resolve, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict while ignoring Hamas. The Obama administration should use diplomacy to restore a livable situation for the present, and at a later date move back toward longer-term diplomacy.
The U.S. spent at least $52 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs in fiscal year 2008, but only 10 percent of that went toward preventing a nuclear attack through slowing and reversing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology.
The Carnegie Moscow Center has been named the best among Russia’s and East Europe’s think tanks according to the Think Tank Index compiled by the University of Pennsylvania
During the campaign, President-elect Obama emphasized the need for greater diplomacy and a willingness to engage with hostile regimes. This commitment to “return to diplomacy” will not be enough to break the deadlock in the Middle East. Obama should break from traditional U.S. posture and support peace initiatives originating with Arab countries.