Author Vago Muradian

In this report, authors Eric S. Edelman and Whitney Morgan McNamara of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments outline a number of options the United States has for countering and limiting Russian political-military moves. Absent steps in this direction, the United States will find it difficult to meet the challenges that Russia has managed to present to European security. The result might well be a European security order that is less stable and less conducive to national prosperity than what we have experienced since the end of the Cold War.

With the U.S. presence in Afghanistan nearing its 16th year, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has released a report making concrete recommendations for how the Unite States can work toward a successful outcome while limiting the risks and costs of open-ended engagement or an abrupt withdrawal. The report, “Focused Engagement: A New Way Forward in Afghanistan,” is written by CNAS Adjunct Senior Fellow Christopher D. Kolenda, who served four tours of duty in Afghanistan as a commander and a senior advisor to three commanding generals.

In “Tracking the Trends and Numbers: Islam, Terrorism, Stability and Conflict in the Middle East,” Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, writes that far too much of the current U.S. debate over immigration and terrorism is focused on fear, rather than on an effort to understand the forces driving unrest and extremism in Islam and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, or on the data available on the trends involved. The Burke Chair at CSIS has prepared a detailed overview of these trends and the data available in graphic and map form.