THE GUARDIAN 07/25/11 By Michael Shank After ten years, $4tn and thousands of lives, the US needs an exit from the depressing impasse of its militarised foreign policy This month, as the Pentagon and the CIA countenance a changing of the guard – welcoming Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and CIA […]
THE HILL 05/17/11 By Michael Shank America has yet to figure out whether Turkey is friend or foe. With conflicts in Libya and Afghanistan, and tsunamis in Japan and Indonesia, Turkey’s generous military and aid contribution pleases Washington. With Armenia, Israel and Iran, however, Turkey spurns Washington for refusing the […]
THE GUARDIAN 05/15/11 By Michael Shank Turkey’s economic strength and diplomatic stature are growing fast. The US needs to nurture closer ties. America has yet to figure out whether Turkey is friend or foe. With conflicts in Libya and Afghanistan, and tsunamis in Japan and Indonesia, Turkey’s generous military and […]
THE HILL 02/02/11 By Michael Shank The protests in Egypt must be understood within the prism of past policy in Washington, specifically President George W. Bush’s policy. While U.S. policies in the Middle East have never been dependable, let alone consistent, many conservatives in Washington this week, including former Bush […]
WASHINGTON TIMES 03/26/10 By Michael Shank Traveling recently in a congressional staff delegation to Venezuela, I found my experience was not too dissimilar from my previous experiences in Syria and Iran. This is not to say that I am aggregating these three states into some kind of axis-of-evil or rogue […]
ROLL CALL 03/24/10 By Michael Shank Traveling recently on a Congressional staff delegation to Venezuela, my experience was not too dissimilar from my previous experiences in Syria and Iran. This is not to say that I am aggregating these three states into some kind of axis-of-evil or rogue state conglomerate, […]
THE GUARDIAN 10/14/08 By Michael Shank Wandering seven long years in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan with hardly an end in sight, the US has just been offered a most fortuitous fix. It likely eludes America’s current president and queuing candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, but not for […]
FINANCIAL TIMES 07/01/08 By Michael Shank Sir, Let us for a moment consider the merits of engagement (“A very small step: Pyongyang’s nuclear declaration is no breakthrough”, editorial, June 27). Three successes in 2008 are particularly salient and worth citing. US ambassador Christopher Hill’s persistent diplomatic penetration of North Korea’s […]
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE OPERATIONS Vol 3, No. 6 May-June 08 By Michael Shank For all of Washington’s white papers on the war in Iraq, testimonies by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and wonkish retching over the war’s latest development – the recent routing of Iraq Prime Minister Nouri […]
THE HILL 02/06/08 By Michael Shank In the article “Club for Growth goes after Gilchrest with ad buy” (Feb. 1), caustic conservatives, wielding a weighty $590,000 in television ad spending, queue to attack Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) prior to Maryland’s Feb. 12 GOP primary. Those in Washington favoring a deliberative […]