FOX NEWS 05/28/13 By Michael Shank and Kathy Zager United States-Russia diplomacy is finally making headway on Syria. Monday, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Paris to discuss their joint proposal for peace talks, they were encouraged by news over the […]
Tag: syria
America Must Rethink the War on Terror
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 05/24/13 By Michael Shank and Matthew Southworth As President Barack Obama defended the nation’s ever-evolving counter-terrorism policy yesterday at the National Defense University and opened the parameters for military action in places outside of the traditional battlefield, the risk of writing into law permission for […]
Authorization for Use of Military Force: A Blank Check for War Without End
THE GUARDIAN 05/05/13 By Michael Shank and Matt Southworth A handful of Democratic and Republican senators are considering a rewrite of 60 of the most consequential words to ever pass through Congress. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, and provides […]
Stop Atrocities Before They Start
CNN 04/26/13 By Michael Shank and Madeline Rose One year ago this week, President Barack Obama launched the Atrocities Prevention Board to find ways to get ahead of the kind of crisis we’re seeing in Syria, and the kind we witnessed in Darfur and Rwanda. The board’s aim is to […]
America’s Lawmakers in Libyan Quagmire
THE GUARDIAN 07/02/11 By Michael Shank With Republicans and Democrats alike split, confusion reigns over two crucial issues: war powers and R2P. It’s time for clarity Last week, as the US Senate picked up the Libya debate where the House of Representatives left off, it was apparent that Libya has […]
Why Washington Must Look to Ankara
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 […]
Restarting Relations with Venezuela
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 […]
Americans Find a Rash of Contradictions in Venezuela
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, […]
Putting Iran on Annapolis Guest List Less of a Risk than Not
FINANCIAL TIMES 11/30/07 By Michael Shank Sir, Saudi Arabia and Syria hardly constitute a coalition of the craven (“Iran looms large over Arab ‘coalition of the frightened’ “, November 28). The appearance of these and other Arab states at the Annapolis peace summit is anything but an exhibition of anxiety […]