Atlantic Council

As noted in yesterday’s installment, the prospects of solving the humanitarian crisis in Syria through air power alone are nil. Today, we assess the options from the ground.

In this edition of the New Atlanticist Podcast, Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri speaks to Professor Rajan Menon, chairman of the International Relations Department at Lehigh University about the next steps for the US and the West in dealing with Iran.

With Russia and China standing firmly behind Assad’s regime in Syria, it appears increasingly likely that continued violence, and potentially a prolonged civil war, will be the future condition of a country where the opposition is not strong enough to overcome the core elements of the regime’s security forces, and foreign parties lack the willpower or capacity to overthrow the rulers in Damascus.

The growing confrontation between Israel and Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program is spinning perilously out of hand, and it has within it the seeds of the most potentially dangerous threat to international peace since the Cold War ended over 20 years ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu comes to Washington this week with more positives in US-Turkish relations than at any time in years.  However, upcoming and potentially grave challenges – Syria, Iran, Egypt, and others – mean Turkey and US-Turkish ties will face many risky problems in the months ahead.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti fears "backlash" stemming from "mutual resentments" between Northern and Southern Europeans spurred by the financial crisis. 

Last week was another roller coaster ride for international politics. Violence in Egypt; looming civil war in Syria; and threats and counter-threats over Iran's nuclear intentions reverberated around the international security community intensifying the gathering sense of impending disaster.

A week before Valentine’s Day, the Egyptian government’s brazen antagonism of American-funded NGOs has proven the old adage: “You can’t buy love,” not even with the 1.3 billion in annual military aid that the United States has lavished on its military.

Okay, I’m king for a day, and I am going to fix all the world’s problems.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said all the right things about the transatlantic relationship at the Munich Security Conference. Alas, Panetta made a mockery of them on his way there.