Browse Research and Commentary

This is a new world, this is a much more integrated American market than we’ve seen in the past. I think updating the American people on this reality is the main objective for the White House.

May 1, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, Washington Times

[Roberto Azevêdo] knows how the system works, how to get a deal done. But he has been saddled by the positions that he has had to take as Brazil’s ambassador. During the Doha round Brazil has not always been the most constructive contributor.

April 26, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, Financial Times

When you talk to people [of the Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu] they may say 'this is a beach or this used to be a piece of land that I play on as a kid but now you can see at high tide the water is encroaching and it's effectively under water.'

April 26, 2013, Jane McAdam, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service - Australia)

The president’s red line appears to have been crossed. The administration has to take some time to decide what to do about [Syria’s alleged chemical weapons use]. But if they end up leaving the impression that the president is not willing to enforce his red line, that will have consequences in the region, particularly when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, as well as for our ability to deter Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria.

April 25, 2013, Martin S. Indyk, New York Times

Perhaps three million people, 10 percent of Iraq's population, remain displaced - and forgotten.

April 23, 2013, Elizabeth Ferris, IRIN

Videos from Chechnya are all over the Internet. They're constantly packaged as part of the Al-Qaeda network recruitment.

April 21, 2013, Fiona Hill, AFP

Where the U.S. wanted to talk about Afghanistan, [Putin] wanted to talk about Chechnya and have the U.S. turn a blind eye to the human-rights abuses there.

April 19, 2013, Fiona Hill, USA Today

Chechnya, like Dagestan, like Syria, like Pakistan, like Iraq, like Afghanistan, all these places where there's been tumult and upheaval and conflict and regional dislocation, continue to become basically the recruiting grounds for people who have a very strong sense of grievance. And again, we're talking small numbers of people.

April 19, 2013, Fiona Hill, National Public Radio

Chechnya has a very brutal history. You can just imagine two young Chechen boys growing up [in that violence] and then being dropped in the United States…And here they are in their 20s, a classic time for people to search for identity.

April 19, 2013, Fiona Hill, Christian Science Monitor

There are unclear mandates for [aid] agencies to respond to cross-border displacement, since no NGO or agency has responsibility for overseeing people displaced by natural disasters.

April 17, 2013, Walter Kälin, IRIN

[Kim Jong Un] is trying to show that he has a strategic mind, that the military stands behind him and that no one stands against him.

April 13, 2013, Kongdan Oh, Washington Post

One has to wonder whether and to what degree the [New York] channel is able to report back fully and frankly on developments in the United States, and also the extent to which the leadership in Pyongyang is actually listening to what the channel is reporting.

April 8, 2013, Evans J.R. Revere, Washington Post

I hope that when the exercise winds down in a few weeks, they [the North Koreans] will wind down the rhetoric and we will be in a better place than we are now.

April 5, 2013, Evans J.R. Revere, The Guardian (UK)

I think the steps taken by the Obama administration are prudent and the minimum necessary to send a message to [North Korea] and our allies that we are prepared to defend them.

April 5, 2013, Evans J.R. Revere, The Guardian (UK)

What makes me more hopeful is that I see a positive convergence between the domestic efforts, the economic strategy, and what's been going on in the trade front. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Three more [Trans-Pacific Partnership] countries have to say yes to the plan, including the United States. There are many different hurdles, and we will have to see how it turns out in the future.

April 5, 2013, Mireya Solís, Council on Foreign Relations

There's been this desire to not add fuel to the fire, and [for Japan] to have stable relations with China. I think everybody understands what tragic consequences could arise from using a very nationalist rhetoric that would be quite self-defeating.

April 5, 2013, Mireya Solís, Council on Foreign Relations

The danger here is that South Korea, with U.S. moral support, retaliates and then North Korea feels that it needs to counter-retaliate; China doesn’t control it and so it’s a vicious circle.

April 2, 2013, Richard C. Bush III, Washington Times

It seems to me that when you want an ambassador, two very important assets are proximity to the president—which [Caroline Kennedy] clearly has—and visibility. There has been a pattern in the past of appointing high-profile people to this post and that [Ms. Kennedy's nomination] would fit into the pattern. This is a complicated region, but she has those two very important assets.

April 1, 2013, Mireya Solís, Wall Street Journal

We are in a vicious cycle [with North Korea]. Even if things calm down after the current U.S.-South Korea exercise, we will still be at a higher level of tension than in the past.

March 29, 2013, Evans J.R. Revere, Wall Street Journal

Such [White House] meetings [with President Obama] have served to reward those countries that have made advances in the cause of democracy and human rights.

March 28, 2013, Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Bloomberg Businessweek

The establishment of the [UN] commission [to look into North Korea's human rights abuses] reflects long overdue recognition that a human rights ‘emergency’ exists in North Korea. The commission of inquiry should not be seen as an end in itself but rather as part of a larger strategy to promote human rights in North Korea.

March 23, 2013, Roberta Cohen, Yonhap News Agency

Erdogan is desperately trying to figure out some form of solution in Syria ... Putin has all the patience to see events play out. What worries him is not the bloodshed but the collapse of Syria, and the knock-on effects of that further afield.

March 15, 2013, Fiona Hill, The National

Having spearheaded IMF reform efforts in the first place, the U.S. is now holding its completion back.

March 11, 2013, Domenico Lombardi, Financial Times

Berlusconi representa ambas realidades: la política y la antipolítica. Por lo que cuando falla como político promueve los sentimientos antipolíticos que él mismo recoge. Él está en una posición de 'siempre gana', incluso cuando pierde.

February 26, 2013, Carlo Bastasin, La Gaceta

It’s never easy to predict change in a society. Just remember the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the changes in Arab countries ― they were hardly foreseen. Continuing to chip away at the Kim regime and working to penetrate the information wall around North Korea could in time lead to change.

February 26, 2013, Roberta Cohen, The Korea Herald