The two Boston Marathon bombing suspects have reportedly been identified as Chechen brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. While their link to Chechnya remains unclear—the brothers lived in Kyrgyzstan and Dagestan and have been residents in the United States for some time—it has thrown a spotlight on Russia’s restive North Caucasus region. Although much remains uncertain in this fast-moving story—including what the brothers’ motives were—I asked my colleague Anya Schmemann, who follows Russia, to share some insights about Chechnya and what this development might mean for U.S.-Russian relations. Read more »

A bipartisan task force calling itself the Project for a United and Strong America (PUSA) released a report today, entitled “Setting Priorities for American Leadership,” outlining its ideas for a national security strategy to guide the Obama administration’s second term. PUSA is co-chaired by Kurt Volker, who served as ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush and is now executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, and James Goldgeier, a member of the National Security Council staff under Bill Clinton and now dean of the School of International Service at American University. [Full disclosure: Jim and I have co-authored one or two things over the years.] My colleague, Mark Lagon, helped write the report. I asked him to explain the strategy that the report is advocating.  Read more »

More than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Georgia passed an important democratic milestone this week when the opposition party won the  parliamentary elections and the incumbent president, Mikheil Saakashvili, conceded defeat.  The door is now open for the first peaceful transition of power in modern Georgia’s history. The development is also a landmark for the Eurasian region of former Soviet Republics, where most elections have been rigged and often violent. I asked my colleague Anya Schmemann, who was in Georgia during the 2008 war with Russia, to put the news in historical and regional context.  Here’s what she has to say: Read more »

One of the big themes at this year’s meeting of the UN General Assembly is the rule of law. The General Assembly devoted a whole day to the topic last week. Many fine speeches were given as the soaring aspirations of the UN Charter were invoked time and again. But for all the stirring words, many if not most of the world’s people live in countries where rule at law is at best words on paper rather than a living reality. My colleague Mark Lagon is out with a new report that argues that the way to turn rule-of-law aspirations into realities is by creating a Global Trust for Rule of Law. I asked Mark to explain the basic idea behind the Trust. Here is what he had to say: Read more »

The tension between an inward- and outward-looking Russia has been on sharp display this week. On the same day that Moscow slammed Western governments for criticizing the prison sentences given to the members of the oppositionist punk band, Pussy Riot, Russia formally became the 156^th member of the World Trade Organization. My colleague Anya Schmemann says the Obama administration is right to criticize the prison sentence and to press Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations with Russia. Read more »

On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited a Syrian refugee camp in southeastern Turkey and declared that the Assad regime’s days are numbered. Over the last few months, Turkey has taken a leadership role confronting the crisis in next door Syria.

As a new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report on Turkey released today notes, Turkey’s position on Syria is Read more »

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko earlier this month released a prominent political opponent and his aide from prison. The move looks to have been in response to tough travel bans and asset freezes that the European Union (EU) has imposed on Belarus. My colleague, Anya Schmemann, keeps a close eye on events in the former Soviet Union, so I asked for her assessment. She had this to say: Read more »

I had the great pleasure to spend the past two days at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  (Oskee Wow Wow!) To walk the Illinois campus is to see American education at its best. Whether it’s the work being done at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology on electronic nanostructures, or the high-end software being developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, or the efforts by the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Program to turn biomass into fuel, to name just a few outstanding research initiatives underway at Illinois, it’s easy to see how education improves our lives, creates jobs, and keeps the United States competitive. Read more »

Russian voters go to the polls this Sunday to pick their next president. The outcome looks to be a foregone conclusion: Vladimir Putin will likely win more than 50 percent of the vote, avoid a runoff, and return to the presidency. I asked my colleague, Anya Schmemann, who keeps a close eye on Russian politics, to share her assessment of where things stand in Russia. Read more »