Eugene Gholz, Daryl G. Press, and Benjamin Valentino write on Iraq in this article for the New York Times.
The Iraq Study Group’s recommendation that the United States withdraw its combat forces from Iraq reflects a growing national consensus that our military cannot quell the violence there and may even be making matters worse. Although many are hailing this recommendation as a bold new course, it is not bold enough. America will best serve its interests in the Persian Gulf by withdrawing its ground-based military forces not only from Iraq, but from the entire region.
Francis J. Gavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Strauss Center, recently authored an article in Texas National Security Review, "What Exactly Are We Doing." In his article, he urges the U.S. to refocus its core strategic interests in the Middle East while calling for Americans to engage in respectful and passionate discourse on difficult foreign policy issues. "Smart, insightful people offer sharply...
The Strauss Center is recruiting three senior student associates to assist with reviewing data on the geography of violence in Latin America for the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). ACLED is the world’s leading source of real-time political conflict data, providing detailed data on conflict patterns, actors, and dynamics in myriad countries around the world. This project is...
In his recent post for Lawfare, Strauss Center Director and James Baker Professor in Law, Bobby Chesney, provides a critical response to the White House’s October 6th, 2019 statement announcing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Northern Syria. Chesney first highlights some notable omissions from the White House statement—namely, the role of Kurdish coalition partners in the defeat of the Islamic State...