Asia

Oil Is At The Heart Of The Ukraine Crisis

POLITIX 03/24/14 By Michael Shank For anyone questioning the fundamental energy and resource connection to most geopolitical struggles and conflicts, the West’s wrestle with Russia over Crimea is illustrative of merely the latest energy-related conflict in a long litany of ones. While perhaps not as dramatic as America’s removal 60 […]

Caustic Encounters: Western Demands on Putin Escalate Crimea Crisis

CDN 03/22/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, March 22, 2014 — Returning home last week from Poland and Germany, as part of a United States and European Union transatlantic policymaker conversation on the crisis in Ukraine, Crimea and Russia, as well as other salient U.S.-E.U. issues like trade, climate change and […]

U.S.-E.U. Rhetoric on Russia as Destructive as a Chekhovian Duel

HUFFINGTON POST 03/22/14 By Michael Shank Returning home last week from Poland and Germany, as part of a United States and European Union transatlantic policymaker conversation on the crisis in Ukraine, Crimea and Russia, as well as other salient U.S.-E.U. issues like trade, climate change, and income inequality, I found […]

Hong Kong’s ‘Occupy’

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 03/11/14 By Michael Shank and Jamila Raqib The Occupy Movement has returned and is resurrecting itself in Hong Kong. But in this case, the “occupying” is not associating itself with the Occupy Wall Street of recent years. Instead, a new political initiative in Hong Kong […]

Time to Write the Rules for Cyber and Drone Challenges

CNN 02/03/14 By Michael Shank and Des Browne Editor’s note: Des Browne is the former U.K. Secretary of State for Defense. Michael Shank is the associate director for legislative affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. The views expressed are their own. Iran has begun implementing the Joint Plan […]

Schools, Not Casualties

ALBANY DEMOCRAT-HERALD 12/18/13 By Ray Kauffman The Oct. 25 issue of U. S. News and World Report has an article titled “Books on the Ground, Not Unmanned Robots in the Sky,”  written by Michael Shank, director of foreign policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and adjunct faculty at […]

U.S. Credibility Around the World Damaged by Afghanistan War

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 12/16/13 By Michael Shank, Daniel L. Davis, and Shukria Dellawar As the December 31st deadline for the U.S.-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement gets pushed back, given unresolved disagreements over the post-2014 U.S. presence, it is clear that American clout in Kabul is not what it once […]

A New Look at Climate Change

REUTERS 12/09/13 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Michael Honda The annual United Nations climate change talks, which concluded last month in Warsaw, unfortunately found little common ground on carbon. The talks broke down over the world’s richest nations’ inability to agree with the poorest on how to address the […]

Turkey’s Education Crackdown Is Cause for Concern

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 12/02/13 By Michael Shank It appears that Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Islamic preacher from Turkey who promotes peace and tolerance, and the schools associated with his religious Hizmet movement can’t get a break. They were first targeted in America, via discrimination aimed at the Turkish […]

Reading Karzai’s Mind

RADIO FREE EUROPE 11/27/13 By Frud Bezhan A contentious security deal between Afghanistan and the United States looked all but signed. The Loya Jirga, a key national gathering of Afghan elders, had given its unanimous backing. All that was left was for both parliament and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to […]