US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 03/31/14 By Michael Shank Returning in March from transatlantic dialogues in Poland and Germany in which I and other policy types from Washington discussed the situation in Ukraine and Crimea with our policymaking counterparts from Warsaw, Berlin and Kiev, there is little question that we […]
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 […]
FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE 03/20/14 By Jillian Keenan Why are convicted high-seas bandits being sent to the Somali region that profits from their crimes? HARGEISA, Somalia — Mowlid Ahmed Abidoon stands quietly in the small prison cell where he has lived for nearly two years. Slot windows on one wall let […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 03/07/13 By Michael Shank and Kimairis Toogood When it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia must feel like history is close to repeating itself. Georgia lost 20 percent of its sovereign territory to de facto Russian control in 2008 and now […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 02/04/14 By Michael Shank and Elizabeth Beavers We need an international agreement before the U.S. modus operandi becomes the international norm. It is time for an international conversation – and, ultimately, a treaty – on the use of drones. It is naïve to carry on […]
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 […]
CDN 01/13/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, January 13, 2014 — As the U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that American soldiers are re-entering Somalia after 20-plus years avoiding the country, the need for new solutions to this crisis is critical. The answer to the rebel group al-Shabaab’s growth in […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 01/13/14 By Michael Shank That the Pentagon admitted, this month, to sending its military back into Somalia after a 20 year absence of explicit involvement (never mind the extensive covert operations in the country), should trouble anyone who cares about security on the Horn of […]
HUFFINGTON POST 01/11/14 By Michael Shank News that the Pentagon is sending its military back into Somalia, after 20 years, shows that America is still missing the point on the Horn of Africa when it comes to preventing violence. Has the Defense Department learned that little in its many misadventures […]
PEACEBUILDER 12/04/13 By Andrew Jenner In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly replaced its Commission on Human Rights – the organization’s main body dedicated to protection of human rights – with the reorganized and renamed UN Human Rights Council (HRC). As UN decisions and deliberations tend to be, it was […]