Time For Some American Shock and Awe in Syria

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Sarwar

Sarwar A. Kashmeri 29 April 2013

United States’ intelligence agencies and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are still not certain the Syrian government of President Assad has used chemical weapons against its opposition. Nothing has yet emerged from France, Germany or Britain to unequivocally confirm this charge either. But the clamor among the hawkish segment of Washington lawmakers to get the United States involved militarily in Syria gets louder by the day.

After all, why let facts come in the way of another display of American military shock and awe…

Read the full column on the Huffington Post>

Coming Soon: the Un-Pivot to Asia

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Sarwar

Sarwar A. Kashmeri 14 April 2013

Anyone that believes the tensions created by North Korean president, Kim Jong-un, are copyrighted products of the baby-faced graduate of a Swiss education, couldn’t be more mistaken. While it is true that he is following the path set by his father and grandfather, they too were beholden to China and were emissaries of its national interests, just as Kim Jong-un is today…

The Effects of European Financial Uncertainty

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Sarwar

The European economy has been struggling for the past half-decade, now the latest trouble comes from Cyprus. What are the implications for the U.S. and for the transatlantic economy.

New Hampshire Public Radio asked me and Matthew Slaughter –Faculty Director at the Center for Global Business and Government, the Signal Companies’ Professor of Management, and the Associate Dean for Faculty at Dartmouth College, and an economic advisor in the George W. Bush administration–to discuss this on their widely listened to call-in program “The Exchange with Laura Knoy.”

Obama Visit to Israel Key Link in Redesign of U.S. Foreign Policy

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Sarwar

It would be a mistake to view President Obama’s visit to Israel as just a fence-mending exercise. It is in fact part of a planned redesign of U.S. foreign policy that will change the face of American leadership around the world.

The redesign began with the appointment of John Kerry as Secretary of State and Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Both complement Vice President Joe Biden, and the president’s new chief of staff, Dennis McDonough. All of them, I believe, share a keen understanding of what it means to live in a world of 7 billion interconnected people, in an age where the basic equation of geopolitics, that superpower = ultimately getting ones way, no longer holds.