President Obama met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday to discuss issues ranging from Ukraine to the Syrian refugee crisis
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A Trans-Atlantic Role Reversal
Posted April 4th, 2016 at 4:11 pm (UTC-5)
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“Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.” With one pithy line 14 years ago, the foreign policy theorist Robert Kagan captured what seemed like obvious differences between the U.S. and Europe….in this time of political turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s so striking to watch Mars and Venus reverse their Bush-era alignment.
How Russia Is ‘Weaponizing’ Migration to Destabilize Europe
Posted March 25th, 2016 at 1:06 pm (UTC-5)
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[A]ccording to European officials, other migrants are traveling into the Nordic and Baltic states from Russia and are not fleeing the fighting in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather have been living in Russia and are being encouraged by the Kremlin to join the tide in Western Europe.
Europe’s Huddled Masses
Posted February 5th, 2016 at 10:46 am (UTC-5)
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Some 200,000 mainly Muslim children are entering German schools. Imagine if America, which has four times the German population, were to register 800,000 mainly Muslim children in schools in a few months. On reflection, don’t even try.
A Compassionate and Cautious Approach to Refugees
Posted December 1st, 2015 at 5:07 pm (UTC-5)
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While we should offer hospitality for the sojourner, as Scripture enjoins us, our generosity must be leavened with realism and common sense. In today’s world that means there can be no open door to the world’s problems, including refugees fleeing Syria.
Terrorists and the Refugee Battleground
Posted December 1st, 2015 at 5:01 pm (UTC-5)
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In the battle for hearts and minds, branding refugees as security threats – as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are doing – only fuels intolerance and gives terrorists a potent recruitment tool to convince young Muslims that the West has no place for them.
Is America a Nation of Xenophobic Trumps?
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 1:14 pm (UTC-5)
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The radical proposals now being put forward by Trump (and frequently echoed in only slightly less virulent form by his rivals) would define the United States as a much less tolerant and pluralistic country, one in which an entire religion could be cast under a shroud of state-sponsored suspicion.
The Real Terror Threat Congress Should Confront
Posted November 19th, 2015 at 11:49 am (UTC-5)
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[A] lawmaker’s petition to Congress for a blanket halt to the admission of Syrian refugees is a reminder of a far more real threat to the nation. An egregious loophole that Congress has failed to close has allowed over 2,000 suspects on the federal terrorist watch list to freely buy firearms and explosives …
A Modest Proposal: Pay Iran to Take Syria’s Refugees
Posted September 21st, 2015 at 11:17 am (UTC-5)
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It would enable Iran to brag of its tolerance in accepting non-Shiite, non-Muslim, and non-Persian refugees. It would embarrass the Gulf states, which have also taken in no refugees in spite of their wealth and direct responsibility for the conflict. And it would earn Iran some much-needed hard cash.
Syrian Refugees as Trojan Horse for Islamic State?
Posted September 17th, 2015 at 1:17 pm (UTC-5)
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Germany may understand best the need to welcome these fleeing Muslims. It realizes that it made a mistake decades ago in not integrating Turkish immigrant workers into German society. In a similar way, terrorist experts know that the best way to deradicalize a jihadi is to first establish a relationship, embracing them rather fearing them.
U.S. Must Step Up on Refugees
Posted September 17th, 2015 at 1:12 pm (UTC-5)
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Here is where President Obama (finally) has to get active. The United States leads the world in humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees over the past four years (around $4 billion) but has admitted only 1,200 refugees. The president has now pledged to allow in a paltry 10,000 more over the next year
Syria’s Refugees are Human Beings: Why the U.S. has a Moral Duty to Help Them
Posted September 4th, 2015 at 10:46 am (UTC-5)
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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard recently told NPR that America’s stance regarding Syrian refugees was “very rapidly going to change.” One would hope so, because it’s hard to imagine the U.S. doing much less. To date, America has welcomed fewer than 2,000 refugees.