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News Archive

US President-Elect Obama: A Czech Perspective

November 17, 2008

PSSI's Jana Kosarkova participated as a panelist at a gathering associated with International Education Week at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs on November 17, 2008. She was asked to address Czech impressions of, and reactions to, President-Elect Barack Obama. A summary of those remarks can be found here. [PDF, 40 KB]

International Education Week program. [PDF, 139 KB]

PSSI Washington’s Executive Director, Roger Robinson, Addresses Missile Defense in Europe and Nexus Between Global Financial Crisis and National Security

October 16, 2008

On October 16, 2008, Roger Robinson, the Executive Director of PSSI Washington, made a presentation as a panelist before the Atlas Economic Research Foundation at its “International Thursday” session. The panel’s focus was on missile defense and its importance to the security of the United States and the Continent. Alex Chafuen, President & CEO of Atlas, made introductory remarks and moderated the panel. Other speakers included Joseph Humire, Program Manager of a new Atlas initiative, Think Tanks for a Secure Free Society (SFS) and Peter Brooks, Senior Fellow at National Security Affairs and Chung Ju-Yung Fellow for Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Joseph Humire described the objectives of Atlas’ new SFS program. Peter Brooks offered an excellent analysis of the threat to Europe posed by Iran and the strategic rationale underpinning the construction of a “Third Site” for US missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Roger Robinson offered a concise summary of the recent Missile Shield Agreement between the US and the Czech Republic, as well as the overall status of the “Third Site” timetable and negotiations. Mr. Robinson likewise expressed his view that financial sanctions are now the most effective non-military policy tools available in confronting 21st century security challenges.

Finally, Mr. Robinson discussed a silver lining to the global financial crisis, namely that potential adversaries of the US (e.g. Russia, Iran, Syria, China, and Venezuela) will likely encounter more severe systemic dislocation and a longer recovery period than the United States. To help illustrate this point, he cited the 73% decline in the Russia market since May, particularly following its military incursion into Georgia.

An audio of Mr. Robinson's Atlas presentation can be found here. [MP3, 19.2 MB]
An audio of the entire program of speakers at the Atlas event can be found at the following link.
Speakers’ biographies can be found here. [PDF, 1.3 MB]
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