Center for Strategic Communication

The American Spring and the Arab Spring

By Patricia Lee Sharpe Hopes were high a few years ago. The Arab street—that’s working people as well as the educated middle class—was waking up and demanding a better shake. Throwing off well-founded fears of brutal retaliation, thousands of people gathered...

Anne Smedinghoff Didn’t Have to Die Part 2

[ Last week, Zen hosted Pete Turner’s guest post, PRT and State Department Ignorance Fails Us All. Here is part 2 of that article — posted by Charles Cameron for Zen ] . ** Last week I wrote about the tragedy of Anne Smedinghoff, who died on a patrol in...

New Book- The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House

[by Mark Safranski / a.k.a  “zen“] The Envoy: From Kabul to the White House […] by Zalmay Khalilzad Just received a courtesy review copy of The Envoy, the memoir of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, from Christine at St. Martin’s Press. Khalilzad...

The Military Is Only Part of the Story

By Patricia Lee Sharpe For the most part, the Republicans (including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan) listened to the President’s State of the Union speech with stony faces. Many frowned throughout. During his quite eloquent remarks there were a number of points at...