Policy Briefs

Filter

Products

April 9, 2021 Congress Must Oversee Renewed Assistance to the Palestinians The Biden administration this week restarted assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The new direct assistance to the Palestinians includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the... April 7, 2021 Biden Takes First Step in Countering China Through UN Elections The departments of State and Commerce last week announced their support for the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin to be the next secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The... April 7, 2021 North Korean Human Rights Should Unite the U.S.-ROK Alliance, Not Divide It The U.S. State Department last week released its annual report on human rights abuses throughout the world, which included comprehensive detail regarding North Korea’s ongoing human rights violations... April 2, 2021 New State Department Report Documents Grave Abuses in Iran Impunity for Iran’s systematic human rights abuses “remained pervasive throughout all levels of the government and security forces,” according to an annual review the State Department released on... March 30, 2021 At UN, Blinken Calls for Action on Aid to Syria Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally represented the United States at a UN Security Council briefing on Syria yesterday, where he warned, “The lives of people in Syria depend on getting urgent... March 18, 2021 Erdogan Government Moves to Criminalize and Shutter Turkey’s Pro-Kurdish Party Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling bloc stripped a pro-Kurdish lawmaker of his parliamentary seat on Wednesday and initiated a legal process to shutter Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party.... March 11, 2021 Microsoft and CISA Warn of Chinese State Hackers Targeting Windows Exchange Servers Microsoft and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued alerts last week warning that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had leveraged previously undiscovered vulnerabilities to harvest... March 5, 2021 Biden’s Half Measures on Ebola Put the United States at Risk The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order on Tuesday detailing new public health measures in response to outbreaks of Ebola in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo... March 4, 2021 Iran Conducts Major Wave of Executions and Shootings of Ethnic Minorities Tehran has killed dozens of members of Iran’s ethnic minorities in recent weeks, especially among Iran’s Baluch and Ahwazi Arab communities. Ethnic minorities are increasingly conducting anti-regime... March 2, 2021 UN Rapporteur: Iran Committed Human Rights Violations in Downing of Ukrainian Airliner Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, announced on February 23 that the Islamic Republic of Iran committed multiple human rights violations related... March 2, 2021 House Joins Senate’s Call for Tougher Action Against Erdogan One hundred seventy U.S. House members released a bipartisan letter Monday urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to address “the troubling human rights abuses taking place under [Turkish] President... February 26, 2021 Shifting Cocaine Routes Turn U.S. Ally Paraguay Into Main Transit Country German law enforcement earlier this week announced a record seizure of cocaine that had been smuggled in from Paraguay. The interdiction adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that Paraguay is fast... February 24, 2021 IAEA Weakens Iran Nuclear Safeguards Before departing Iran on Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi issued a joint statement with his hosts, announcing they had reached an agreement on Tehran’s... February 19, 2021 DOJ Charges Reveal North Korean Cybercrime and Money Laundering Schemes The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday indicted three North Korean cyber operatives and a Canadian-American money launderer for numerous cyberattacks against banks, virtual currency exchanges,... February 16, 2021 Iran’s Latest Wave of Electricity Outages Iran has experienced extensive electricity outages across the country in recent weeks, with air pollution levels soaring as Iranians employ polluting fuels to generate power. The country’s electricity... February 12, 2021 Burmese Military Blocks Social Media Access With the Assistance of Telecommunications Providers Following the coup in Burma, the military junta has tried to quash public protests by cutting internet access and banning social media sites. The military has cloaked its actions in a veneer of legality,... February 12, 2021 FDA Takes Important Step to Securing Medical Devices The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month named its first-ever acting director of medical device cybersecurity, Kevin Fu. This is an encouraging, if belated, step towards strengthening the... February 11, 2021 Biden Should Heed Senate’s Call for Tougher Action Against Erdogan Fifty-four U.S. senators signed a bipartisan letter Tuesday urging President Joe Biden to press the Turkish government to improve its troubling human rights record. The letter calls on the Biden administration... February 11, 2021 Washington Cannot Rely on Iran’s Alleged Anti-Nuclear Fatwa The Islamic Republic of Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, stated this week that although Iran’s supreme leader forbade the building of nuclear weapons according to an Islamic edict known... February 2, 2021 Treasury Report Highlights Turkey as Islamic State’s Logistical Hub The U.S. Department of the Treasury reported last month that the Islamic State often relied on “logistical hubs in Turkey” to transfer funds internationally, especially between Iraq and Syria. Treasury... January 29, 2021 Nord Stream 2 Sanctions Present an Early Test for the Biden Administration Just before leaving office, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on two Russian targets for their involvement in building the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) natural gas pipeline, which will bring Russian exports... January 29, 2021 With Trump Gone and COVID-19 Vaccines Arriving, Iran-China Trade Will Flourish in 2021 New data from Beijing show that China’s imports last year from the Islamic Republic fell to their lowest level since 2005; meanwhile, China’s exports to Iran reached their lowest level since 2009. However,... January 25, 2021 Iran Commemorates the Death of Qassem Soleimani Pro-Iranian outlets, including affiliates of Iran’s Al-Mustafa International University, earlier this month commemorated the first anniversary of the death of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, whom... January 21, 2021 Pentagon Decision on Israel Recognizes Reality and Presents Opportunity The Department of Defense announced Friday that it has moved Israel from the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) to that of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which includes the Middle... January 19, 2021 Treasury Sanctions Egyptian Terrorists Harbored by Turkey The U.S. Department of the Treasury last Thursday designated two Egyptian terrorists based in Turkey for “being leaders of HASM,” the acronym for Harakat Sawa’d Misr (Arms of Egypt Movement), which... December 21, 2020 Canadian Report Underscores Iran’s Culpability in Downing of Ukrainian Airliner Last week, Ralph Goodale, special advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, released a comprehensive report detailing the significant flaws in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s investigation into... December 21, 2020 Oil Prices Reach Highest Level Since Beginning of Pandemic The Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil benchmarks are both now back up to their pre-COVID-19 lockdown levels, reaching their highest point last week since March 2020. While oil prices took a dip today... December 18, 2020 White House Refusing to Hold Russia Accountable for Navalny Poisoning Investigative reports released on Monday eliminated any doubt regarding Moscow’s responsibility for the attempted assassination in August 2020 of leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny using a banned... December 16, 2020 CAATSA Sanctions Should Be Just First Step if Erdogan Does Not Change Course The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on NATO ally Turkey for its purchase of the S-400 air defense system from Russia. These long-overdue sanctions not only impose necessary costs on the government... December 16, 2020 Russian Hackers Target U.S. Government Agencies Multiple news reports from this past weekend indicate that hackers working for Russian intelligence breached networks and monitored email traffic at a number of U.S. federal agencies – including the Treasury... December 15, 2020 Occupied Territories Bill in Ireland Is Dead on Arrival Amid a COVID-19-induced economic recession, Irish independent Senator Frances Black has revived a draft law targeting Israel after a previous failed attempt. The Occupied Territories Bill, if enacted, could... December 11, 2020 Forty-Plus Nations Call for Suspension of Syria From Chemical Weapons Monitoring Body Forty-six countries have co-sponsored a French call to suspend Syria’s rights and privileges as a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international chemical... December 10, 2020 Norwegian Government Agency Rejects UN Anti-Israel Blacklist A Norwegian government official clarified last week that Norway’s procurement office will not stop doing business with firms on a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) blacklist. The rejection,... December 10, 2020 U.S. Sanctions Companies Helping North Korea Export Illegal Coal The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned six Chinese and Vietnamese companies and four ships – one flying Vietnam’s flag and three flying unknown flags – for exporting North Korean coal.... December 2, 2020 Key Targets Remain for U.S. Sanctions on Iran The U.S. Department of the Treasury last week sanctioned the Mustazafan Foundation, one of three critical holdings in the business empire of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Trump administration,... November 30, 2020 American Advocates Open Pharmacy for Displaced Syrians Deprived of Aid by Assad Regime The Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), an American non-profit organization, announced the opening last week of a no-cost pharmacy in the al-Rukban camp for displaced Syrians. The camp hosts 10,000 to 12,000... November 24, 2020 Rushed Afghanistan Drawdown Likely to Benefit Al-Qaeda Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller announced last week an order to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500, to be completed by January 15, 2021. Justified as a move to end “perpetual... November 23, 2020 Treasury Sanctions Companies Exporting North Korean Labor to Russia The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned one Russian and one North Korean company on Thursday for facilitating the exportation of North Korean forced labor to generate revenue for the Kim Jong Un regime.... November 6, 2020 Turkey Fines Global Social Media Platforms in Desperate Bid to Stifle Online Dissent The Turkish government announced on Wednesday its decision to fine Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube 10 million liras ($1.175 million) each for failing to comply with a new law... November 5, 2020 Designating Tehran Stock Exchange Would Increase Washington’s Leverage The main index of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has plummeted 40 percent from the all-time high it reached in early August, while institutional investors face allegations they exploited government ties... October 30, 2020 U.S. Should Sanction Key Iranian Automobile Companies Iranian Air Force commander Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh announced earlier this month that the Air Force and the Iranian automobile manufacturer SAIPA would co-produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)... October 26, 2020 Iran’s Access to Hard Currency Reserves Drops Precipitously In its latest assessment of Iran’s economy, released last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that Iran’s “readily available and controlled” gross official reserves will fall to... October 22, 2020 Amid Political Tensions, NATO Remains a Vital Alliance Turkey’s reported live-fire test of its Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system last week further aggravated political fault lines within NATO. Yet despite this provocation and other wide-ranging... October 21, 2020 The Iran Factor in Talks Between U.S., Azerbaijan, and Armenia Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will host the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia for apparently separate meetings in Washington this Friday to discuss the ongoing fighting between their two countries.... October 20, 2020 UN Secretary-General Condemns Iran for Human Rights Abuses The “overall situation of human rights” in Iran “remains of serious concern, owing to persistent and gross human rights violations,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, stated in a report... October 19, 2020 New EU Sanctions on Russia a Good First Step, But Further Action Needed The European Union unveiled targeted sanctions on Thursday in response to the August 20 use of a chemical weapon to poison leading Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. The sanctions represent a positive first... October 16, 2020 With S-400 Escalation, Turkey Tests NATO Turkey reportedly conducted an expected live-fire test on Friday of its Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system. The test represents a troubling milestone in the steady deterioration of Ankara’s relationship... October 15, 2020 UN Elects Worst Violators to Human Rights Council The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday overwhelmingly elected China, Cuba, Gabon, Pakistan, Russia, and Uzbekistan as members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The election underscores... October 14, 2020 Erdogan Meddles in Northern Cyprus Elections Northern Cyprus will head to a runoff presidential vote next Sunday in a race that pits the proreunification incumbent of the breakaway region against a nationalist hawk backed by Turkey’s Islamist President... October 7, 2020 Turkish Public Lender Fails Again to Scuttle Iran Sanctions Evasion Case A Manhattan federal judge on October 1 refused to dismiss an indictment accusing Halkbank, a public lender majority-owned by the Turkish government, of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. In the event of...

…

#archivePage { display:none; } .noscript-posts { display: flex; flex-direction: column; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; } .noscript-posts a { margin-bottom: 25px; text-decoration: none; display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .noscript-posts a .post-title { text-decoration: underline; font-weight: 700; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; } .pagination { list-style-type: none; max-width: 600px; margin: 50px auto; }