Ashish Kumar Sen

Obama Likely to Seek a ‘Wartime’ Defense Secretary  In the days since Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned, two prominent candidates to replace him have said publicly they will not do so. They are former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy and Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed. As President Barack Obama seeks a new appointee, the priorities for a defense secretary have changed since he selected Hagel, then chairman of the Atlantic Council, in February 2013, according to Barry Pavel, director of the Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. The president probably will want a “wartime secretary,” Pavel said in an interview with Ashish Kumar Sen earlier this week.

An Iran Nuclear Deal: Better Than Nothing if We Get It, But Not a Resolution  As Iran and six other nations announced a seven-month extension of their effort to reach a deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program, the Atlantic Council’s Matthew Kroenig said Iran will pose a nonproliferation threat even if a deal is struck. Kroenig, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, said the US and its allies must increase their pressure on Tehran to reach an agreement, but that a deal along the lines of the current negotiation will not be comprehensive. 

Obama to Visit India in January President Barack Obama will travel to India in January, becoming the first US president to visit the country twice while in office. Bharath Gopalaswamy, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, tells Ashish Kumar Sen why this visit is important—and notably how it will be seen by India’s main rivals, China and Pakistan.

Sharif gets consolation call from Obama Prime Minister Narendra Modi bagged a visit from Barack Obama, while his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif received a consolation prize of a phone call from the US President.

Ex-US Officials Urge Broadened US Strategy in Syria, Iraq Wars  Ground troops, perhaps even Special Forces, will ultimately be required to defeat the Islamist militant army of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, General James L. Jones told the Atlantic Council’s Energy & Economic Summit in Istanbul today. 

Nuclear Deal Could Open US-Iran Cooperation Against ISIS, Ex-Officials Say  As international negotiators approach next week’s self-imposed deadline for reaching a compromise to let Iran pursue a nuclear program, US and French former officials told Atlantic Council forums this week that a deal could offer new advantages in the Middle East. An agreement could create an opportunity for a US-Iranian “open relationship” on confronting militant threats in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ambassador Thomas Pickering told a November 19 forum at the Council in Washington. “For the first time, the United States and Iran have gotten down to the wire, along with our European and Russian and Chinese colleagues, to something that could in one way or another generate, if not a sea change, certainly a major shift in the situation in the region,” said Pickering, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs.  

US Prez gets Modi’s Republic Day invite, says yes US President Barack Obama has accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at Republic Day celebrations on January 26 in New Delhi. This will be the first time when a US President will be the guest of honour at an event that both India and the United States hold close to their hearts — the founding day of the Constitution. Also, Obama will be the first US President to visit India twice while still in office.

Obama offers shield to 5 m illegal immigrants In one of the bold decisions of his presidency that could benefit thousands of Indian techies seeking the Green Card, US President Barack Obama has unveiled sweeping immigration reforms that will shield almost five million illegal immigrants from deportation. In a pro-immigrant speech from the White House on Thursday night, Obama urged Americans to show compassion toward “undocumented Americans” who have worked hard but “see little option but to remain in the shadows or risk their families being torn apart.”

Obama’s foreign policy on the line  The recently concluded midterm elections have given the Republican Party complete control over the U.S. Congress, and that is bad news for U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy agenda.

Mixed night for Arab-American and Indian-American candidates Arab-American and Indian-American candidates had a mixed night in the midterm elections that gave the Republican Party control of the US Senate and a larger majority in the US House of Representatives.

Republicans exude confidence on eve of polls Republicans are expected to take control of the US Senate and strengthen their majority in the US House of Representatives in midterm elections on Tuesday, deepening the long-running political gridlock in Washington.

30 years later, Sikh deserve justice  November marks the 30th anniversary of a vicious campaign of violence by Hindu mobs against the Sikh community in India that left nearly 3,000 Sikhs dead.  

Rights group wants law to tackle communal violence The failure of successive Indian governments to prosecute those responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Sikhs in the aftermath of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination has left Indians more vulnerable to communal violence and distrustful of the judicial system, according to a New York-based human rights group.