Experts in the News | Miller Center

Turkey is Collateral Damage in Erdoğan’s Hostage Diplomacy

Mordy and Natalie Oknin, an Israeli couple visiting Istanbul, filmed a video last week to dispel fears among Israelis too scared to visit Turkey. Natalie said, “There is nothing to fear. It is fun in Turkey, safe in Turkey, you can speak Hebrew openly. They love us Israelis.” Her husband added, “Come, everything is okay.” Shortly after, however, the Oknins ended up in solitary confinement for six days on spurious charges of espionage and were able to return home only following backchannel talks between Ankara and Jerusalem. The swift resolution of the latest episode of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hostage diplomacy should not gloss over the harm it does to the detained victims and its collateral damage to Turkey.

Eric Edelman

Illumination Fall 2021

GOP holds on Biden nominees set back gains for women in top positions

As of Nov. 17, 50 percent of Biden’s nominees the Senate has confirmed have been women. That’s compared to 23 percent in the same time frame under the Trump administration and 29 percent in the Obama administration, according to data compiled by Kathryn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Dr. Taison Bell: “You Tend to Find Yourself Back Home.”

Dr. Taison Bell, MD, an acclaimed African-American doctor, educator, and emergency medicine director in Charlottesville, Virginia, shares his personal story of how medicine – back home in Virginia – became the center of his life. “Success was not assumed in my neighborhood.” As a child with asthma, he connected with his physician, as he did also with his Black dentist and several teachers. Such “affirmative experiences” made the dream “seem like it was achievable.”

J. Stephen Morrison

Three Dangerous Men (with Seth Jones)

Eric and Eliot discuss three dangerous men (Russian General Valeriy Gerasimov, the late Iranian IRGC leader Ghassem Soleimani and PRC Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia) with Seth Jones who has written a new book on irregular or, if you prefer, political warfare. They discuss the active conflict in this domain in which the US finds itself with Russia, China, and Iran as Russia's use of private military companies to serve as proxies in conflicts around the world. They examine what alternative options existed to the Biden Administration's approach to Afghanistan, the role of public opinion and the future trajectory of the country.

Eric Edelman

Biden’s confirmations progress at the 300-day mark

The Biden administration’s effort to staff the federal government is proceeding at a snail’s pace compared to previous administrations. Such a leadership vacuum inhibits the administration’s ability to implement their agenda, and while the Senate plays a key role in the process and pace, it is the president who suffers most from this incredibly slow pace.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas