"Time appears ripe for an energy-for-security exchange between member states of NATO and those of the energy-exporting Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)," writes Jim Krane, Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies. "Closer ties between the two regions could deepen Europe’s involvement in the security of its energy supply, while boosting the hard security of the Gulf’s Western-allied monarchies."

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement offers an opportunity to deepen U.S.-Mexico economic ties without reopening the still contentious North American Free Trade Agreement for negotiation. It may also serve as a vehicle for advancing the current Mexican government’s economic reform agenda. The leaders of the U.S. and Mexico believe that the TPP will bolster domestic economic growth.

A Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board crashed in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, amid allegations it was shot down. Baker Institute fellow Joe Barnes examines the possible diplomatic ramifications of the tragedy in the Baker Institute Blog.

President Obama’s commencement address at West Point on Wednesday was clearly aimed at deflecting rising criticism of his administration’s foreign policy. In particular, the speech was designed to address complaints that U.S. foreign policy under Obama has lacked strategic coherence and signaled a U.S. retreat from the international arena. The administration promoted the address as a platform for the president to describe his “vision” for U.S. foreign policy during the remainder of his term. To the extent that the speech did present a vision, it was not a particularly new one.

Joe Barnes, the institute's Bonner Means Baker Fellow, blogs on concern in Kyiv, Washington and European capitals — not too far-fetched, given Russia’s seizure of Crimea last month — that Moscow might invade Eastern Ukraine on the pretext of protecting Russian speakers.

The situation in Ukraine is the most serious foreign policy challenge ever faced by the Obama administration, writes Rice faculty scholar Richard Stoll.

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Executive Summary

Syria, by many measures and…

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When U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the…

Experts from the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies examines issues in global energy.