February 15, 2022
The Lawfare Podcast: The Biden Administration and Afghanistan’s Frozen Assets
The Biden administration on Friday notified a court of a novel proposal to dispose of $7 billion in frozen Afghanistan assets, producing some pretty confusing media and a lot of anger. To try to unpack it, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Alex Zerden, the founder and principal of Capitol Peak Strategies and the former lead of the Treasury Department's office at the U.S.-Kabul embassy, and Lawfare senior editor Scott R. Anderson. They talked about what the Biden administration did and its executive order on Friday, how the media subtly got it wrong, what the implications are for pending litigation and for providing relief to the Afghan people, and whether the administration has successfully threaded a needle.
Listen to the full podcast from Lawfare.
More from CNAS
-
Sanctions by The Numbers: The Russian Energy Sector
Since 2014, the United States, the European Union (EU), and other like-minded nations have targeted the Russian energy sector with increasingly significant coercive economic m...
By Jocelyn Trainer, Nicholas Lokker, Kristen Taylor & Uliana Certan
-
Sharper: Regulating Technology
The pace of technological change presents both immense opportunity for private industry and complex challenges for national security. These technologies, including artificial ...
By Anna Pederson & Julia Arnold
-
Can Europe fund its defense ambitions?
The majority of European members of NATO are not spending as much on defense as they agreed to. But that may change as the European Union considers a move to a "war economy." ...
By Rachel Ziemba
-
A New Approach to Sanctions Is Pushing Up Energy Prices and Crimping Russia’s Revenue
Heightened U.S. sanctions enforcement has also raised the importance of China as the buyer of last resort for Russia....
By Rachel Ziemba