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The Case for Humility in Afghanistan

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Steve Coll - Oct. 18 (News Analysis) - The United States has two compelling interests at issue in the Afghan conflict. One is the ongoing, increasingly successful but incomplete effort to reduce the threat posed by al Qaeda and related jihadi groups, and to finally eliminate the al Qaeda

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What are the odds that Obama's Iran talks will succeed?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Peter Feaver - Oct. 01 (Opinion) - How should we measure success in the talks with Iran that begin today? I propose the following sliding scale.

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Think Again: Palestine

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Zahi Khouri - Sep. 25 (Opinion) - The idea of "economic peace" suggests an economic conflict, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is certainly not that. Although economic issues do figure into Palestinian concerns, they are not nearly as important as addressing the rights of Palestinian refugees, terminating Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, and establishing a viable, independent, and sovereign Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. To suggest that economics are what this is about would be to sideline history and to willfully ignore the reality of Israel's occupation. This conflict is political and it calls for a solution that is political.

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Regime Change Is Dead. Long Live Regime Change.

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By John Hannah - Sep. 12 (Opinion) - It would be tragic if the United States bolstered the staying power of Iran's dictatorship just when so many Iranians appear prepared to risk everything to be rid of it.

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George Will is wrong about Afghanistan

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Christian Brose - Sep. 02 (Opinion) - The problem in Afghanistan is not that a counterinsurgency strategy has failed, but that is hasn't really ever been tried. There are risks with either strategy, be it reinforcement or withdrawal, but I'd like to hear from the critics why their alternative is better in light of its likely implications, which to me seem pretty awful. Given how bad things would likely get in Afghanistan if we adopted Will's prescriptions, shouldn't we at least give McChrystal's plan a decent period of time to work before pulling the ripcord?

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The Tough Questions Nobody Wants to Ask About Afghanistan

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Morton Abramowitz - Aug. 14 (Opinion) - For instance, few questions have been asked about the consequences or the morality of the United States urging Pakistan to displace two million in the Swat Valley in order to attack militants using air and artillery. Editorialists tend to be either quiet on the Pakistan-Afghanistan question, or strongly supportive of American efforts. Strategy is almost never questioned. Media watchers seem more interested in determining whether the press is soft or hard on U.S. President Barack Obama. Until a recent uptick in coverage, the number of television minutes and front-page stories had dropped precipitously. And, the American media still has little regular presence in Afghanistan; most well-known columnists visit courtesy of the aircraft of senior American military and diplomatic officials.

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Iran: What now?

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - Jun. 15 (Comment) - Three Middle East experts weigh in on the situation in Iran, and what the United States should do about it.

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Why Iran '09 Could Be Like Florida '00

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Karim Sadjadpour - Jun. 11 (News Analysis) - Americans can be forgiven for being a bit confused about the upcoming Iranian elections. While four years ago Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iran a "totalitarian" state, today some media outlets are touting Mir Hossein Mousavi -- incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's strongest challenger -- as Iran's Barack Obama. Though Iranian politics are wholly unique, analyzing these elections in an American political context -- however incongruous the comparison -- may offer some clarity.

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What Muslim World?

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Scott Carpenter, Soner Cagaptay - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - Even before U.S. President Barack Obama utters a word of his long-anticipated June 4 address to "the Muslim world," there is already a problem with the rhetoric. As well meaning as it sounds, the term "Muslim world" is a trap. There is no unified Muslim world. And describing it as such legitimizes the idea that it is "us vs. them" -- just the sort of divided world that al Qaeda wants to create.

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It's time to get ruthless in Pakistan

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Dov Zakheim - May. 12 (Opinion) - In short, Pakistan in 2009 is looking more and more like Iran thirty years earlier, when the seemingly impregnable Shah fell in the face of hostile demonstrations and a passive army.

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Foreign Policy: This Week at War, No. 15

Sat, 09 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Robert Haddick - May. 09 (News Analysis) - On May 6, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted a hastily arranged summit with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration's objective was to improve coordination among all three governments in their common fight against Taliban insurgents.

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Caught in the Middle

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By David Ignatius - May. 02 (Opinion) - Gaza is simply one of those problems for which there isn’t much middle ground. Israelis and Palestinians are both convinced not only that they are right, but that the other side is morally bankrupt.

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The surprise winners and losers of Barack Obama's first 100 days

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By David Rothkopf - Apr. 28 (Opinion) - Barack Obama may be a man, it's true, but the term hardly seems adequate. Look at his poll numbers, the merchandising opportunities, the global fervor. He's the first feel-good blockbuster of summer. He's also, in addition, a label, a brand name and a spokesmodel -- in each of these cases for both the Obama administration and for the Obama era of which we are now all a part.

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The World's Biggest Election

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Preeti Aroon - Apr. 16 (Special Report) - What do you call 714 million eligible voters, 5,500 candidates, 1,055 political parties, and 830,000 polling stations? Call it the world's biggest election ever, to be held in India, the world's largest democracy, beginning April 16.

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Does the threat from al Qaeda justify a major escalation in Central Asia?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Stephen M. Walt - Apr. 07 (Opinion) - Does the threat of international terrorism -- specifically al Qaeda -- justify a costly, long-term engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan? President Obama and his advisors think so, but I'm still not convinced. I certainly understand that we have a terrorism problem; I just don't believe that it is serious enough to warrant the level and type of effort the administration is proposing. And if the results of the recent NATO summit are any indication, our NATO allies seem skeptical, too.

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Think Again: Japan's Lost Decade

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Christian Caryl - Apr. 06 (News Analysis) - As the economic gloom deepens, many American politicians and commentators have invoked the recent history of Japan as a cautionary tale. But the comparison may be more misleading than helpful.

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The ongoing problems of "stimulust"

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Phil Levy - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - It was not hard to predict that an Obama administration's skeptical approach to trade could cause international tension. But who ever would have thought we'd be berating Europe over insufficient enthusiasm for domestic spending?

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Zardari's War

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Daniel Markey - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - Despite the claims of Pakistan's many conspiracy theorists, the United States cannot dictate political outcomes in Islamabad. Judging from the recent history of Bush administration efforts to navigate the messy end of the Musharraf era, Washington's leverage in the tussle between Zardari and Sharif will be limited. Still, the Obama team should be clear on the potential outcomes of this political clash and should do its utmost to avoid the worst.

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State of War

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Sam Quinones - Feb. 21 (Special Report) - I’ve traveled through most of Mexico’s 31 states. I’ve written two books about the country. And yet I now struggle to recognize the place. Mexico is wracked by a criminal-capitalist insurgency. It is fighting for its life. And most Americans seem to have no idea what’s happening right next door.

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The Most Dangerous Place in the World

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Jeffrey Gettleman - Feb. 18 (Special Report) - Beyond the airport is one of the world’s most stunning monuments to conflict: block after block, mile after mile, of scorched, gutted-out buildings. Mogadishu’s Italianate architecture, once a gem along the Indian Ocean, has been reduced to a pile of machine-gun-chewed bricks. Somalia has been ripped apart by violence since the central government imploded in 1991. Eighteen years and 14 failed attempts at a government later, the killing goes on and on and on—suicide bombs, white phosphorus bombs, beheadings, medieval-style stonings, teenage troops high on the local drug called khat blasting away at each other and anything in between. Even U.S. cruise missiles occasionally slam down from the sky. It’s the same violent free-for-all on the seas. Somalia’s pirates are threatening to choke off one of the most strategic waterways in the world, the Gulf of Aden, which 20,000 ships pass through every year. These heavily armed buccaneers hijacked more than 40 vessels in 2008, netting as much as $100 million in ransom. It’s the greatest piracy epidemic of modern times.

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Think Again: Talking with Iran

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Hillary Mann Leverett - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - No president -- no matter how reformist or conservative in orientation -- will be able to force through significant changes in Iranian foreign policy without the acquiescence of other power centers, most notably the supreme leader.

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How badly did Gaza poison the well?

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Marc Lynch - Jan. 27 (News Analysis) - The Israeli attack on Gaza during the last weeks of the Bush administration looks more than ever like Bush's "last gift" to Israel and to the region -- carried out during the transition, with no American attempt to intervene, ending immediately before Obama's inauguration. It poisoned the well for the new administration. But how badly? Will there be a "fresh start" or has the Gaza carnage significantly changed the prospects for effective movement by the new administration?

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Obama and Israel

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Ian Williams - Jan. 09 (Comment) - On January 5 John Bolton, the former unconfirmed U.S. envoy to the United Nations, advocated in The Washington Post a "three-state solution" to the Palestinian problem. This "solution" involved returning Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan because the Palestinian state has manifestly failed. A perennial cutter of Gordian knots, Bolton usually misses the complexity of the turns — and the identity of the knot-tiers. In this case, he missed the rather obvious point that the Palestinian Authority's ailments are connected to the Israeli refusal to allow a viable and contiguous state to exist and its constant undermining of whatever party the Palestinian people elect, first Fatah and now Hamas. In fact, Bolton doesn't go far enough. Following his line of "reasoning," Israel should be returned to Britain as a mandate and then quickly turned over to the United States.

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India's other dangerous neighbor

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Elizabeth Dickinson - Dec. 12 (Opinion) - Much has been said in recent days of Pakistan's involvement in the Mumbai bombings. But it's not the only neighbor to the north the India might need to worry about. Several reports yesterday indicated the Mumbai militants entered not just from Kashmir, but Nepal and Bangladesh, as well.

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The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2008

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - Dec. 08 (Special Report) - Along with reducing troop levels in Iraq, President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to dramatically increase the U.S. presence in Afghanistan in a strategy similar to the “surge,” which proved so effective in reducing violence in Iraq. Although the wisdom of such an approach will surely be hotly debated in the coming months, the truth is that the Afghanistan surge has, to a certain extent, already begun. In the first half of 2008, the Bush administration boosted U.S. forces in Afghanistan by more than 21,000, or nearly 85 percent, with significant increases in the presence of Air Force and Marine personnel. Even reluctant NATO members have pledged to kick in a few thousand troops.

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