War & Peace Archives - Page 240 of 673 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Dale Carnegie of the Middle East

by John Feffer | Sep 27, 2011

U.S. democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East have been based on a bizarre notion: that U.S. society can serve as a model for the region. Talk about a tough sell. Congress is a bruising rugby scrum, and the U.S. economy is a shambles. U.S. warplanes and drones target Muslims abroad, and Islamophobia permeates the political discourse at home. Washington has supported Arab dictators and stood by Israel through thick and thin. We’re telling the world about the benefits of fruits and vegetables and then turning around to sell what looks like wormy apples and rotten tomatoes. No wonder that U.S. public diplomacy has largely fallen flat in the Middle East.

Escaping Haqqanistan

by Russ Wellen | Sep 27, 2011

Despite its brutality, corruption, and affiliation with al Qaeda, the Haqqani network is likely to inherit much of Afghanistan should the United States leave.

“Anti-Price Tag Patrol” Yet More Fuel for Israeli Right’s Fire

by Paul Mutter | Sep 27, 2011

The Israeli right believe that anti-price tag patrols delegitimize Israel and enable the deaths of settlers at the hands of Palestinians.

The Balkanization of Somalia

by Abdinur Mohamud | Sep 26, 2011

Political instability within Somalia and the actions of the international community are closely connected. By supporting regional actors inside Somalia, instead of supporting the federal government, the international community is contributing to the centrifugal forces that keep the country weak, violent, and in a prolonged humanitarian crisis.

U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan Accomplishes Little More Than Pushing China’s Buttons

by Conn Hallinan | Sep 24, 2011

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and John Cornyn (R-Tx) jointly introduced legislation demanding that the administration sell F-16s to Taiwan.

Expanding Network of Drone Bases To Hit Somalia, Yemen

by Jim Lobe | Sep 23, 2011

Based in part on newly disclosed U.S. diplomatic cables recently posted by Wikileaks, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. military has been flying armed drones over both countries from a base in Djibouti and is planning to build a second base in Ethiopia.

The Occupation That Time Forgot

by Sandy Tolan | Sep 23, 2011

I’m reminded of how Chinese premier Zhou EnLai supposedly answered a question in 1972 about the significance of the French Revolution. “Too early to tell,” was his reputed reply; and though he may never have said it, how true it is that the major events of our world carom through history in ways that remain unpredictable even hundreds of years later. How then to arrive at an assessment of the Arab Spring — and now far harsher Summer and Fall — of 2011, other than to say that it has proven monumental?

Is It a Mistake to Draw Solace From the Iran Bomb’s Long Gestation Period?

by Russ Wellen | Sep 23, 2011

The bomb-Iran crowd draws sustenance from how weak claims that Iran won’t possess nuclear weapons soon makes disarmament advocates look.

Confronting Agent Orange

by Ikhwan Kim | Sep 23, 2011

Agent Orange, the notoriously toxic defoliant first used by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, has long been known to cause liver cancer, birth defects, leukemia, and other illnesses in people exposed to it. Although the U.S. military hasn’t actively used the chemical since the 1970s, a number of forgotten victims are still suffering the nightmare of its contamination.

Stabilizing Congo

by Patrick Cannon | Sep 22, 2011

Despite the efforts of the United Nations’ largest active peacekeeping force, several peace agreements among the belligerents, and a temporary six-month ban on mining earlier this year, conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) persists after nearly 15 years. It has been—and continues to be—a destructive conflict. More than 5.4 million perished in the region between 1998 and 2003, and an estimated 45,000 continue to die monthly due to malnutrition, disease, and violence.