Key Points
U.S.-Iraq: On the War Path
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War & Peace
The Space Industry: Supporting U.S. Supremacy
Responding to North Korea’s Surprises
The Future of U.S.-South Korean Security Relations
In its crudest form, geopolitics is a zero-sum game. The United States recognizes mainland China and breaks official ties with Taiwan; Washington leans toward Karachi and away from New Delhi. A gain along one axis is offset by a loss along a second. But diplomacy is usually too complex an amalgam of relationships to evaluate so starkly on a balance sheet, and there are often opportunities for simultaneous improvements between mutually antagonistic countries. Take, for example, the surprising improvement in U.S. relations with both China and Taiwan over the past three years. Alas, the flip side to win-win diplomacy is lose-lose diplomacy. Since 2000, when U.S. relations with both halves of the Korean Peninsula seemed to be on the upswing, Washington has managed to unravel its incipient relationship with Pyongyang while tangling its ties with Seoul.
An “Affirmative Measure” to Help Prevent the Commission of War Crimes by the Bush Administration
How to Bring the Troops Home and Internationalize the Peace
"There is an old military doctrine called the First Rule of Holes: If you find yourself stuck in one, stop digging."
Will the Bush Administration’s Actions Move Aceh Toward Peace or a Continued Descent Into Destruction?
Aceh, so long isolated from international view by the Indonesian government and military, is now–tragically–at the center of world attention. Members of the U.S. Congress and their staff, UN officials, journalists, and humanitarian aid workers have arrived on the scene after years of blocked access. These shifts offer the Bush administration and other actors an unprecedented opportunity for peace-building and enhancement of human security and stability in a region dominated by violent conflict for decades.
How Much Power Will the New Iraqi Government Really Have?
Much attention was paid in the run-up to the January 30 elections in Iraq regarding how the lack of security in much of the country, combined with the decision by major Sunni Arab parties to boycott in protest of recent U.S. attacks on several major urban areas, could thereby skew the results and compromise the resulting government’s credibility. Related concerns include the prospect of this election and the government that emerges exacerbating the divisions between Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, and Kurds.
Africa Policy Outlook 2005
There are some people in the world’s wealthy countries who forecast that 2005 will be a decisive year for Africa.
After Iraq’s Wartime Elections
Robert Fisk is the award-winning journalist of the London-based Independent newspaper, and he has long been a consistent critic of American imperial policies in the Middle East. “But it was the sight of those thousands of Shi’ites, the women mostly in black hejab covering, the men in leather jackets or long robes, the children toddling beside them, that took the breath away,” he reported from Baghdad on election day. “If Osama bin Laden had called these elections an apostasy, these people, who represent 60% of Iraq, did not heed his threats.”