He might be the devil incarnate, but Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte is beginning the process of ending over 120 years of colonial subjugation.
How Obama Took Foreign Policy Forward — And Back
When it came to race, climate, or diplomacy, Obama was like a visitor from the future. On trade and intervention, however, he was often stuck in the past.
China and the U.S. are Approaching Dangerous Seas
It’s not just the chilling rhetoric. In the past five months, warships from both sides have done everything but ram one another.
The Islamic State and the Terrible Twos
If we continue to think about the Islamic State as a force to be fought on the battlefield, its second year will be worse than its first.
Stephen Walt’s Call to Adopt a Containment Policy Toward the Islamic State
Don’t be surprised to find the Islamic State in the UN one day.
How Did U.S. Go from “Constructive Engagement” to Containing China?
Today’s conventional wisdom holds that the American effort to integrate China into the international order has only succeeded in generating new threats to U.S. primacy in Asia.
Asia: The Elephant vs. the Shark
The Obama administration’s nebulous “Pacific Pivot” is setting the stage for a superpower conflict in East Asia.
Washington Debates the Pivot to Asia
Over the last two years, the Obama administration has executed what the president has termed the “Pivot to Asia” strategy, whereby the United States’ global military force posture is being reconfigured to focus on the Asia-Pacific region as Washington’s central front. Containment of China is the aim of the Pivot strategy, which has drawn criticism from liberal critics of the policy.
Congress Pushes for War with Iran
In another resolution apparently designed to prepare for war against Iran, the U.S. House of Representatives, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 401–11 vote, has passed a resolution (HR 568) urging the president to oppose any policy toward Iran “that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat.”
An Alternative to War with Iran
Relations between Iran and the West, fraught with tension and conflict for decades, have in the past few months reached a fever pitch. There is talk of war on a daily basis from both sides. Hundreds of millions, if not billions, have been spent both to fuel the Iranian missile and nuclear program and the counter-measures taken by the West to frustrate it. Leaders on both sides have worked themselves into paroxysms of rage regarding the alleged homicidal intensions of the other side.