Feb 17, 2012

Behind Obama's Mideast policy of capitulation

by Zaki Laidi

No sooner did U.S. President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence — across Baghdad and elsewhere — revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate ...

Jan 18, 2012

Peace without Vietnam's pitfalls

by James Dobbins

In 1968 I began my life in diplomacy as an aide to Averell Harriman and Cyrus Vance, who were heading peace talks with the North Vietnamese in Paris. Thirty-four years later, I ended that career as the George W. Bush administration’s first special envoy ...

Jan 13, 2012

21st-century U.S. defense strategy

Two basic principles guide the United States National Defense Strategy unveiled Jan. 5. The first is the rising significance of the Asia-Pacific region to U.S. national interests. The second is a new fiscal environment: Washington just does not have the resources to fund a ...

Jan 12, 2012

U.S. overlooks the true tolls of its wars

by John Tirman

As the United States officially ended the war in Iraq last month, President Barack Obama spoke eloquently at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lauding troops for “your patriotism, your commitment to fulfill your mission, your abiding commitment to one another,” and offering words of grief ...

Jan 5, 2012

U.S. turns to drones to counter China

by Michael Richardson

A recent offer by the Seychelles to refuel and replenish Chinese naval ships on anti-piracy patrols in the northwest Indian Ocean was seen as the latest sign of China’s expanding naval power. But it obscured an even more significant development: U.S. deployment of a ...

Dec 30, 2010

Endgames in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Richard N. Haass

NEW YORK — For nearly a decade, American foreign policy has been dominated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As 2011 begins, with 50,000 U.S. soldiers still in Iraq and another 100,000 in Afghanistan, it may not look like that era is coming ...

Dec 16, 2010

Is open diplomacy possible or even desirable?

by Peter Singer

PRINCETON, New Jersey — When the furor erupted over WikiLeaks’ recent release of a quarter-million diplomatic cables, I was reminded of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 speech in which he put forward “Fourteen Points” for a just peace to end World War I. The ...