In The News

Foreign leaders, demonstrators and citizens in opinion polls around the world do not think twice about, criticizing the US as a threat to international stability. Despite such widespread criticism, few attempt unified action to oppose or restrict the world power. Michael Mandelbaum calls this discrepancy the most significant feature of 21st-century international relations and offers two reasons...

In describing terrorism’s threat, US government and military officials evoke the specter of the seventh-century Islamic empire that stretched throughout the Middle East and included areas of Southwest Asia, North Africa and Spain. Historically, the empire was known as the “caliphate,” and US leaders warn that the ultimate goal of Islamic militants is to reestablish it. The word “caliphate”...

Nearly three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the White House has released its plan to bring stability and democracy to Iraq. Yet, while that plan adequately addresses the role that Iraqis are to play in securing their country, it must now be followed by a strategy that addresses the roles that the American public and army will play in that same long fight. At the moment, the American...