In The News

Time for a New Approach to Pyongyang?

Richard Halloran July 24, 2006
Ever since North Korea’s missile launch, the world has focused on diplomacy, sanctions and even hints of military action – all deemed ineffective or impractical. The Triple-I Strategy – ignore, isolate and implode – could be a worthy replacement. Led by the US, this action entails ending all official communications with North Korea, imposing substantial economic sanctions, and imposing military...

The West’s Moral Erosion Has Undermined the War on Terror

Max Hastings July 24, 2006
Rigid British and US support of unrelenting Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and their refusal to pursue immediate ceasefire, contribute to views that the West is unjust, according to “Guardian” columnist Max Hastings. As a result, the West damages its global reputation. Military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lack of intervention in Lebanon or other struggling nations, diminish...

Multipolar Disorder

Timothy Garton Ash July 24, 2006
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US took on the role of world’s supreme power. In retrospect, the moment was brief. As the world’s leading power, the US invaded Iraq – and the notion of a world guided by the might and morals of a single nation unraveled. Attempts to manage conflicts such as the current explosion between Israel and Lebanon face a labyrinth of cause-and-effect...

The Taliban’s Silent Partner

Robert D. Kaplan July 21, 2006
While the Afghan government, led by US-backed President Hamid Karzai, controls the country’s major cities, the countryside remains subject to Taliban infiltration. Over 75 percent of Afghanistan’s population lives in rural villages. Thus, using Pakistan as a rear base, Taliban units provide security and other concrete needs to villagers that the government fails to deliver. Pakistani President...

Time for America to Put Its Diplomatic Muscle Where Its Mouth Is

July 21, 2006
Events move at fast pace in the Middle East – and the US and UN must work quickly to control the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, its democratic neighbor to the north. Israel is using bombs supplied by the US, and Hezbollah militants use bombs supplied by Iran. The conflict intensifies as Israeli ground troops march into southern Lebanon and the UN secretary-general calls for an immediate end...

A Driven President Faces a World of Crises

Michael Abramowitz July 20, 2006
From North Korea to Iran, Somalia to Afghanistan and places in between, the US government faces a barrage of conflicts that could hinder the Bush administration’s stated foreign policy goal of democracy building. Committing so many resources in Iraq has limited US flexibility in responding to other crises, and some observers from both political parties in the US express pessimism about the...

Russia Looks Both East and West

Andrew Symon July 20, 2006
As the Group of Eight industrial countries meets in St. Petersburg, Russian oil supply to Europe and western countries was a prominent topic of conversation. Russia supplies 25 percent of the EU’s oil. Russia also looks east to China and South Korea to expand its markets for oil and natural gas. Several projects under negotiation between Moscow and Asian governments would increase the Russian...