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The Realist Prism: Horse Trading with Beijing
By Nikolas Gvosdev 20 Nov 2009World Politics Review
During his trip to Asia, President Barack Obama laid out a grand vision for a U.S.-China partnership, working together to solve the world's most pressing issues. It sounds very dramatic, almost like a form of co-dominion, with two global powers sharing the burdens of maintaining the international order. There's just one small problem: That is not what the United States is offering.
World Citizen: The Middle East's Latin America Battles
By Frida Ghitis 19 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review Middle Eastern diplomacy has intensified enormously in recent months, but don't expect to see peace break out any time soon as a result of that new burst of activity. That's because the latest wave of diplomacy has surfaced in a most unlikely place: South America, which is fast becoming a proxy for the not-so-cold war between Iran and Israel.War is Boring: U.S. Air Force Advisers Struggle with Afghan Cultural Gap
By David Axe 18 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Afghan helicopter, a brand-new Russian-made Mi-17, wasn't clearly his, but U.S. Air Force Maj. Darren Brumfield was still determined to keep it. His unit, the 438th Air Expeditionary Training Group, needs four transport helicopters to perform its mentoring mission to an Afghan air wing, and in early November, the group had just three.Global Insights: The Great Nuclear Wall of China
By Richard Weitz 17 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review BEIJING -- Although nuclear arms control is not likely to be a major agenda item during President Barack Obama's visit to China, it should be. One of the obstacles facing the president as he seeks to realize his ambitious arms control goals is the need to transform the primarily bilateral strategic arms control relationship inherited from the Cold War into a multilateral framework.The New Rules: Obama's Nuclear Focus at Odds with Rooseveltian Roots
By Thomas P.M. Barnett 16 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review By prioritizing economics above terrorism and climate change, President Barack Obama has begun to reorient America's grand strategy impulse back to its Rooseveltian roots. The one area where Obama has failed to maintain his pragmatic centrism is on the subject of nuclear weapons, arguably America's most successful 20th-century technological achievement.WPR Welcomes New Weekly Columnist, Nikolas Gvosdev
By The Editors 13 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review It's with great pleasure that we welcome Nikolas Gvosdev to WPR as a regular weekly columnist. As the former editor of the National Interest and a frequent commentator in both the print and broadcast media, Gvosdev is a well-respected foreign policy voice, combining sharp-eyed realism with insightful and thought-provoking lines of examination. Beginning next week, his column will appear every Friday.
World Citizen: Obama's Surprisingly Cool Relations with European Allies
By Frida Ghitis
12 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
President Barack Obama has managed to improve the popular standing of the United States in many countries previously hostile to it. Ironically, though, relations between Obama and the leaders of U.S. allies have turned rather frosty, particularly in Europe. If Obama's first foreign policy chapter was marked by engagement with America's foes, the next chapter may well require improving ties with its friends.
War is Boring: U.S. Army Reaches Out to Wary Afghan Farmers
By David Axe
11 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- As part of a strategy to win over local farmers in this agricultural region, U.S. forces organized a veterinary outreach event at the U.S. Army outpost in Baraki Barak district. But the event, like the larger plan, hinged on farmers accepting the gift that the military and
the district government were offering. And on the morning of the event, no farmers waited at the gate.
Global Insights: Parsing China's North Korea Policy
By Richard Weitz
10 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
BEIJING -- One of the issues President Barack Obama will discuss when he visits China next week is the deadlocked Six-Party
Talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Over time, the Chinese government has developed a stake in the talks'
successful outcome as well as in maintaining a smooth negotiating
process. But significant differences remain in the two parties' approach to the talks.
The New Rules: Why America's War on Drugs Will Wane
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
09 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
For roughly four decades, a clear foreign policy rule set has existed between the U.S. and Latin America: U.S. foreign aid in exchange for
aggressive efforts to curb illegal narcotics. By virtually all accounts, the strategy has been a massive failure. Now the old deal is off. New rules are on the way, whether we like it or not.
Under the Influence: The Measure of American Power
By Andrew Bast
06 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
Contrary to the realists who believe that international politics is a
zero-sum game, the world is more complicated than, "If I win, you
lose." If U.S. power is waning, it remains damn strong. And that it is
waning is far less a function of choice, than the
result of a global order outside the comprehensive grasp of any single
state -- or empire, for that matter.
World Citizen: Yemen Is a Failed State in the Making
By Frida Ghitis
05 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
Before 9/11, no one could have predicted that attacks concocted in
remote, impoverished Afghanistan might have such a cataclysmic impact
on history. Now we know that we ignore such states at our own risk.
That's why remote and impoverished Yemen, a country by all appearances undergoing a slow-motion collapse, is likely to draw increasing
attention -- and cause increasing alarm.
War is Boring: New Afghan Strategy Focuses on Farmers
By David Axe
04 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- In a farming village near Baraki Barak district, soldiers from the U.S. Army's 2nd Platoon, Able Troop, approached
every farmer they saw and, through an interpreter, invited them to fill
out a survey about local agriculture. The answers will help U.S. forces give friendly Afghans a
little of what they want in exchange for their cooperation.
Global Insights: Germany Relaunches NATO Nuclear Debate
By Richard Weitz
03 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
One issue German Chancellor Angela Merkel may avoid raising in her speech to a joint session of Congress today is her new coalition
government's commitment to remove all U.S. nuclear
weapons from Germany within the next few years. The pledge has focused attention on what has
until now been a low-key debate within NATO over whether to retain
nuclear weapons as a core element of the alliance's strategy.
The New Rules: When Contractors Fill America's Foreign Policy Gap
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
02 Nov 2009 |
World Politics Review
Is the privatization of American development aid a case of the U.S. "outsourcing" sovereign functions, or of weak and failed states insourcing them? The question is not simply one of semantics but of directional
causality: Is this stunning evolution the
result of a supply-push on the part of the U.S. government or a
demand-pull on the part of developing economies and failed states?
Under the Influence: Upping the Alliance With Japan
By Andrew Bast
30 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
It is striking how little attention the wider American discussion over foreign policy pays to Japan. Japan still claims the title of the world's second largest economy. Its relationship with the U.S. has been as intimate as any other
between major powers in the last 50 years. And to
complicate matters, experts say the Japanese have long worried about being abandoned by the Americans.
World Citizen: PA Elections in January? Don't Count on It
By Frida Ghitis
29 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
One of the most reliable lessons one gleans from observing
intra-Palestinian politics is the need to always expect the unexpected.
Important events have a tendency not to unfold according to plan. We
should keep that in mind when considering Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas' sudden call for new parliamentary and presidential elections to be held on Jan. 24.
War is Boring: Afghan War Demands More Civilians
By David Axe
28 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
A 6-year-old Afghan girl's treatment in an Air Force hospital reflects an imbalance in international efforts to secure
and rebuild Afghanistan. The high level of military activity has not
been matched by aid groups and government civilians. As a result,
Afghanistan still struggles with a lack of social services, jobs and
medical care -- and that could undermine the military strategy.
Global Insights: Sounding the Toxin Tocsin
By Richard Weitz
27 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
A bipartisan commission last week reiterated its warning that the U.S. government is responding inadequately to the threat of bioterrorism. The latest report by the U.S. Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism affirms that progress has been made. But according to the commission, "the clock is still ticking."
The New Rules: Prahalad's 'Bottom of the Pyramid' is Top-Notch Thinking
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
26 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
Most Western corporations cannot eke out that much more profit in
increasingly saturated home markets. Instead they need to consider the
"fortune" of disposable income that's being amassed at lower
socio-economic levels, in both emerging markets and still
underdeveloped economies, thanks to globalization's advance.
Under the Influence: Yes, Diplomacy Can Save Darfur
By Andrew Bast
23 Oct 2009 |
World Politics Review
First there was Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Then there was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran. And now there is Omar al-Bashir in Sudan. So far for President Barack Obama, dealing with tyrants has resulted in a net gain. But the 65-year-old despot who rules Sudan is arguably even further beyond the pale than the rest.
