foreign policy

Is honesty the best foreign policy?

by Paul Woodward 01.26.2011

We live — as politicians frequently repeat — under the rule of law and there is nothing the legal system frowns on more earnestly than perjury. Hence during trials the solemn ritual that witnesses must swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And then there is government, where the [...]

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Why think tanks attract sycophantic opportunists

by News Sources 01.05.2011

Benjamin H. Friedman lists the reasons think tank analysts lack intellectual independence. Think tanks are shaped by five forces creating political bias: The first is institutional funding. If you take government or industry money, you will hesitate to undertake research that offends your sponsors. Many people see foundations as somehow cleaner money, but they too [...]

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The impact today and tomorrow of Chalmers Johnson

by News Sources 11.21.2010

Steve Clemons writes: Next week, Foreign Policy magazine and its editor-in-chief Susan Glasser will be releasing its 2nd annual roster of the world’s greatest thinkers and doers in foreign policy. I have seen the list — and it’s impressively creative and eclectic. There is one name that is not on the FP100 who should be [...]

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Unholy alliance at war with Obama’s foreign policy

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Unholy alliance at war with Obama’s foreign policy By Philip Stephens, Financial Times, January 14, 2010 Mr Cheney’s outburst [as he recently accused Barack Obama of being soft on terrorism]… is part of a bigger story in Washington. The aim reaches beyond self-exculpation for his lead role in the calamities of George W. Bush’s administration. [...]

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The American leviathan

by Paul Woodward 09.11.2009

The American leviathan By Stephen Glain, The Nation, September 9, 2009 News travels fast across the red desert bush of remote Djibouti. Even as US military reservists erect a field hospital around a cluster of tents and blockhouses near a desolate watering hole, dozens of tribespeople are waiting for treatment in orderly rows. They arrive [...]

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Message to Muslim world gets a critique

by Paul Woodward 08.28.2009

Message to Muslim world gets a critique By Thom Shanker, New York Times, August 28, 2009 The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived [...]

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CAMPAIGN 08 & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Dignity promotion

by Paul Woodward 03.25.2008

The Obama Doctrine By Spencer Ackerman, The American Prospect, March 24, 2008 [An] ability to see the world from different perspectives informs what the Obama [foreign policy] team hopes will replace the Iraq War mind-set: something they call dignity promotion. “I don’t think anyone in the foreign-policy community has as much an appreciation of the [...]

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NEWS, CAMPAIGN 08 & OPINION: The bankruptcy of American military power

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2008

Pentagon seeks record level in 2009 budget By Thom Shanker, New York Times, February 3, 2008 As Congress and the public focus on more than $600 billion already approved in supplemental budgets to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for counterterrorism operations, the Bush administration has with little notice reached a landmark [...]

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INTERVIEW: Graham Fuller

by Paul Woodward 02.02.2008

Foreign Policy interview Graham Fuller January, 2008 Mr. Fuller, I agree with your statement that “[s]truggles over power, territory, and trade existed long before Islam arrived.” They also existed long before the arrival of the world’s most powerful country. So my question is, What would a world without America look like? Great question, worthy of [...]

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NEWS ROUNDUP: January 22

by Paul Woodward 01.22.2008

U.S. falls short on new Iran sanctions The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany agreed Tuesday to impose new sanctions on Iran over its suspect nuclear program, yet the measures appeared to fall short of what the Bush administration had wanted. Budgetary spat in Iran Supreme leader Khamenei sides with the [...]

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GUEST CONTRIBUTOR – Roger Morris: Burials in the Sind

by Paul Woodward 01.16.2008

Pakistan has paid dearly for America’s most generous and tragic patronage By Roger Morris, War in Context, January 17, 2008 Benazir Bhutto was a precocious 23-year-old in 1976 when she noticed Army Chief of Staff Mohammed Zia ul-Haq come and go at the office of her father, Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “A short, [...]

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OPINION: Foreign policy after Bush

by Paul Woodward 01.13.2008

Cornered in square one By Steven Weber and Bruce W. Jentleson, Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2008 … the next president will not be starting from an international position similar to the one Bush inherited no matter how successful the administration is in undoing the damage of its failed policies. A once internationally weak and [...]

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FEATURES: The next president’s foreign policy challenges

by Paul Woodward 01.07.2008

The Democratic foreign policy wars By Ari Berman, The Nation, January 21, 2008 At the Des Moines Register presidential debate in December, Barack Obama was asked how voters could expect him to provide a “break from the past” when many of his top foreign policy advisers were holdovers from the Clinton Administration. Obama gracefully parried [...]

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OPINION: Turning east

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2008

Dealing with the dragon By Paul Krugman, New York Times, January 4, 2008 On both Wednesday and Thursday, the price of oil briefly hit $100 a barrel. The new record made headlines, as well it should have. But what does it mean, aside from the obvious point that the economy is under extra pressure? Well, [...]

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OPINION: In foreign policy, image is created through action, not branding

by Paul Woodward 12.30.2007

He could care less about Obama’s story By Reza Aslan, Washington Post, December 30, 2007 Every time I hear about how Sen. Barack Obama is going to “re-brand” America’s image in the Middle East, I can’t help but think about Jimmy Carter’s toast. When the idealistic Democrat came to Iran in 1977 to ring in [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: The measure of American influence

by Paul Woodward 12.30.2007

U.S. strives to keep footing in tangled Pakistan situation By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, December 30, 2007 For the Bush administration, there is no Plan B for Pakistan. The assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto dramatically altered Pakistani politics, forcing the largest opposition party to find new leadership on the eve [...]

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ANALYSIS: The realist resurgence

by Paul Woodward 12.28.2007

Gates led realist resurgence in 2007 By Jim Lobe, Antiwar, December 28, 2007 2007 will likely go down in US history as the year in which the balance of power in the long-running struggle between hawks and realists in the administration of President George W. Bush shifted decisively in favor of the latter. That shift, [...]

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ANALYSIS: Foreign policy shift

by Paul Woodward 12.09.2007

Bush engages foreign foes as policy shift accelerates By Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2007 The White House said that President Bush sent a letter directly to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seeking cooperation in implementing a pact to dismantle its nuclear arms in exchange for full normalized relations. The move is [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS, OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Pakistan and the failure of American interests

by Paul Woodward 11.10.2007

Pakistan’s Plan B deficiency By Gary Sick, Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2007 What is happening today in Pakistan takes me back to the time when the Iranian revolution was brewing, when I was the desk officer for Iran on the National Security Council. The ultimate reason for the U.S. policy failure then was the [...]

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EDITORIAL: Nuclear risks and nuclear realities

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2007

Nuclear risks and nuclear realities By Paul Woodward, War in Context, November 8, 2007 General Musharraf today tossed a bone to his lapdogs in Washington — a promise of elections — and the White House wagged its tail and quickly applauded what it sees as “a good thing” — even while Pakistan’s dictator continued to [...]

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NEWS, OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENT: An American awakening?

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2007

Picking up after failed war on terror By Andrew J. Bacevich, Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2007 Given that Bush’s version of global war has proved such a costly flop, what ought to replace it? Answering that question requires a new set of principles to guide U.S. policy. Here are five: * Rather than squandering [...]

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NEWS ANALYSIS OPINION & EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Iran, war, prisoners, oil, nuclear advances

by Paul Woodward 11.07.2007

The Iranian challenge By Trita Parsi, The Nation, November 19, 2007 Iran will be the top foreign policy challenge for the United States in the coming years. The Bush Administration’s policy (insistence on zero enrichment of uranium, regime change and isolation of Iran) and the policy of the radicals around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (unlimited civilian [...]

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FEATURE: What’s good for others is good for us

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2007

Is (his) biography (our) destiny? By James Traub, New York Times, November 4, 2007 The United States has had only one foreign policy and one national-security strategy since the transforming events of 9/11 — and this set of doctrines has been shaped by the very distinctive worldview of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: Targeting Iran

by Paul Woodward 10.25.2007

Attack Iran and you attack Russia By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, October 26, 2007 The apparent internal controversy on how exactly Putin and the Supreme Leader are on the same wavelength belies a serious rift in the higher spheres of the Islamic Republic. The replacement of Larijani, a realist hawk, by Jalili, an unknown quantity [...]

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