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The United States must let Iraq’s rulers govern with autonomy if insurgency is to be stamped out in the region
Michael McFaul reviews <EM>Inside Putin's Russia</EM> by Andrew Jack and<EM> Russian Crossroads: Toward the New Millenium </EM>by Yevgeiny Primakov.
Marina Ottaway assesses the significance of the January 30 elections for the longer term process of building a democratic Iraqi state. No matter how flawed, the voting will force the various ethnic, religious and political groups in Iraq to confront each other and decide whether they can stay together in one country.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has made "three enormous mistakes" in the last year that have underscored his obsession with complete political control.
The term "soft authoritarianism" has replaced "managed democracy" in describing Vladimir Putin's regime. Apart from the campaign against the Yukos oil enterprise and its executives, Putin has been sparing with repression but there have been alarming signs that the regime may be slipping toward harder methods.
<FONT size=2> <P>Inauguration - Four more years of unfettered Bush may sound like a disaster for America and the world, but both the man and his team are likely to see their second-term ambitions frustrated on all sides. By Anatol Lieven</P></FONT>
Anatol Lieven reviews Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya's book, <EM>Putin's Russia</EM>.
US representatives have given the Iranian government little reason to give up its weapons program. At the same time, administration rhetoric seems to be boxing the US into a position where Washington may feel that it has no choice but to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites itself, or allow Israel to do so. This could easily lead to a spiral or retaliation leading eventually to full-scale conflict.
Lieven argues that the American democratic system differs greatly from the modern day democracies, in the respect that the American constitution is full of elements designed to create checks and balances not only against a potentially autocratic executive but against unrestrained majority rule. If institutions like the US electoral college or the Senate itself look undemocratic, it is because they are and were meant to be undemocratic.
<P> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=468 border=0> <TBODY> <TR vAlign=top> <TD class=introline height=5><FONT size=2>As long as he believes he is indispensable, Musharraf is unlikely to make any substantive political concessions.</FONT></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=5><IMG height=1 src="http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/grfx/trans.gif" width=1></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P>
<DIV> </div> <DIV>Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War </div> <DIV>By John Prados </div><BR> <DIV>Reviewed by Joseph Cirincione </div><BR> <DIV>As George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lower their hands after being sworn in for their second terms, they will be smiling. And with good reason. They will have gotten away with the greatest con in the history of the American presidency. They willfully and systematically misled the American people and our closest allies on the most crucial question any government faces: Must we go to war? </div>
The upcoming Palestinian presidential elections have raised a variety of questions. Here, experts discuss how the process has worked, what is at stake, and why other Palestinian elections are potentially more important.