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One of President-elect Barack Obama's top priorities will be to rethink the "war on terror" from the ground up. That means following through on his campaign promises to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, which would be a major symbolic achievement. Transparency, due process, and legality are some of the strongest weapons in the struggle against violent extremism.
Africa is now paralyzed by the rise of failed democracies—countries that hold elections but do not develop institutions to support civil society—sparking conflict rather than easing it. The result across broad swaths of the continent has been the concentration of power with the people who make the continent's conflicts worse.
Russia and Venezuela commence joint naval exercises this week, coming on the heels of Russian President Medvedev’s four-nation tour of South America. Though Russia’s recent closeness with U.S. neighbors may be an attempt to challenge U.S. regional primacy, the United States should avoid over-reacting.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO on the development of a grand transatlantic strategy to Afghanistan, with a comprehensive approach to reconstruction and security in the region as a whole.
Barack Obama announced today that the chair of his Council of Economic Advisors will be Christina Romer, an expert on government fiscal and monetary policy. Obama has appointed someone whose views place her well to the right of mainstream Democratic economic opinion, consistently focusing on monetary rather than fiscal policy and calling for deficit reduction when we need fiscal expansion.
The presidential transition has raised a variety of questions regarding the future of U.S. foreign policy. In an Bloggingheads debate with Robert Wright of the New America Foundation, Robert Kagan expressed his views and reaffirmed his belief that the power of nations—rather than international legal principles—must still play the defining role in shaping international relations.
In the wake of the Russia-Georgia conflict commentators often ask whether the U.S. and Russia can cooperate. The urgency of nuclear threats around the world, including Iran's ambitions, requires both countries to “wall off” their nuclear discussion from other issues that might hinder progress on finding solutions to common security challenges.
For the better part of three decades, U.S. policy toward Iran has largely focused on punitive measures aimed at weakening the Iranian regime and limiting its regional influence. It is high time to concede such an approach has failed to achieve its bottom line: Iran’s regional influence is greater today than ever, and hard-liners have a virtual monopoly over power in Tehran.
The marquee names get the transition headlines. For that reason, the potential Obama-Clinton marriage has the pundits stirred up. But for all the focus on glamorous celebrities, the real work of the government gets done down below the cabinet level. And the competition for those jobs is, if anything, fiercer and less dignified than that for the top jobs. Which is saying something.
There are a number of options and decisions that the Obama administration will be confronted by in closing Guantanamo Bay. Among them are what should be done with remaining detainees; how should those who have been charged with crimes be treated; how viable is rehabilitation?
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