President-elect Barack Obama has assembled a bipartisan, centrist national security team, with an emphasis on pragmatic competence. Already faced with a daunting foreign policy inbox, the incoming administration must formulate a response to the Mumbai terrorist attacks without undermining either the current administration’s credibility or the already-weak Pakistani government.
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.
The Mumbai attacks bear the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group which operated in Kashmir in the 1990s, but has global reach today. It was founded and supported by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. If Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for the attacks, Pakistan will face new scrutiny from the U.S. as an ally in the war on terror.
The Mumbai terrorists attacked previously untargeted groups in India, including wealthy Indians and foreigners, in a likely attempt to discredit India as a safe place to conduct business and articulate a wide range of grievances with the government.
The Mumbai terrorists appear to have targeted wealthy Indians and foreigners in a series of coordinated attacks that have left over 100 dead and hundreds injured.
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.
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?
The bombings of the U.S. embassy in Sana’a this past September points to possibilities of an increased presence of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Understanding the context in which Jihadi groups emerge, the role of apolitical Salafi groups in the broader Salafism debate, and Saudi Arabia's role in defining the global Salafi movement is vital for the creation of proper policy responses in the region.
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 US military prison at Guantánamo, which would be a major symbolic achievement.
Although it is South Ossetia and Abkhazia that have been receiving most of the world’s attention this fall, Russia’s own north Caucasus region should not be ignored. In fact, Carnegie’s Alexey Malashenko predicts that this area of Russia is likely to experience serious turbulence in the coming year.


















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