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Despite critics who claim that America’s power is fading fast, both presidential candidates know that the U.S. remains the key player on the international scene. Even in the throes of the financial crisis, America maintains unmatched economic and military power; and the challenges to U.S. power today are in fact no greater than challenges that the country has faced in past decades.
Nuclear disarmament is not an end in itself. Rather, it should be a means to global security. Some argue that nuclear deterrence provides the best form of security. But the fact that we worry so much about proliferation suggests awareness that deterrence in a complex multi-polar order is not fail-safe. The only long-term answer is to reduce the number of nuclear weapons to zero.
Although no one can yet predict the full implications of the financial crisis, it may have a silver lining for the U.S. if it is able to maintain its position of power while learning valuable lessons in humility. In the future, the U.S. may be more cautious about taking on massive debt, less reckless with its military spending, and more willing to cooperate on global problems.
China’s space program represents a major investment aimed at allowing Beijing to expand its growing national power into space. How well Washington responds will determine both its future capacity to dominate the high ground as well as a variety of terrestrial outcomes.
In the first presidential debate, the candidates discussed the way forward on numerous foreign policy challenges, but they left out the one country who must be engaged to solve many of these issues – China.
Almost undetected, Russia is regaining much of the influence that it lost in the Middle East after the Soviet Union collapsed. Ever since Russia invaded Georgia in August, Arab satellite television and websites have been rife with talk about the region's role in an emerging "new cold war." Is the Arab world's cold war patron really back, and, if so, what will it mean for peace in the region?
The United States and its negotiating partners should set a deadline for Iran to agree to negotiations on suspending its nuclear enrichment program. If Iran still refuses to talk, the negotiators should pull all previous incentive offers from the table and seek tougher sanctions.
2007 witnessed a "notable setback for global freedom." Some of this is the fault of the Bush administration, whose policies have given democratization a bad name. At the same time, new democracies have not figured out how to secure their new political systems beyond their first elections. Some democratization advocates wonder whether democracy has reached its global limits.
The next president of the United States will inherit the challenge of persuading the Pakistani leadership that it needs to continue prosecuting an unpopular, but necessary, war. Two fundamental changes need to be made by the next administration - it will have to strengthen the civilian government in Islamabad, while still maintaining a cooperative relationship with the Pakistani military.
The Olympic Games boosted the Chinese Communist Party's popularity among its citizen, the vast majority of whom are proud of their country and the spectacular performance of their athletes. However, the Games won't lead to dramatic change in China's political future; they strengthened the party's rule, leaving it under less pressure to reform.
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