Flynt Leverett

Former Senior Director at the National Security Council and current Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Flynt Leverett, discusses how President Bush should handle Russia's invasion of Georgia, a U.S. ally. LINK to video

"I don't see any reason to believe that the Russians and the Chinese are any more willing today to support really tougher sanctions against Iran," said Flynt Leverett, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and former Bush National Security Council staffer. LINK to Article

Monday’s event brought together Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center, Julia Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson -- former chief of staff to General Colonel Powell -- and New America’s Flynt Leverett and Steve Clemons to discuss the future of Cuba policy. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Dimitri Simes started the event lightly, speaking to Nixon’s love of Cuban cigars -- which he would enjoy quietly… more

There is an opportunity to hammer out a grand compromise with Iran—one that would even address its nuclear program. But the Bush administration seems determined to prevent talks that could advance vital U.S. interests.

Much of the media coverage of last Saturday’s nuclear talks between representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the so-called P-5+1, including the United States), and the secretary general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, reflected a disturbing historical amnesia about previous U.S.-Iranian negotiations. Indeed, listening… more

Following the P5+1 talks with Iran this past Saturday that included U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns, Flynt Leverett sat down to analyze the meaning and potential of EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana's "freeze-for-freeze" formula given recent U.S. diplomatic overtures. Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow and director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation. Previously he served as senior director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on… more

...Former White House Middle East director Flynt Leverett, who has criticized the administration for being too hawkish, said the moves on Iraq, Iran and North Korea were signs of "tactical desperation," adding: "It's a recognition that if they don't make these moves, they'll be left with nothing..."  LINK

FLYNT LEVERETT: ..."As Americans, I think we also need to face up to the flip side of the rise of the rest, which is to some degree a decline in American standing and influence in various international arenas. I would argue that the United States is in an historically unprecedented condition. It emerged from the Cold War as this unquestioned global hegemon.

Now, not even two decades after the end of the Cold War, we have a situation in which the military dimension of American hegemony… more

The energy, financial and political woes that grip the US signal a decisive shift in world power, mocking the liberal delusion that Barack Obama or John McCain can return American prestige and power to its pre-Bush year 2000 nirvana. There is no such nirvana. There is instead a new reality: the greatest transfer of income in human history, away from energy importers such as the US to energy exporters; the rise of a new breed of wealthy autocracies that cripple… more

...From July 7–9, as the Nixon Center’s executive director and moderator of the discussion Paul Saunders said, the world’s heaviest hitters will meet to discuss the most-pressing problems. Former ambassador to Germany and current managing director at McLarty Associates, Richard Burt, and Flynt Leverett of the New America Foundation met at the Nixon Center on Wednesday to look at an even-more-basic issue: whether the G8 still matters. Or, as Ambassador Burt asked, if it ever did.

The G8’s purview is simply too broad to be effective, Burt argued. The… more

As the host of the 2008 G8 Summit, Japan has established an agenda focused on non-proliferation, the international economy, climate change, and development. With changes in the global distribution of wealth and influence over the last thirty years, the Nixon Center hosts a panel discussion on the relevance of the G8 Summit. Flynt Leverett, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation, serves as a co-panelist. LINK to video