The National Interest

Phillip Longman in the National Interest | 'Battle of the (Youth) Bulge'

Communications — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:58:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...As each successive birth cohort comes of age, a larger share of youth will therefore have been raised in more-traditional and religious families. As Phillip Longman, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, observes, “Those who reject modernity would...seem to have an evolutionary advantage...” LINK (subscription required)

Do No Harm

Ron Tang — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you don't know what to do, better to do nothing -- and the United States does not really know what to do in Pakistan. Moreover, things there are not nearly as bad as the Western media and some excitable politicians present. The situation is deteriorating, but the country is not yet close to failing. Although it is a flawed state, menaced by terrorists and insurgents, it is still a largely effective one.

By pushing for particular political outcomes, the United States does more harm than good to its own interests -- because, to put it mildly, the United States is… more

Black is the New Green

Ron Tang — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The intersection of ongoing structural shifts in international energy markets with strategic trends in global financial markets poses the most profound challenge to American hegemony since the end of the Cold War. In 2006, Pierre Noël and I wrote in these pages about an "axis of oil" -- a loose and shifting coalition of energy-exporting and -importing states, anchored by Russia and China, that is emerging as a counterweight to the United States (so far, most notably in Central Asia and, increasingly, in Iran).1 The ability of such a coalition to resist American hegemony is now compounded by the vulnerability… more

The Changing of the Guard

Ron Tang — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The view that sometime during this century a “changing of the guard” will occur, when China will displace the United States in much the same way as America did Britain, is widely held. It unites liberals and conservatives, optimists and pessimists, most of whom accept the proposition that “the East is back”, with China leading the pack. The debate is over when the shift will happen and what a world that currently bears an American stamp will look like after China has become Mr. Big.

The main problem with the narrative about China’s challenge to American supremacy (the limits of… more

Steve Clemons Appears in National Interest Story on U.S. and Russia

Communications — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:02:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Only a few years ago, Russia and the United States seemed to be headed towards a mutually-beneficial partnership in the common fight against international terrorism. But Russia’s recent behavior has left many wondering about its intentions, particularly when it comes to the United States. Fundamental disagreements on key issues and strong anti-American sentiment among the Russian population leave little doubt the relationship is strained. The threat of a renewed Cold War—or, worse, yet, military confrontation—has put the two former rivals back at the forefront of debate. At a luncheon discussion, Dimitri K. Simes, president of The Nixon Center and publisher of The National Interest, offered both an explanation for the strained interaction, as well as some answers about where it may be headed. Steven Clemons, Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Program at The New America Foundation, moderated the discussion. ...

For the complete article, please follow this link.

Beyond American Hegemony

Articles — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:25:00 -0400

That the foreign policy of George W. Bush has been a catastrophic failure is disputed by none today except for a dwindling number of diehards on the neoconservative right. But there is no consensus on the scope of the failure. Has a sound global grand strategy been poorly implemented, at the operational and tactical level, in Iraq and elsewhere? Or is the failure much deeper than that? Is the grand strategy the Bush Administration has pursued inherently flawed?

This matters because what has become known as the "Bush Doctrine" did not originate with George W. Bush. Rather, it is rooted in… more

National Interest Cites Anatol Lieven on U.S.-Russia Relationship

Communications — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:58:00 -0400

New America in the News:

This letter is an appeal to Democrats, now a congressional majority, to propose a ore positive, constructive relationship between the United States and Russia-less for Russia than for the United States.

At virtually any point between 1947 and 1991, if any serious thinker had proposed that we could form a strategic relationship with Russia but should refuse to do so, he or she would have been considered misguided at best and slightly deranged at worst. Yet that has happened today...

In recent months two developments on the U.S. side stand out. First is the policy of the Bush Administration, largely promoted by Vice President Richard Cheney, to adopt a confrontational stance toward Russia...

Second, more surprisingly, is an unreflective reaction among foreign policy elites, particularly the Council on Foreign Relations ("Russia's Wrong Direction", March 2006), to endorse this policy...

Still, no argument is given to justify this animosity. Whatever the reason-lingering nostalgia for the Cold War's relative clarity, desire for a tangible nation-state opponent in a world of stateless terrorism-it should be set forth.

Numerous Russia experts, including Stephen Cohen at New York University, Anatol Lieven at the New America Foundation and Graham Allison at Harvard's Kennedy School, have challenged what they perceive as a concerted effort to alienate Russia from the West. It would astonish any objective observer that the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, a 1974 measure denying most favored nation trading status (now called normal trade relations) to Russia as leverage to liberate dissidents and refuseniks, is still official U.S. policy. Its repeal would represent an excellent beginning point in putting U.S.-Russian relations on a more productive track...

For the complete article, please The National Interest website.

On Might, Ethics and Realism

Articles — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:24:00 -0500

Dear Will,

I have been reading with great interest the volume on Democratic foreign policy that you edited for the Progressive Policy Institute, With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, and I find parts of it admirable. This is especially true of your co-authors’ arguments that the Democrats should look to the Truman era for inspiration; on the need for the United States to adopt a far more generous and far-sighted approach to foreign development aid, especially in the Muslim world; and on the absolute imperative of reducing America’s dependence on oil, both for security… more

The Regime Change We Need

Articles — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:39:00 -0500

It may be lonely at the top, but many presidents around the world wouldn’t have it any other way. Western observers are accustomed to the autocratic tendencies of Arab strongmen and African dictators, but elsewhere a new breed of executive is emerging, sometimes combining bravado with popularity, in other cases professing democracy while seeking exemptions from it, and even pioneering a model of governance which defies Western hopes of smooth democratic transitions.

Over the last several years, the United States has increasingly focused on promoting democracy in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and elsewhere, helping to sponsor "revolutions" in… more

9/11/06, Five Years On

Articles — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:01:00 -0400

Given the scale of the damage caused to the United States, the 9/11 attacks neither required much money to execute, nor did they take a large number of plotters. Terrorism is a cheap form of warfare -- the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, for instance, only cost a few thousand dollars. This is particularly the case when you have a cadre of young men willing to engage in suicidal terrorism. According to court documents entered in the trial of Al-Qaeda’s Zacarias Moussaoui, the entire 9/11 operation cost a little over $200,000, a trivial sum considering the damage it… more