Grand Strategy

Against his own instincts, against the wishes of his most fervent supporters, President George W. Bush took the case for a second anti-Iraq resolution to the United Nations Security Council yesterday.

Why? Because he had to.

America is the planet's lone superpower, but it still must exist within a web of political and economic relationships. In other words, for all its military might, the United States still can't afford to operate alone.

To be sure, Bush has long made his view clear.… more

The murder of three American medical missionaries in Yemen Monday is about the saddest thing one can imagine -- people martyred as they were helping others -- but it's not the hardest thing to imagine. After all, we are now in the era of asymmetrical warfare, where any American civilian anywhere is at risk.

This act was the essence of asymmetrical warfare. But wait a second, one might protest. Wasn't the man who killed those people, the man who disguised his… more

Is anti-Americanism really running as rampant as the media would have us believe? Does the world stand behind the American war on terror? Do developing nations -- and the silent majorities that exist in any country -- see America as a savior or predator? What does this attitude mean for our future as a superpower?

Please join us as Bruce Stokes, Elizabeth Gross, and Mary McIntosh -- all of whom helped lead and organize a major… more

Charles Kupchan is one of America's leading foreign policy intellectuals, and has produced an important book that cuts against the grain of Washington's contemporary military and economic triumphalism. In his book, Kupchan argues that the current political landscape -- including the end of the Cold War, the emergence of a significantly more competitive Europe, a waning interest among American citizens in foreign policy, a growing tendency toward U.S. unilateralism, and the profound impact of the digital age --… more

The Bush Administration's recently enunciated national security doctrine with its emphasis on pre-emptive regime change and the pursuit of permanent military dominance does not serve American interests. Nor does it provide the foundation for a stable world order conducive to American values and long-term well-being. This panel of experts explains why the Bush doctrine is wrong for both the United States and the world and offers an alternative set of ideas for a foreign policy more suited to the international… more

On behalf of the New America Foundation and American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, we are pleased to invite you to a "just in time" brown bag lunch meeting titled "The World and George W.: A Foreign Policy Conversation" with one of Germany's, and Europe's, most important perspective-shapers on foreign policy: Stefan Kornelius, Foreign Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany's largest mainstream commercial paper.

Kornelius previously served as Washington Bureau Chief of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and regularly writes… more

Here is an instructive and entertaining exercise for students of American foreign policy. Match the quotation to the appropriate American statesman: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, or Woodrow Wilson.

The first quotation is this: "Our aim should be from time to time to take such steps as may be possible toward creating something like an organization of the civilized nations, because as the world becomes more highly organized the need for navies and armies will diminish." Woodrow Wilson, you… more

In its approach to foreign policy, the Bush administration has been wrong about many things -- from its obsession with Iraq and its misguided support of Ariel Sharon's Israel to its unilateral trashing of treaties such as the Kyoto accord. But as folks in George W. Bush's Texas are known to say, even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then. Even critics of the Bush administration's overall strategy, if they are reasonable, must admit that the president is… more

For most of its 53 years of existence, the Geneva Convention of 1949, the treaty regulating conflict between and within states, has been largely ignored. But it took on new life in the decade after the Cold War ended, following massive atrocities in Bosnia and in Rwanda. The establishment of UN tribunals to prosecute violations breathed new life into humanitarian law and led to a movement to establish an international criminal court. The events of 9/11 and the Bush administration's… more

Did you hear about the government's new plan to launch anticipatory strikes against evildoers?

No, not President George W. Bush's policy, announced on June 1, of "preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." That's old news. Now it's time to look ahead, to "Minority Report," the new Steven Spielberg movie, which offers a window into the dystopic future when government power is taken to extremes. If the film scares you, remember, it isn't… more