Regional Policy

Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has just won a primary election for the leadership of the governing Kadima party. Livni will now try to form a governing coalition. Daniel Levy discusses the political process in Israel in the weeks ahead, the coalition vs. election options and what a Livni premiership might mean for regional issues. Daniel Levy is a senior fellow and director… more

...The question of whether Sarkozy has secured a good deal for France is causing the French great concern as the new strategy unfolds.

Professor Anatol Lieven of Kings College London, author and expert on Euro-American relations, sees the deal as highly beneficial to France.

"The new NATO structures do come with one enormous condition, which is that Russia does not once again become an enemy. If NATO has to plan for the possibility of a war in Ukraine or Georgia, then France's new forces make no… more

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. . . Bush's Mideast policy, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and his willingness to stand tough against unfriendly Arab regimes and Islamists have left Israel in a strategically weaker position today than it was eight years ago, says Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank on global and domestic issues. . . .

"At a mass level, people can go doe-eyed when… more

Without a sound footing in the real needs and interests of the nations and peoples around the world, no global strategy can hope to succeed. As Americans begin to realize that the bank of goodwill towards America built up from World War II and the Cold War is rapidly depleting, the nature of our policies in individual countries, not just the image we project from Washington or Hollywood, is the real currency of… more

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has turned out to be a pretty tame lion. Swept into office in a wave of populist euphoria that he might deliver his people and nation from economic malaise and geopolitical obscurity, Koizumi was the hope for liberal nationalism in Japan. After nearly six decades of U.S. presence in Japan, some hoped that while supporting the basic tenets of the U.S.-Japan security alliance, he might at least shore up Japan's sovereignty and general weight in the… more

While the Bush Administration looks to the weapons inspection process in Iraq to turn up a material breach worthy of war, hawks in and out of government have been making a separate case for invasion, claiming that a US military strike against the country is necessary under the amorphous rubric of the "war on terrorism" and because of Saddam Hussein's alleged connections to Al Qaeda. In fact, it is Saudi Arabia rather than Iraq that has supplied much of the… more