Council on Foreign Relations

But Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert at New America Foundation, says that "if US forces were not in Afghanistan," the Taliban would return to Kabul "within ...

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget details the differences between the House and Senate bills here. With no clear winner from this week's ...

"We talk about the Internet being important for terrorism, which I think is ridiculous," Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert at the New America Foundation, ...

... November 2008 could never have carried out their strike if they hadn't received actual training in a physical camp, says terrorism expert Peter Bergen. ...

Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation considers speculation of an al-Qaeda attack on the United States in the early days of the Obama ...

"Cuba has a chance to be a real role model for Latin America, as the region tries to figure out how to survive the coming global economic transition from high waste to high efficiency," writes Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation. But he cautions that "economic change has to come faster than Raul is presently orchestrating." LINK

...As global leaders scramble to find a solution, CFR.org asked five regional experts what must be done to end the violence and create a climate where lasting peace can be nurtured...

Rajan Menon, Monroe J. Rathbone Professor of International Relations, Lehigh University; Fellow, New America Foundation:

Like it or not, the balance of forces decisively favors Russia (IHT). Feel-good ultimatums from us will merely increase Russia’s intransigence. And lofty rhetoric with implied promises to Georgia that we cannot keep will only erode our credibility, further weakening Georgia’s… more

...Other defectors from the jihadist ranks include the Saudi religious scholar Sheikh Salman al-Oudah, who according to Peter Bergen and Paul Cruikshank is “considered one of the fathers of the Sahwa, the fundamentalist awakening movement that swept through Saudi Arabia in the 80’s,” and whose sermons “helped turn bin Laden against the United States...”  LINK

...Yet longtime observers of the delicate partnership say events in 2008—like the June air strike and Pakistan's February elections—have increased tensions and strained the alliance. "One could say it's on a downward trajectory," says Shuja Nawaz, a Pakistani journalist and author of Crossed Swords, a history of the Pakistani military. "However, it's not irreconcilable differences in my view. This is something that can be resolved … bearing in mind the talks should come directly from the U.S. to Pakistan—not publicly,… more

Flynt Leverett, who was a counterterrorism analyst on the Policy Planning Council in Colin Powell’s State Department, and senior director for Middle East affairs from 2002 to 2003 on the National Security Council, says the United States’ standing in the Middle East has fallen sharply because of the perception in the region that the United States is now “an occupier.” He says this started after the first Gulf War when U.S. forces were based in Saudi Arabia, and persists because… more