The National Interest Online

Flynt Leverett in the National Interest | 'Does the G8 Still Matter?'

Communications — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:17:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...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 group should return to its roots, economics, if it hopes to retain relevancy in today’s world of global markets and interconnected states. Leverrett agreed, but put the future of the group in even-starker terms: developing a strategy of global economic governance is “imperative” for the G8’s survival, and U.S. interests in a rapidly changing world. Failing to adapt, he said, is simply an “abrogation of responsibility...” LINK to article and LINK to C-SPAN video

Inside Track: Politics as Usual?

Ron Tang — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As the presidency of General Pervez Musharraf enters what seem to be its last days, we need to keep one thing firmly in mind. It is that despite the Bush administration’s support for Musharraf, it was also the Bush administration that did the most to destroy him, by forcing him into a subordinate role in a war on terror that most Pakistanis detest. It was not Musharraf’s (very mild) “dictatorship,” but the tag of “Busharraf” which originally crippled his domestic prestige. And if U.S. administrations are not careful, they will help destroy the next Pakistani administration and the one after… more

Inside Track: The Financialization of Foreign Policy

Articles — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:29:00 -0400

Over the first half of 2007, central banks in the world’s emerging economies accumulated over $600 billion of new reserves. That’s double the total reserve position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- an institution whose mission used to include preventing the collapse of these same governments, and whose new managing director recently raised questions about the body’s “relevance and legitimacy.” Over the same period, China, Russia and Japan joined the list of governments establishing “sovereign wealth funds”, whose worldwide assets now approach $3 trillion. The U.S. Treasury, meanwhile, is focusing its attention on the Strategic Economic Dialogue with China,… more

Bush’s Kitchen-Sink Address

Articles — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:29:00 -0500

In his lackluster State of the Union address last night, President Bush defined America’s military actions in the Middle East as the “defining challenge of our time” and yet overall, Bush offered no credible plan that could lead to an improvement in America’s circumstances.

Yet again, Bush hyped the fear that Americans should feel from terrorists, who, he said, “want to force our country to retreat from the world and abandon the cause of liberty.” He stated that “this war is more than a clash of arms -- it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our nation is… more