U.S. Foreign Policy
Dominic Tierney
The Obama Doctrine is like the Holy Grail. Skeptics have doubted whether it even exists. The quest for the Obama Doctrine reveals a president with the wisdom to resist doctrinaire thinking. But at the same time, Obama’s focus on avoiding the mistakes of Iraq could itself prove dangerously rigid. Read “The Obama Doctrine and the Lessons of Iraq” »
China
Jacqueline N. Deal
Let’s consider the history of great powers in the age of oil, then turn to China’s options for securing its imports, and conclude with some thoughts on the implications of Beijing’s choices for other states in Asia and for the United States. The analysis suggests that China is pursuing an indirect strategy designed to alter the geo-strategic map in China’s favor. To ensure stability along key oil routes, then, the United States may have to build up the defenses of friendly or allied states or, at least, encourage their cooperation. Read “China and the Politics of Oil” »
Europe
Ronald J. Granieri
Who if anyone is to blame for the current European crisis? It is not enough to blame the Greeks, but once you begin expanding the list of suspects it is hard to know where to stop. One is reminded of Agatha Christie’s 'Murder on the Orient Express', where Hercule Poirot is initially confused by the fact that everyone had both motive and opportunity— until he realizes that everyone participated in the murder. Read “Who Killed Europe?” »
Of Related Interest:
Middle East Media Monitor
Samuel Tadros
The Muslim Brotherhood’s electoral success has not come without its costs. Not only is the Brotherhood now required to come up with solutions to Egypt’s endemic problems and collapsing economy, but the movement’s ascendancy has also placed it squarely in the spotlight, with its every move being scrutinized by a press dominated by unsympathetic non-Islamists. Most importantly, the same elections that brought it to prominence have also given rise to Salafis, who are promising to be the greatest challenge the Brotherhood has ever faced. Read “The Muslim Brotherhood and Washington” »
The Military
F.G. Hoffman
Although national security has not been a major component of the election campaign so far, it will undoubtedly become a critical element of comparison between the two contenders as the campaign heats up this summer. To address the distinction between the candidates and their positions, I will present a number of facts and issues in a dialectic argument. Read “Toward a Defensible Defense Budget” »
Russia
David Satter
The rise of the democratic opposition to the Putin regime is being shadowed by the appearance of a more ominous type of
opposition, that of extreme nationalists. The rise of nationalism in Russia, in turn, is not an accident. It is directly related to
Putin’s accession to power. Read “The Threat of Russian
Nationalism” »
Of Related Interest:
Mali
Harvey Glickman
The recent coup in Mali not only revealed the fragility of African electoral democracies, but it also exposed a kind of domino effect of the North African “Arab spring” in the countries of “the Sahel.” We need to see the Mali coup in the
context of mounting challenges by forces of separatism as well as radical jihadism. All the African countries with large Muslim populations face problems similar to Mali, in varying degree. Read “The Coup in Mali” »
France
Andrew Glencross
In 2007 Gaullism gained a new avatar: Nicolas Sarkozy. Five years on the French economy limps along with anemic growth, public finances and the external balance of trade are woeful, whilst Angela Merkel calls the shots in the European Union. This is a dismal record, coming on the back of three decades of budget deficits and eroding global influence — so dismal, in fact, as to question both whether the Fifth Republic created by de Gaulle is fit for purpose and what Sarkozy or his main competitor, François Hollande of the Socialist Party, can do to rescue it. Read “The 2012 French Presidential Election” »
The Military
Anna Simons
We Americans do not yet live in a post-American world. By advocating more soft power and smarter counterinsurgency— by,
essentially, pushing to outfit us for soft war— those who would re-orient our military are making two sets of errors. First,
they misread 21st century realities. Second, they misread human nature. Read “Soft War = Smart War? Think Again” »
Arab Spring
Sean L. Yom
Over a year into the Arab Spring, it is presidents and colonels, not kings and princes, who have proven most vulnerable to social upheaval. Do autocratic kingdoms brandish some special trait, such as cultural legitimacy or institutional statecraft, which makes them inherently more stable than republican dictatorships? Read “Monarchy During the Arab Spring” »
Asher Susser
The tumultuous events that have swept through the Middle East during the last year or so were widely referred to in the West as the “Arab Spring.” The media was awash with expectations of a secular democratic upheaval; Islamist movements, we were told, were on the margins of events and an overrated force in Arab politics. They were being pushed aside by the new, younger generation of secular democrats organized through the ultra-modern social networks of Facebook and Twitter, much alike their Western counterparts. None of this proved to be true. Read “The “Arab Spring”: The Origins Of A Misnomer” »
Of Related Interest:
- Life Begins After 25: Demography And The Societal Timing Of The Arab Spring, Richard Cincotta, 1/2012
- Video: Fouad Ajami on Reflections on the Arab Spring, FPRI Annual Dinner Keynote Address, November 15, 2011
- From Burning Bodies To Burning Books: Egypt Is Becoming A "House Of
Dust", Raymond Stock, 12/2011
- North Africa’s Democratic Prospects, Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, 12/2011
- The Islamist Spring: What Mubarak Got Right, What Obama Got Wrong, Raymond Stock, 12/2011
- The Arab Uprisings Of 2011: Ibn Khaldûn Encounters Civil Society, Theodore Friend, 7/2011
Iran and Israel
Brandon Friedman
Will Israel attack Iran? Yes or no? The less satisfactory answer, the less media-worthy answer, but perhaps the more accurate and honest answer is that “it depends.” Read “Iran in Israel’s Strategic Calculus” »
Garrett Jones
I do not believe the Israelis ever have seriously considered a conventional military strike as an effective way of stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The more pertinent question is Will nuclear weapons be used by Israel against Iran? Read “Israel and Iran”
Orbis
Edited by Mackubin T. Owens
Featuring:
- Pivot But Hedge: A Strategy For Pivoting To Asia While
Hedging In The Middle East, David W. Barno, Nora Bensahel, Travis Sharp
- Why The U.S. Military Budget Is ‘Foolish and
Sustainable’, Benjamin H. Friedman, Justin Logan
- U.S. Grand Strategy And Counterterrorism, Audrey
Kurth Cronin
- The Heroes Of Coin, Joshua Rovner
- A New U.S.-Colombian Relationship: Transnational Crime
And U.S. National Security, Robert Killebrew, Matthew Irvine, David Glaser
- The End of Russian Power In Asia?, Stephen
Blank
- Demography And Instability In The Developing World.
Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba
- Do The Post-Communist Transitions Offer Useful Lessons
For The Arab Uprisings?, Adrian A. Basora
- War Powers And The Atlantic Divide, Kenneth B.
Moss
- U.S.-India Relations: The Way Forward, David J.
Karl
- The World According To Mentor And Student, Arthur I.
Cyr
Complete Table of Contects and links to all articles
Yemen
Christopher Swift
This essay examines the challenges and conditions in contemporary Yemen. Part one addresses demographic factors; part two
considers political trends; and part three evaluates threats to Yemen’s political and territorial security, including the Houthi
insurrection, the southern secessionist movement, and al-Qaeda’s attempts to re-colonize the Arabian Peninsula. The essay
concludes by emphasizing the need to ground our analysis and our policy in a rich understanding of local realities. Read “The Crisis in Yemen” »
Of Related Interest:
Jordan
Jillian Schwedler
We need to step back and consider a longer history of protests in any case we are examining. We should do this not only to
identify the precursors to revolutions or insights about possible future events. The point of looking back also should be to help us
understand what might happen in the present. Read “The
Politics of Protest in Jordan” »
Of Related Interest:
Mexico
George Grayson
Just as Americans were watching the Giants nose out the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, President Felipe Calderón has his eyes
fixed on a much most important showdown in Mexico—the July 1 presidential contest. He and his center-right National Action Party
(PAN) have scored back-to-back triumphs (2000 and 2006) in this sexennial free-for-all. Yet the odds are so long against them this
year that the chief executive is contemplating a political version of the Hail Mary pass to give momentum to his party’s
candidate and, if victory remains a longshot, at least prevent a humiliating third-place finish.Read “Calderón’s “Hail Mary” Pass?” »
Asia Program Conference
Conference Report by Jacques deLisle
FPRI’s annual Asia Program conference was held in cooperation with the Reserve Officers Association on November 4, 2011, in
Washington, D.C. Read “Contested Terrain” »
North Korea
David S. Maxwell
With the death of Kim Jong-il and the ensuing temporary focus on North Korea, I was recently asked whether the North would ever
carry out the irrational act of using its very limited nuclear weapons against the South when such an action would cause the end of
the regime? In addition, given the horrendous suffering of the North, many rightly question why North Koreans do not rebel against
the tyrannical and criminal dictatorship — arguably one of the worst violators of human rights in modern history — of the
Kim Family Regime (KFR)? Read “Is The Kim Family Regime Rational”
»
Gilbert Rozman on Kim Jong Il
FPRI Senior Fellow, Gilbert Rozman, comments on the death of Kim Jong Il, future developments in North Korea and
the implications for the region and U.S. foreign policy.
From the FPRI Archive:
- North Korea: The Nadir of Freedom, Kondgan Oh, May 2007
- Status and Leadership on the Korean Peninsula, David C. Kang, Orbis Fall 2010
- The End Of History: `Neojuche Revivalism' And Korean Unification, Victor D. Cha, Orbis
Spring 2011
- The Twin Peaks Of Pyongyang, Ralph C. Hassig and Kongdan Oh, Orbis
Winter 2006
- Putting Together the North Korea Puzzle, Kongdan Oh and Ralph
Hassig, June 2009
- Understanding the Koreas: A Report of FPRI’s History Institute for
Teachers, June 2005
FPRI Radio - Does Eastern Europe Offer Lessons for the Arab World?
Adrian A. Basora
Ambassador Adrian Basora is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Director of the Project
on Democratic Transitions, an in-depth assessment of the political, economic and social transitions of post-communist Europe/Eurasia
twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Taiwan Elections
Jacques deLisle
The American political phrase, “Don’t change horses in midstream,” does not, alas, translate well in Taiwan, but it
does capture much of the tone of the recent elections on the island. Voters opted for continuity over perceived risk and
uncertainty—including in relations with Mainland China—when they returned President Ma Ying-jeou (whose surname,
appropriately enough, means “horse”) to a second and final four-year term and gave his Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party a
continued majority in the legislature. Read “Taiwan’s 2012 Presidential
And Legislative Elections” »
Taiwan's Presidential and Legislative Election:
Implications for Cross-Strait Relations, U.S. Policy and Domestic Politics.
January 20, 2012
In the January 14, 2012 elections, Taiwanese voters faced a choice not only between giving a second term to Ma Ying-jeou or
replacing him with Tsai Ing-wen, but a similar choice between retaining a supermajority for Ma’s KMT or giving Tsai’s DPP a
larger share.
FPRI Senior Fellows Shelley Rigger, Vincent Wang, Terry Cooke and Jacques deLisle assess the elections’ meaning and
implications: Why did the winners win and the losers lose? What does the outcome portend for cross-Strait relations during the
next four years? What is likely to be the impact on U.S. policy toward, and relations with, Taipei and Beijing? What are the
implications for the future of Taiwan’s democracy and for the significant economic, social and foreign policy decisions
Taiwan’s government faces in the near term?
Syria
Andrew Spath
Revolutionary periods have a way of compressing history. Events unfold so quickly, and the flow of information is so dense, that our ability to comprehend them is diminished. This condition pervades the present political situation in Syria, fostering numerous popular fictions that contribute to miscalculating strategies of action. Two related popular fictions stand out in assessing the prospects of prolonged civil conflict or outright civil war. The first fiction insinuates a clear bifurcation between regime supporters and regime opponents. The second fiction, related to the first, suggests that sectarian divisions define clear lines of support and opposition to the Ba‘ath regime. Read “Opposition Groups In Syria: Myths And Realities” »
Think Tanks and Foreign Policy Program
The Global “Go-To Think Tanks”:
The Leading Public Policy Research Organizations in the World
By James G. McGann
Gone are the days when a think tank could operate with the motto “research it, write it and they will find it”. Today,
think tanks must be lean, mean, policy machines. The report that follows summarizes the findings of a pilot project to identify some of the leading think tanks in the world, and provides lists of what might be called the “go to think tanks” in every region.
FPRI Radio - Military Budget
Kori Schake
Kori Schake is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of FPRI's Board of Advisors. She
discusses the U.S. military budget.
This topic was the subject of her recent Orbis article,Margin Call: How To Cut A Trillion From Defense, Volume 56, Issue 1 Winter 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Venezuela
Vanessa Neumann
As if the world needed further evidence, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s new political appointments in the early days of January confirm his regime’s descent into militant narcoterrorism and increases the possibility of a coup d’état by a
military junta should Chávez lose his grip on power either through his cancer (from which he dubiously claims to now be cured) or through an electoral defeat on October 7. Read “Venezuela Heads Deeper Into Militant Narcoterrorism” »
Of Related Interest:
Military Ethics And Irregular Warfare
Colonel Tony Pfaff
Traditional military ethics accepts that soldiers have a reasonable interest in taking the least risk possible when conducting operations. However, when that risk is transferred to noncombatants, these same ethics require soldiers to observe the constraints of proportionality and discrimination to limit how much risk they transfer. In this view, assuming extra risk on the part of soldiers is obligatory, at least up to the point of mission failure. Since the limits of risks are identified with the requirement to accomplish missions, preserving lives of soldiers is experienced more as a concession to the requirements of military necessity and not an obligation itself. Read “Risk, Military Ethics and Irregular Warfare” »
Pennsylvania Homeland Security
Eli S. Gilman
Since the events of September 11, 2001, homeland security has become one of the most important responsibilities at all levels of government. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, however, systemic inefficiencies arose that precluded progress under the former governance structure. In particular, these inefficiencies stifled the ability of the state to perform virtually any of the Critical Infrastructure Protection duties intended to facilitate the resiliency of the Commonwealth through the identification of assets, the analysis of risk, and the development of strategies to mitigate that risk. While some attempts were made to address these issues in the decade since 9/11, the results mostly exacerbated existing issues rather than instilling any long-term solutions. Read “Risk And Re-Org” »
Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs
Lorenzo Vidino
The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and most influential Islamist movement. It was founded in Egypt in 1928. And, like most of the grassroots movements that appeared in Egypt at the time, it was strongly opposed to colonial rule and advocated Egyptian independence. But while most of the movements that opposed British colonialism at the time in Egypt took from Western ideologies, the Brotherhood based its discourse on Islam. Creating what would become the model of generations of Islamists, the Brotherhood saw in Islam the answer to Western military, political, economic, and cultural influence over the Muslim world. Read “The Muslim Brotherhood” »
The Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs was established in 1996, with a gift from John M. Templeton, Jr., M.D., president of the John Templeton Foundation. In 1995, Dr. Templeton retired from his medical practice to serve full-time as president of the Foundation. After receiving a B.A. from Yale University, Dr. Templeton earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He trained in pediatric surgery under Dr. C. Everett Koop at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After serving two years in the U.S. Navy, in 1977 he returned to CHOP, where he served on the staff as pediatric surgeon and trauma program director. He also served as professor of pediatric surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Templeton has published numerous papers in medical and professional journals, in addition to two books, A Searcher’s Life and Thrift and Generosity: The Joy of Giving.
Teachers' Conference
April 21-22, 2012
FPRI’s Wachman Center, in association with the First Division Museum at Cantigny, is proud to be presenting their seventh weekend-long conference for teachers on subjects in military history. On April 21-22, we will be focusing on great battles and how they have shaped American history. We are proud to feature the leading scholars and practitioners on the subject. Complete Conference Information »
Previous History Institutes on Military History
Including audios, videos, papers and lesson plans.
Program on Teaching Military History
Asia Program Conference
Friday, November 4, 2011
China’s long-term rise and its recent international assertiveness have made long-standing and recently
emerging issues of relations along China’s periphery matters of pressing international concern. The rapid development that has provided the material underpinnings for China’s rapid rise as a regional power has been fueled partly by economic integration along China’s periphery. Foreign investment flows, integration in a regional supply chain that feeds global markets and burgeoning intraregional trade have made Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and other states in East Asia key participants in China’s rise and eroded the economic significance of political borders in the region.
Keynote address by Michael Green on Implications for U.S. Policy and Interests
Materials from earlier FPRI Asia program conferences
Happy Birthday USMC
Frank G. Hoffman
In an era in which our national security establishment is being asked to consider draconian cuts as part of the Nation’s
reaction to its strained fiscal health, it behooves us to truly understand the unique character of the institutions that make up our armed services. More specifically, on this date, celebrated around the world as the 236th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, we should pause and appreciate the particular contributions that our Corps of Marines provides for us and the great value the Nation garners from its investment in its Force-in-Readiness. Read “The Marine Mask Of War” »
Of Related Interest:
- The Marines: 235 Years Of Individual Valor And Institutional Adaptation, Frank
Hoffman, 11/2010
- Reflections on Memorial Day, Mackubin Thomas Owens, 5/22/2009
- The Marines: Premier Expeditionary Warriors, Frank Hoffman, 11/2007
- A New Maritime Strategy: Navigating Uncertain Waters, Frank G. Hoffman, 11/3/2006
- Changing Tires on the Fly: The Marines and Postconflict Stability Ops, Frank G. Hoffman, 9/10/2006
- Iwo Jima and the Future of the Marine Corps, Mackubin Thomas Owens, 2/23/2005
Middle East Media Monitor
Samuel Tadros
The Muslim Brotherhood’s electoral success has not come without its costs. Not only is the Brotherhood now required to come up with solutions to Egypt’s endemic problems and collapsing economy, but the movement’s ascendancy has also placed it squarely in the spotlight, with its every move being scrutinized by a press dominated by unsympathetic non-Islamists. Most importantly, the same elections that brought it to prominence have also given rise to Salafis, who are promising to be the greatest challenge the Brotherhood has ever faced. Read “The Muslim Brotherhood and Washington” »
- ‘Hollow Leadership’: the Iranian Predicament, Raz Zimmt, 3/2012
- Post-Mubarak Egyptian Attitudes Toward Israel, Michael Sharnoff, 10/2011
- In Their Own Words: Al Qaeda’s View Of The Arab Spring,
Gilad Stern and Yoram Schweitzer, 9/2011
- Hezbollah On Trial: Lebanese Reactions to the UN Special Tribunal's
Indictments, Benedetta Berti, 8/2011
- The Arab Summit That Wasn’t And The Deterioration Of Iraqi
Politics, Samuel Helfont, 7/2011
- An Enemy From Within: The Iranian Regime And The New Political Challenge, Raz Zimmt, 6/2011
- Turkish Media Coverage Of The Western Intervention In Libya, Sevil Çakir Kilinçoglu, 5/2011
- The Rise And (Future) Fall Of A Turkish-Iranian Axis , Gallia Lindenstrauss and Yoel Guzansky, 4/2011
- Qaradawi's Return and Islamic Leadership in Egypt, Aaron Rock, 3/2011
- WikiLeaks in the Arab Press, Tally Helfont, 2/2011
Middle East Circa 2016
Martin Kramer
When I received the assignment for today, it reminded me of that 1999 book, Dow 36,000. At the time the authors wrote it, the Dow
stood at 10,300, and the book became a bestseller. But today the Dow is only 20 percent higher than it was then-it’s only at
12,700. Last February, one of the co-authors wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Why I Was Wrong About
‘Dow 36,000’.” “What happened?” he wrote. “The world changed.” Well, what a surprise. Now there was a
lot of talk that sounded like “Middle East 36,000” just a couple of months ago. This is a new Middle East, everything you
thought you knew is wrong, bet on revolution and you´ll be rewarded handsomely with democracy. Let’s face it: Americans like
optimistic scenarios that end with all of us rich and the rest of the world democratic. There’s much in the American century
since World War Two to foster such optimism. But while you enjoy reading your copy of “Middle East 36,000.” I’m going to
quickly tell you what’s in the small print in the prospectus-the part that’s in Arabic.” Read “The Middle East Circa 2016” »
Hertog Program on Grand Strategy
Walter A. McDougall
A classic treatise on grand strategy specifically addressed the geopolitics of the Pacific Rim in the aftermath of the First
World War. Its cautionary conclusion warned that great powers drawn to compete for commerce and empire in the vast vacuum of the
North Pacific invariably over-reached. Bids for hegemony by Spain and Portugal, then Britain and Russia, had already been thwarted
and the likelihood in the 20th century was that Japan would be tempted to overreach followed, perhaps, by the United States. Read “History And Strategies” »
Additional products from the Hertog Program
- Too Cheap To Rule: Political And Fiscal Sources Of The Coming American
Retrenchment, Stuart J. Kaufman, 10/2011
- Leadership For Military Professions: A Real Strategic Means For
America, Don M. Snider, 10/2011
- Intelligence And Grand Strategy, Thomas Fingar
- Sovereignty - The Ultimate States' Rights Argument, Anna Simons,
7/2011
- Defining And Teaching Grand Strategy, Timothy Andrews Sayle,
1/2011
- Leveraging Strength: The Pillars of U.S. Grand Strategy in World War II (26 pages,
170K
 ), Tami Davis Biddle, Orbis Winter 2011
- Small Is Beautiful: The Counterterrorism Option In
Afghanistan, Austin Long Orbis Spring 2010
- Can the United States Do Grand Strategy?, Walter McDougall,
4/2010
- The Promise and Failure of American Grand Strategy after the Cold
War, Jeremi Suri, 3/2010
- Winning The Wars We're In, John Nagl, 11/2009
Philadelphia's Maritime History
By Nicholas Pagon
Few cities can claim a more extraordinary historical legacy than Philadelphia. The evolution of what is now sometimes referred to as the Pax Americana— considering all that this term really implies, including the political, the economic, and the military—truly took its initial form right here. The various influences which led to the American form of Democracy, the American manifestations of individual and religious freedom (and of individual rights and responsibilities), the American forms of economic enterprise (in most all of its guises), the American ideals of civic participation (even in contention), and even much of the American military (especially naval and marine), all truly first coalesced in this city—and then, evolving, spread back outwards to the world. This process began well before the events of the American Revolution and it continued well into the early 20th century. This is a spectacular legacy indeed, and the words “Philadelphia Freedom,” therefore, do still have some measure of resonance around the world even today. Read “Philadelphia: How One City’s Maritime History Changed The World” »
Foreign Fighters
FPRI's Program on National Security held a conference on the foreign fighter problem, September 27-28, 2010, in Washington, DC at the Reserve Officers Association, which cosponsored the conference. General William Ward, Commander of US Africa Command, delivered a videotaped message to the conferees, and Terence Ford, Director of Intelligence and Knowledge Development for US Africa Command, delivered the keynote. Read “The Foreign Fighter Problem: Recent Trends And Case Studies” »
From the FPRI Archive July 2003
By Philip Jenkins
... there is a long record of antipathy between America and at least certain Muslim states, if not Islam itself. Muslims in America have been trying for a long time to make themselves recognized as fully American. It is ironic in light of recent events that one of the great criticisms of the Bush administration in its first few months was that it was too closely tied to Muslim causes in this country. Read “Islam in America” »
For Educators
FPRI Featured Footnotes
By James Sanzare, December 2005
James Sanzare taught social studies in the Philadelphia School District for over thirty years and has visited 200 countries or
other territorial entities. This paper is a report on his 2005 trip to Libya. Read “To the Shores of Tripoli” »
Teaching The Middle East:
Between Authoritarianism And Reform
Adam Garfinkle
In September 2002 Adam Garfinkle wrote “What Our Children Should Learn about 9/11.”.
Ten years have passed since 9/11 and more than nine years have passed since I wrote that piece. I would not change a word had I to write it over again, but I have learned plenty over the past decade. I have therefore found the exercise of reflecting on this short essay quite illuminating, if also a little disheartening. Without repeating that little essay to you now, I want to go back over each of the four points, especially the first one, in order to reflect on what the past decade has wrought. Read “What Our Students – And Our Political Leaders – Don’t Know About The Middle East” »
Amin Tarzi
Since its establishment in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has never been free of political intrigue. However, since the disputed June 2009 presidential election, the level of intrigue has increased. And the recent pubic rift between the two highest office holders—the unelected supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the elected president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad—may very well be pushing Iran and the Islamic Republic regime close to the brink. While the denouement of this latest political wrangling has yet to be written, the “writing on the wall” suggests that the results will be anything but anti-climactic. Read “Iran’s Internal Dynamics” »
The Middle East and the US in Geopolitical Perspective
Michael S. Doran
October 16, 2011 / Philadelphia, PA
These presentations were part of Teaching The Middle East: Between
Authoritarianism And Reform, a History Institute for Teachers.
FPRI Recent Articles and Audio
- Notes On Teaching 9/11, Alan Luxenberg, 9/2011
- America Ten Years After 9-11, Edward A. Turzanski, 9/2011
- Beyond The Tenth Year In Afghanistan: Security Force Assistance And International Security, William B. Caldwell, IV. and Derek S. Reveron, 9/2011
- 9/11 And U.S.-China Relations, Jacques deLisle, 9/2011
- The Disruptive Cost Of Fear - Our Desire To Return To The World Of September 10th And What It Has Cost Us, Lawrence A. Husick, 9/2011
- What Students Can Learn From Steve Jobs, Lawrence Husick, 9/2011
- Why Did Saddam Want The Bomb?, Hal Brands and David Palkki, 8/2011
- More E-Notes »
FPRI Radio
- Do The Post-Communist Transitions Offer Lessons For The Arab
World?, Adrian A. Basora, 1/30/2012
- Margin Call: How To Cut A Trillion From Defense, Kori Schake, 1/17/2012
- Vaclav Havel, Adrian A.
Basora, 12/19/2011
- The Death of Kim Jong Il and Implications for East Asia, Gilbert Rozman, 12/19/2011
- Events in Egypt, Eric
Trager, 12/02/2011
- Events in Libya amd Iraq, Edward Turzanski, 10/23/2011
Briefings - Audio
- Muscle-Flexing, Quiet Diplomacy, and Iran's Nuclear Program, Brandon
Friedman, 2/27/2012
- Human Rights Prospects in the Year of the Dragon, Sharon Hom,
2/13/2012
- Taiwan’s Presidential and Legislative Election: Implications for
Cross-Strait Relations, U.S. Policy and Domestic Politics, Panel Discussion, 1/20/2012
- Contemporary Challenges Facing North Africa, Symposium,
11/30/2011
- India's Multiple Revolutions, Sumit Ganguly, 10/21/2011
- The Rise of China and Taiwan's Response: Implications for the United
States, Yeong-kuang Ger, 10/14/2011
- Al Qaeda and Jihadi Movements After Bin Laden, Christopher Swift,
10/05/2011
- Beyond the Tenth Year: The Afghan National Security Force, LTG
William B. Caldwell, IV, 9/13/2011
- The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Samuel Helfont and Tally Helfont, 9/09/2011
- How Does China’s Naval Rise Matter to South and Southeast Asia?, Felix Chang, 7/6/2011
- Cyberspace: The Next Battlefield, Lawrence Husick, 6/16/2011
- Egypt, Regime Change, and The Muslim Brotherhood, Symposium,
5/24/2011
- The Evolution of Revolution: Latin America and the Future of
Chavismo, Dr. Vanessa Neumann, 5/6/2011
- Bin Laden's Demise and Its Implications, Panel Discussion, 5/4/2011
- Can There Be An “After-Socialism”?, Alan Charles Kors, 4/28/2011
- Reflections on the Arab Uprisings, Abdallah Schleifer, 4/21/2011
- Panel Discussion, 2011 Yemen Stability Survey, 4/14/2011
- The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al Qaeda, Peter
Bergen, 4/10/2011
- Fighting Transnational Cartels in the Western Hemisphere, Robert Killebrew, 4/7/2011
- The Second Arab Revolution, Michael Doran, 3/28/2011
- EGYPT: An Eyewitness Report, Eric
Trager, 2/9/2011
- The Geopolitics Of Northern Mexico And The Implications For U.S.
Policy, David Danelo, George W. Grayson, 1/20/2011
Recent BookTalks - Audio
- Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can
Finally Overcome It, Craig Timberg, 3/14/2012
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, Ezra Vogel,
2/9/2012
- The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, Steven A. Cook,
1/11/2012
- Political Demography: How Population Changes are
Reshaping International Security and National Politics, Jack Goldstone, Monica Duffy Toft and Richard Cincotta,
12/13/2011
- Russia’s Past, Present and Future, David Satter, 12/01/2011
- Woman, Man, and God in Modern Islam, Theodore Friend, 12/08/2011
FPRI Featured Orbis Articles
By Jacques deLisle / Fall 2010
Soft power, like so much else in relations between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, is asymmetrical and freighted
with implications for U.S. policy and U.S.-China relations. For China, soft power largely serves—or strives—to reduce alarm
(or at least reaction) among other states concerned about China’s new-found hard power or, perhaps more realistically, the hard
power that China’s economic rise can underwrite. Much of the value for Beijing of soft power is—and is likely to remain for
quite some time— its potential contribution to reducing the likelihood that other states will react to China’s rising hard
power in ways that could threaten China’s interests.
Read Soft Power in a Hard Place:
China, Taiwan, Cross-Straight Relations and U.S. Policy »
By Kenneth Allard / Winter 2010
While we have always assumed a neat institutional distinction between the United States’ internal defenses and the military
power mobilized to protect its international interests, are porous borders and trans-national syndicates blurring those
boundaries?
Read Change and the American Security Paradigm »
By James Kraska / Winter 2010
Coupling its new asymmetric naval force to visionary maritime strategy and oceans policy, China ensured that all elements of national power promoted its goal of dominating the East China Sea. The United States, in contrast, had a declining naval force, maritime strategy focused on lower order partnerships, and a national oceans policy that devalued strategic interests in freedom of navigation. Read How the U.S. Lost the Naval War of 2015 »
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