A nation must think before it acts.
E-Notes are policy-oriented articles covering current developments around the globe that impinge upon American foreign policy and national security priorities.
One of the many factors, terrorism aside, that has hindered the Palestinian people from obtaining a state has been the sheer number of disparate armed groups acting simultaneously in the Palestinian Territories over the last decades. While at least...
Read more »“Going forward, we will not blindly stay the course” were the stirring words President Obama used to unveil his new Afghanistan strategy on March 27. The sentiment should have been much welcomed, both in Afghanistan and elsewhere abroad. Eight...
Read more »When former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami withdrew from the presidential race on March 16, mere weeks after the announcement of his candidacy, it should have reminded outside observers about the dubious prospects for real reform in Iran. Although Khatami...
Read more »On Monday, we will mark the 141st anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day, as established by General John A. Logan’s “General Order No. 11” of the Grand Army of the Republic...
Read more »There are three things the American people don’t understand about the war in Iraq right now: (1) how difficult the surge was and how different it was from the previous four years of the war; (2) that the surge...
Read more »In April 2009, the story of Richard Phillips’ capture by Somali pirates, and his dramatic rescue by Navy Seals, became one of the major news stories. The incarceration of Americans by foreign actors, as hostages and prisoners of war,...
Read more »Looking at developments in Europe and the U.S.-European relationship today, like all things in history, in part we have been here before but in part what we are seeing is new. The current strains and issues in U.S.-European relations...
Read more »Piracy, a scourge that had been stamped out in the 19th century, still flourishes in those Hobbesian areas of the world where order and the “rule of law” do not exist. The seizure of a U.S.-flagged vessel, the MaerskAlabama,...
Read more »Addressing the American people as president for the first time on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama declared that “America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.” Two crises, already in motion, challenge that role....
Read more »The last job I had with the Bush administration was coordinator for police training, judicial reform, and counternarcotics in Afghanistan. When I got the job, the National Security Council said, “It’s got three parts. First, you have to go...
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