E-Notes

Fifty years ago, the United States was engaged in an epic struggle on a world scale: the Cold War with the Soviet Union and international communism. At the time, there were two dominant ways of thinking in America about...

The 10th Annual Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs   It is true that most conflicts that are portrayed as religious conflicts are not in essence anything of the sort. Whether between Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir, Buddhists...

DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE Not invented here and not used either: What is intelligence after 9/11 and who gets it? During the Cold War, the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence (DI) produced a limited number of finished intelligence products. The average...

As was discussed in FPRI’s Situation Report (SitRep) on the “War on Terrorism” on June 2, 2005, the US has been partially successful in externali-zation of the terrorist threat in order to “buy time” to institute improvements in security,...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice concluded her June 2005 tour of the Middle East with a visit to the American University of Cairo. In her talk there, she laid out America’s commitment to promoting liberal, democratic government in the...

The current foreign-policy focus of most Americans is upon the Middle East and more broadly upon the Muslim world. Given the ongoing war in Iraq and the continuing threat from Islamic terrorism, this is understandably so. However, the region...

Since retiring from the CIA in 1997 after almost twenty years as a case officer (“spy runner,” “asset handler,” or “agent recruiter,” to those outside the business), I have followed the Agency’s failures and successes through the media. The Agency...

In August 2004 President George W. Bush announced a long overdue shift in the U.S. global force posture to deal with the realities of the post-9/11 world. The re-deployment of a brigade from the 2nd Infantry Division from...

Has Arab satellite television had a positive impact on the prospects for democracy in the Arab world? Yes, and in more ways than one might imagine. News in the Arab World Before the Age of Satellite TV Little more...

In his second inaugural address this past January, President Bush told “all who live in tyranny and hopelessness” that they could be sure the United States would not ignore their oppression. “The leaders of governments with long habits of...