Foreign Policy Jobs & Careers

Enemies Into Friends: How United States Can Court Its Adversaries
Charles A. Kupchan

In his inaugural address, President Obama informed those regimes 'on the wrong side of history' that the United States 'will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.' Obama soon backed up his words with deeds, making engagement with adversaries one of his administration's priorities. Over a year later, the jury is still out on whether his strategy of engagement is bearing fruit

India's Rise, America's Interest
Evan A. Feigenbaum

Until the late 1990s, the United States often ignored India. India's weak and protected economy gave it little influence in global markets, and its nonaligned foreign policy caused periodic tension with Washington. When the United States did concentrate on India, it too often fixated on India's military rivalry with Pakistan. Today, however, India is dynamic and transforming.

From The Sun King to Karzai
Sheri Berman

Calls for strengthening Afghanistan's state institutions have become commonplace, duly repeated in every major speech or report on the war. Yet there has been relatively little serious discussion about just what buttressing these institutions would actually entail. Perhaps this is because the deeper one digs, the more entrenched the obstacles appear.

Offensive Against Taliban Test of Afghan Strategy
Anna Mulrine

Some 15,000 U.S., British, Afghan National Army forces launched the largest attack on Taliban forces since Obama signed orders to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. What happens in the aftermath of this offensive will be a considerable test of the U.S. military's ability to work with Afghan forces and to protect Afghan civilians, a centerpiece of the new American strategy

First Choose Your Future War, Then Choose Your Weapons
Paul Kennedy

What does a nation do when it faces plenty of external challenges and plenty of potential threats -- and has interests and obligations across the world? Well, perhaps it should think harder and more coherently than it might previously have been doing. The United States in today's troubled world needs to re-assess its global position and its global future.

Diplomacy in Afghanistan? Not Until U.S. Identifies Why It's There
William Pfaff

Richard Holbrooke's comments on reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan echoes earlier remarks by UN officials and American military commanders in Kabul that suggest that diplomacy might be coming alive. This could be true despite, or in coordination with, a new NATO offensive in southern Afghanistan. For it to succeed, however, it has three enormous obstacles to overcome.

U.S. Foreign Aid Cutback Plan Sends Wrong Message
Andres Oppenheimer

Perhaps, Obama's 2011 foreign aid budget request reflects priorities in world affairs as it looks like Obama is saying 'adios' to Latin America. Obama's foreign aid request to Congress calls for a 13 percent increase for Africa, 7 percent increase for the Middle East and nearly 60 percent increase for South and Central Asia. By comparison, a nearly 10 percent cut in aid for Latin America.

Deficits in a Growing Defense Budget
Greg Bruno

The Obama administration released its second defense budget on February 1 amidst talk of rebuilding the American defense establishment. But Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert, says while the administration's reform rhetoric is laudable, its defense spending plan doesn't allocate money to seriously rebuild the military to deal with such threats as irregular warfare.

America Rides off Into the Sunset
Victor Davis Hanson

National leaders have only long-term self-interests and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can. Obama better understand that. As such, a world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.

U.S. Must Remain Active Diplomatic Player in Iraq
Henry A. Kissinger

So far, the Obama administration has recoiled from discussing Iraq's geo-strategic significance and especially America's relation to it. Yet while Iraq is being exorcised from our debate, its reality is bound to obtrude itself on our consciousness. America's withdrawal from Iraq will not diminish the geo-strategic importance of the country even as it alters the context of it.

Time for Obama to Look at Terrorism Differently
Jonah Goldberg

It is always dangerous to mistake your ideological preferences for shrewd political strategy, but that is precisely what President Obama and his advisors have done with the war on terror.

Why Neither Ronald Reagan Nor United States Won the Cold War
Alex Kingsbury

Ronald Reagan never claimed to have bested the Soviet Union and won the Cold War. Indeed, the very idea that a winner of the decades-long rivalry between the superpowers emerged was a political formulation. The notion that the United States forced the collapse of the Soviet Union and vanquished communism is not only a myth but a dangerous canard, Jack Matlock says in his new book ...

Duped President's Wasted Foreign-Policy Year
William Pfaff

President Obama's foreign policy failure has astonished the international public and left in despair those Americans who can scarcely believe that a whole year has been irresponsibly wasted. By now, there is little or no hope of recovering that promise of national and international reform that had pervaded Western society a year ago

American Troops
(c) Paul Tong

Preventive Force, Terrorism and International Security
Abraham D. Sofaer

Preventive action endorses using force against states that supported terrorism or failed to prevent it. This was a controversial position, since using (or threatening) preventive force is generally considered a violation of international law. However, preventive action is now an essential element of U.S. national security. And it appears that Obama will continue this aspect of Bush doctrine

Fight Against Terrorism Could Shift to Yemen
Joshua Kucera

In the wake of the airplane bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas, President Obama vowed to take an aggressive stance against those who were behind the plot. 'The United States will do more than simply strengthen our defenses,' he said. 'We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.'

Yemen's Problems Are Ours, Too
Clarence Page

Yemen has become a top priority for the Obama administration since Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day. Yemen is where he told authorities he received his training and the bomb that famously fizzled in his underwear.

Question No U.S. Official Dare Ask: Overseas Bases a Mistake
William Pfaff

Has it been a terrible, and by now all but irreversible, error for the United States to have built a system of more than 700 military bases and stations girdling the world? Does it provoke war rather than provide security?

Al-Qaida Using United States to Accomplish Goals
William Pfaff

The real reason for attacking Westerners in the West, or in airplanes on the way there, is to provoke the Western governments to send more Western soldiers to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere in the Muslim world to attack Muslim jihadists on the Islamists' own ground, where the latter have tactical and human advantages that Western soldiers can never overcome.

2010: Our Year of Decision
Victor Davis Hanson

Sometimes long-festering problems collide -- and explode -- in a single memorable year. We can go as far back as the fifth century B.C. to see this phenomenon -- and we may see it again in 2010. Events may come to a head and overwhelm the existing American-led global order

Britain's Iraq War Inquiry
Jules Witcover

The government-appointed commission of British non-governmental citizens has already made a good start toward determining how the United Kingdom was drawn into the war in Iraq by flawed intelligence and deceptive premises of the George W. Bush administration.

New View of Ronald Reagan and End of the Cold War
Jules Witcover

Ever since Ronald Reagan left the White House in 1989, it has been debated whether he was indeed responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union, or whether it just happened after his watch. In 'The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War,' author James Mann makes a persuasive case that Ronald Reagan actually played a part, intentionally or otherwise, in the Soviet Union's disintegration.

Nuclear Disorder - Surveying Atomic Threats
Graham Allison

The current global nuclear order is extremely fragile, and the three most urgent challenges to it are North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan. In fact, the global nuclear order today could be akin to the global financial order was two years ago, when conventional wisdom declared it to be sound, stable, and resilient

Overcoming the Obstacles to a Nuclear-Free World
Charles D. Ferguson

Over the past three years, a remarkable bipartisan consensus has emerged in Washington regarding nuclear security. This presents a conundrum, however: In a world where the strongest conventional military power cannot envision giving up its nuclear weapons before all other nations have abandoned theirs, how will humanity ever rid itself of these weapons?

Why International Aid Does Not Alleviate Poverty
Jagdish Bhagwati

The African silence has been broken by Dambisa Moyo, a young Zambian-born economist with impeccable credentials. Educated at Harvard and Oxford and employed by Goldman Sachs and the World Bank, Moyo has written an impassioned attack on aid that has won praise from leaders as diverse as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The New Energy Order
David G. Victor and Linda Yueh

The last decade has seen an extraordinary shift in expectations for the world energy system. After a long era of excess capacity prices for oil and most energy commodities have risen sharply and become more volatile. As such, a crisis is looming which will be difficult to resolve.

Has War Really Changed
Victor Davis Hanson

Human nature, after all, does not change. And since the beginning of civilization the point of war has always been for one side through the use of force to make the other accept its political will. We should remember that and get back to basics in Afghanistan. Here's why ...

Taiwan: Not So Dire Straits
Bruce Gilley

Since 2005, the island republic of Taiwan has been moving toward a closer relationship with China. As with Finland, the shifts have been motivated by Taiwan's desire to preserve its autonomy and democracy by ameliorating Beijing's fears of U.S. influence in the region. And, as with Finland, the shift will come at some cost

Afghanistan: Fallacy of Good vs. Evil in Afghanistan
William Pfaff

When they heard Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, a shiver of astonishment went through conservative circles in the United States that this man, whom they identify as a prototypical liberal, should have mentioned the existence of evil. I would imagine this is because it has become an easy assumption that liberals blame society for evil

U.S. Contemplates More of the Scarcely Believable in Afghanistan & Pakistan
William Pfaff

The idea is for the United States to bomb Quetta, one of Pakistan's principal cities, capital of its largest province, Balochistan, which already experiences separatist forces. Quetta is a major Pakistan military base, home of the century-old Command and Staff College inherited from the British army.

Our Flip-Flopping Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan
Victor Davis Hanson

We don't hear all that much about Iraq these days, do we? The war at one point almost tore apart this country. But Iraq is hardly in the news anymore. So, why the silence?

Facing Realities on North Korea
Henry A. Kissinger

It is time to face realities. We are now in the 15th year during which America has sought to end North Korea's nuclear program through negotiations. These have been conducted in both two-party and six-party forums. The result was the same, whatever the framework

Mind of Martyr: How to Deradicalize Islamist Extremists
Jessica Stern

Is it possible to deradicalize terrorists and their potential recruits? Saudi Arabia, a pioneer in terrorism prevention and rehabilitation, claims that it is. And yet so far, the Saudis have shared very little information about their program's successes and failures.

Coming up Short on Pakistan
Jayshree Bajoria

President Barack Obama's strategy approving a U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan called success there 'inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.' But the U.S.-Pakistan relationship is riddled with problems. Five independent Pakistani experts assess Obama's strategy, explore the largely negative response in Pakistan, and discuss the military and political pitfalls of the plan.

Obama Talking Peace While Making War
Jules Witcover

When President Obama went to Oslo, he knew he was bringing with him a major contradiction. He was there to accept the Nobel Peace Prize at a time he was carrying out his responsibilities as a war president waging armed combat in two foreign countries.

'The Great Global Security Underwriter' Will Pay a High Price
William Pfaff

Most surveys on America's two current wars and on foreign policy generally, find majority support for staying at home and minding America's own business. Especially now, when it has become no longer possible to treat the national deficit as if it doesn't matter, and when the president has just ordered another 'surge' of troops to the Afghanistan war.

Afghanistan: Questioning Obama's July 2011 Deadline in Afghanistan
Anna Mulrine

On Capitol Hill, there is little question that the funding for 30,000-plus new troops in Afghanistan will come through. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been careful to register their complaints about some of the more controversial components of the strategy

Afghanistan: GOP Questions Obama's Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal Deadline
Anna Mulrine

It was clear in a widely attended Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that one of the most controversial components of President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan will be the July 2011 date he set for beginning the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Obama's Surge in Afghanistan Hardly a Surprise
William Pfaff

There was much disappointment about Barack Obama's decision to widen the war in Afghanistan, but there can have been no real surprise. This was not a detached decision on foreign or military policy. It was a matter of domestic politics.

Afghanistan: Obama Dance With the Partner You Came With
Ross Mackenzie

In response to President Obama's West Point lecture on Afghanistan, a lecture back....

Afghanistan: Obama Caring and Killing
Robert C. Koehler

We have a national defense constructed of equal parts good intentions and precision bombing -- caring and killing. I write to you on the precipice of a despair I don't fully comprehend, but it begins with questions that leaped to mind the moment you started speaking ...

Afghanistan: Mishmash of a Strategy
Paul Greenberg

The president and commander-in-chief went up to West Point to lay out his new/old/same/different strategy for the war in Afghanistan. The result ...

Afghanistan: Mixed Administration War Signals
Jules Witcover

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates en route to Afghanistan declared 'we are in this thing to win.' The man who also ran the Pentagon in the latter years of the Bush administration thus fed again the notion that its stay-the-course policy remains essentially in place.

Afghanistan: Going for the Quick Fix
Jules Witcover

When you consider that once Uncle Sam got into World War II it took less than four years to defeat the Nazis and Imperial Japan, it may seem reasonable to believe in President Obama's quick-fix plan for Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Obama's War Gamble
Jules Witcover

President Obama's decision to attach a ticking clock to his new troop surge in Afghanistan is clearly a gesture to Democratic liberals who have long pushed for an end to the war. The alarm, we're told, is to be set to ring in July of 2011, when U.S. forces will start to pull out.

Afghanistan: Once Again, We're Marching Into an Unwinnable War
Joe Galloway

President Obama came to West Point and with the 4,000 cadets of this institution as his backdrop announced he was escalating the war in Afghanistan, adding an additional 30,000 American troops to the nearly 70,000 already there. Then he jetted off to collect the Nobel Peace Prize. Lord help us.

Afghanistan: Now It's Obama's Afghan War
Clarence Page

Generals are notorious for fighting each new war the way they should have fought the last one. President Obama seems to have picked up that tendency as he orders a troop surge in Afghanistan, a strategy that he rejected in Iraq until it worked

Afghanistan: Forward on Afghanistan
Cal Thomas

President Obama should be commended for committing 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to root out al-Qaida and stabilize major portions of the country. I am far less certain about establishing a timetable, though the president did say it depended on conditions on the ground

Afghanistan: Sartre Meets Afghanistan: Obama's 'No Exit' Strategy
Arianna Huffington

To take some of the sting out of his decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, President Obama laid out an exit strategy by setting a date -- July 2011 -- on which troops will begin withdrawing. Sounds pretty definite. However, ...

Obama Playing Nice With China
Joshua Kucera

When President Obama visited China, he had a good case to make to his hosts that he was trying to see things their way. He'd recently declined a meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington and said that he wanted a strategic partnership with China. What did he get for his troubles?

Afghanistan: A Missed Turning Point
Jules Witcover

President Obama offered only a change in approach in his long-awaited plan to press on with the war in Afghanistan. His decision to approve of most of the troop surge requested by General McChrystal, with more finely tuned schemes for troop deployment in Afghanistan, is a thinly veiled agreement to continue Bush's stay-the-course commitment.

On Foreign Policy Front Consider Obama Lucky So Far
Ian Bremmer

Barack Obama has had an exceptionally lucky first year. All newly elected U.S. presidents arrive in office hoping to avoid the unforeseen foreign-policy crises that upend their domestic agendas. President Obama has avoided the foreign-policy blowups that push an administration off balance. His luck isn't likely to last. Here's why ...

Circling Sharks Smell American Blood
Victor Davis Hanson

On his recent trip to Asia, President Obama found China, Japan and South Korea -- like many nations these days -- in no mood to hear more American lectures. The United States needs to re-establish itself as financially credible and responsible so that when we lecture -- about everything from global warming to Iranian nukes -- we do so from a position of strength.

A Year With Obama and U.S. Foreign Relations Have Only Worsened
William Pfaff

Who would have thought a year ago that most of the issues of conflict in America's foreign relations would be made worse during the first year following Barack Obama's election as U.S. president?

Reagan, Obama and Legacy of the Berlin Wall
Kenneth T. Walsh

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a conclusive sign that the United States and the other Western democracies had finally won the Cold War. In the end, two presidents deserve much of the credit: George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Twenty years later there are plenty of lessons for President Obama's approach to foreign policy.

Possible New U.S. Option in Afghanistan: Getting Out With Grace
William Pfaff

There are two tried and disproved methods for dealing with insurrection in a non-Western country. The third and reliable method is not to go there in the first place. The fourth is get out with such grace as is possible, as rapidly as possible.

Afghanistan: Another Voice of Caution
Jules Witcover

Just as it began to appear that President Obama was moving toward adhering to his Afghanistan commander's call for 40,000 or more additional American troops, he has been unexpectedly confronted with an influential note of caution from his ambassador in Kabul. It only complicates the White House tug-of-war that has put critical policy-making on hold for months now

Disillusionment in Afghanistan
Jayshree Bajoria

The international community is increasingly concerned about whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai can be an effective partner. Karzai recently won another term after an election fraught with accusations of fraud; his previous term was beset with allegations of corruption.

Victory in Afghanistan Requires Fully Supported Counterinsurgency
James Danly

In order to declare victory, we need to aid the Afghans in establishing a legitimate government whose population does not effectively support terrorist networks. The only viable course is to commit the resources necessary to conduct a full-spectrum counterinsurgency of the kind employed to such great effect during the surge in Iraq

Counterinsurgency Cookie Cutter Doesn't Fit Afghanistan
Gian P. Gentile

'Counterinsurgency' has become the new American way of war. A once obscure theory of internal conflict, it has become ubiquitous in military circles and dominates thinking on both current and future wars. More important, its precepts are being followed without serious inquiry or examination, and the U.S. military has become so enamored with the theory that it seemingly will not consider any serious alternative methods to achieve the president's objectives in Afghanistan.

Despite Obama's Concessions, Russia Remains Unhelpful on Iran
Joshua Kucera

The Obama administration's announcement last month that it was scrapping plans to build missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic removed a prime irritant in the U.S.-Russian relationship; Russians felt the missile defense network was targeted as much at them as against the purported threat, Iran. And the move appeared at first to pay dividends. However ...

Can United States Truly Press 'Reset' Button With Russia
Ian Bremmer and Alexander Kliment

Today, Moscow and Washington elites glower at each other over a host of global disputes, and Russia, far from blossoming into the pro-Western, market-oriented democracy that the 1990s shock therapists dreamed of, has developed into a quasi-authoritarian petro-state at home, guided by zero-sum revisionist ambitions abroad.

Arrogant U.S. Misses the Message From Pakistan's People
William Pfaff

There has always been in American foreign policy circles a virus called arrogance, caused by the hereditary assumption that Americans know better than others. Surprisingly, this does not always prove the case, but the condition seems highly resistant to treatment, even by experience. There seems a high probability that the disease has struck Obama administration policy circles dealing with Pakistan

For Europe, U.S. Is Country That Cries Wolf
William Pfaff

Officials such as Philip Gordon regularly travel to Europe to ask for support for American initiatives. The Europeans reply that they have not been consulted in making these policies. The Americans say we will be happy to discuss them, but we are putting up most of the men and money, so it's too late to change anything. Maybe next time.

With al-Qaida Diminished, There's No Sense in Expanding Afghan War
William Pfaff

Al-Qaida's relations with the Taliban today are troubled. Effective counter-terrorism strategy in Afghanistan is on the brink of completely eliminating al-Qaida. There will be no organization to return. This is the result of effective international and domestic intelligence cooperation as well as good police work. So why, one asks, is the U.S. expanding its war in Afghanistan?

Afghan Mythologies
Victor Davis Hanson

As President Obama decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, we should remember that most of the conventional pessimism about Afghanistan is only half-truth. Remember the mantra that the region is the 'graveyard of empires,' where Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, and the Soviets only three decades ago inevitably met their doom?

United States: Single-eyed Vision
Robert C. Koehler

The promise the United States once represented to the world has spent itself, and what we have to offer in terms of opportunity, or at least hope, is overshadowed by the spreading shadow of our hubris. And it's all coming home to roost.

Latin America Low on Obama's Priority List
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

One year after the election of President Barack Obama, it's time to ask whether his ambitious campaign promises about Latin America are being fulfilled, or whether, like others before him, he has placed the region at the bottom of his foreign policy priorities. Let's look at Obama's key campaign promises for Latin America

In the Quicksands of Somalia
Bronwyn Bruton

The U.S. government needs to change its Somalia policy -- and fast. For the better part of two decades, international attempts to create a government have failed. And since 9/11, U.S. attempts to prevent Somalia from becoming a safe haven for al Qaeda have visibly backfired, alienating the Somali population, and propelling an indigenous Salafi jihadist group, called al Shabab, to power

Changing North Korea
Andrei Lankov

When it comes to dealing with North Korea the United States and its allies have no efficient methods of coercion at their disposal; the regime is remarkably immune to outside pressure. Its leaders cannot afford change, so they make sure their state continues to be an international threat, using nuclear blackmail as a survival tactic while their unlucky subjects endure more poverty and terror. Since outside pressure is ineffective

Obama Fumbling a Chance for Middle East Peace
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Only four percent of Israelis see Obama as a friend. Obama should worry about this. So should we all, for the alienation has significant consequences for peace

Obama's Missile Defense Concession Holds Opportunity for European Security
Paul J. Saunders

It's a concession, but it could present an opportunity as well. While the move highlights the unhappy geography and tough political choices facing Central European leaders, it could also create an important opportunity to strengthen European security. The administration would do well to use this chance to try to encourage new and different relationships between the former Soviet bloc and Russia.

A Simple Plan for Killing al Qaeda
Alex Kingsbury Interviews Howard Clark

Howard Clark's answer is to both amplify the nihilism of its message and promote moderate Islamic voices. Clark, a former marine who served two tours in Iraq, now works as a consultant on counter-terrorism problems for the Department of Defense. He is also president and founder of Seventh Pillar, a nonprofit that seeks to combat al Qaeda's ideology. He recently spoke about his three-part plan for strengthening moderates and defeating extremists

Obama Faces Reality on Iran, Middle East
Kenneth T. Walsh

President Obama's disclosure that Iran has been building a secret uranium enrichment plant underscores a truism in foreign policy: Harsh reality trumps good intentions. Obama says the plant is further evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and he promises to push even harder for sanctions against the Tehran regime.

Afghanistan and the Prospects of World Order
Henry A. Kissinger

The request for additional forces by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, faces President Obama with cruel dilemmas. If he refuses the recommendation and General McChrystal's argument that his forces are inadequate for the mission, Obama will be blamed for the dramatic consequences. If he accepts the recommendation, his opponents may come to describe it, at least in part, as Obama's war. If he compromises ...

Afghanistan - Situation in Afghanistan is Serious
Robert C. Koehler

The situation in Afghanistan is serious. We're getting 'out-governed' by an enemy so ruthless it's bringing services to a desperate people ignored by the legitimate government we installed. But our eight-year quagmire . . . excuse me, war . . . can still be won, says Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in that country, who recently completed a review of the situation

Afghanistan - Going Where in Afghanistan?
Jules Witcover

Two new public-opinion polls say most Americans surveyed believe the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan, and in one of them a clear majority say no more American troops should be sent there.

Afghanistan - Mission of Ignorance
Robert C. Koehler

Right up there with 'our mission,' in the pantheon of sacred foreign policy mumbo-jumbo, is 'training Afghan security forces,' that endless, multibillion-dollar prerequisite for our departure from the country. We've been training a local army and police force for eight years now to take on the good and noble task of defending U.S. interests. Yet ...

Afghanistan - At Afghan Crossroads
Jules Witcover

he leak of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's sober assessment of the war in Afghanistan puts greatly increased pressure on President Obama in weighing whether to press on with the ambitious counterinsurgency recommended or chart a new direction. McChrystal, only recently sent to Kabul as U.S. and NATO commander to tackle the revitalized Taliban insurgency, doesn't mince words.

Afghanistan - Going Where in Afghanistan?
Jules Witcover

Two new public-opinion polls say most Americans surveyed believe the United States is not winning the war in Afghanistan, and in one of them a clear majority say no more American troops should be sent there.

Hard Decisions Ahead on Afghanistan
Joe Galloway

There are a lot of theories and proposals flying around as President Barack Obama and his national security advisers debate what our military and civilian arms of the government can do with the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan

Afghanistan Isn't Worth One More American Life
Joe Galloway

The debate over our creeping military mission in distant Afghanistan grows ever hotter, and before we march even deeper into trouble, perhaps it's time to dig out the old Powell Doctrine and answer the eight questions it poses. Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said these questions all must be answered with a loud YES before the United States takes military action

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan and Memories of Indochina
William Pfaff

The United States is in Afghanistan for its own reasons. The Afghan president said what he did to encourage the U.S. to keep him their man in Kabul. If the Afghan people should decide that he's nothing more than an American puppet, they will get rid of him. But Washington will get rid of him, too, since he would have lost his plausibility, and hence his value.

All U.S. Presidents Need a War to Call Their Own & Obama Has His

Obama Foreign Policy: In Honduras, Etc.: Pas d'Ennemis a Gauche
Ross Mackenzie
William Pfaff

The more one hears the discussion among Democrats about the war in Afghanistan, the more one feels that it is a serious handicap that Barack Obama has no personal experience of international relations or of foreign policy or military service, beyond such experience as one gains as a first-term U.S. senator

Puzzling & Dangerous U.S. Foreign Policy Comes to an End
William Pfaff

President Barack Obama's cancellation of his predecessor's missile-defense scheme for Poland and the Czech Republic presumably brings to a close one of the least explicable and most dangerous American policy initiatives since the cold war officially ended.

Obama Foreign Policy: For the Community Organizer, Peanut Farmer Simpatico
Ross Mackenzie

Barack Obama has rescued the nation -- verily, the world -- from economic collapse. He stands on the cusp of achieving higher quality health care at lower cost -- for every American. Now he's moving to extend his magic to matters foreign. Let's see....

Obama Foreign Policy: In Honduras, Etc.: Pas d'Ennemis a Gauche
Ross Mackenzie

In this hour of Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Iraq that perhaps nothing tells us quite so much about the incumbent D.C. administration as its behavior regarding Honduras. The situation is this ...

Russia - History Made to Order
Paul Greenberg

At the outset of the great break-up of the Soviet Union, many of us hoped Russia would emerge as a free country, if not an ally then a friend. Looking back, any outcome so idyllic was about as realistic as Russia's becoming something other than Russia. Instead, the new Russia that emerged looks a lot like an old one, specifically the tsarist one.

Obama Foreign Policy: Seems Like Old Times
Paul Greenberg

For those who like their fashions retro, these are the good old days -- all over again. Especially if you liked the look of the 1930s. Fashion doesn't apply just to clothes but to ideas, including those about foreign policy. And now appeasement is in again. Naturally, it's called something else now, for appeasement acquired a bad reputation in the Thirties

Obama Foreign Policy: Afghanistan - Uncertain Trumpet
Paul Greenberg

Faced by declining support for that war, President Obama is sending mixed signals. Yes, he's already dispatched fresh troops to Afghanistan, but he has yet to endorse any new strategy there, let alone the one being recommended by the new American commander. And while this president dithers, support for the war ebbs

Letter From Tokyo: New Regime, New Relationship
Kent E. Calder

The DPJ now holds nearly two-thirds of the 480 seats in the Japanese Diet's powerful lower house, which approves budgets, initiates most legislation, and selects the prime minister. Given such dominance, the party, however fractious, will likely remain in power for at least the four years of its new parliamentary mandate -- influencing the country's political-economic landscape during a crucial period of transition in East Asian affairs, and potentially in U.S.-Japanese relations as well.

An Agenda for NATO: Toward a Global Security Web
Zbigniew Brzezinski

NATO now confronts historically unprecedented risks to global security. The paradox of our time is that the world, increasingly connected and economically interdependent for the first time in its entire history, is experiencing intensifying popular unrest. Yet there is no effective global security mechanism for coping with the growing threat of violent political chaos stemming from humanity's recent political awakening.

The Default Power and American Declinism
Josef Joffe

Every ten years, it is decline time in the United States. Declinism took a break in the 1990s, but by the end of the Bush administration, it had returned with a vengeance. The history of declinism shows that doom arrives in cycles, and what comes and goes, logically, does not a trend make. Today, as after past prophecies of imminent debility, the United States remains first on any scale of power that matters--economic, military, diplomatic, or cultural--despite being embroiled in two wars and beset by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

For U.S. in Afghanistan, Why Can't There Be an Alternative to Victory
William Pfaff

Unanimous gloom regarding Afghanistan seems clear confirmation that Barack Obama and his chosen advisers have wasted no time in placing themselves and the country -- in a mere five months -- into the same desperate situation that it took the combined Johnson and Nixon administrations 15 years to arrive at in the case of Vietnam. This view would seem widely shared today -- without influencing policy.

Political Solution in Afghanistan Possible But Not by Going Down Current Path
William Pfaff

It would be a great service to the American nation if Barack Obama would tell us what he himself thinks the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan are about. Gen. Stanley McChyrstal says the Taliban are winning.

One U.S. Official Takes Honorable Stand on CIA-Sponsored Torture
William Pfaff

Thus far in the CIA torture controversy, as in the torture debate that has gone on in the United States since 2001, I can think of only one high American government figure, holding current office, taking a stand on torture in terms of justice, honor and national integrity.

How to Break the CIA
Paul Greenberg

It was just back in April that a still new president and commander-in-chief assured the Central Intelligence Agency of his support, especially those of its agents who had protected the country during the dark, confusing days after September 11th.

The Latest Tale From the 'War on Terror' Dark Side
William Pfaff

Little mainstream comment seems to have appeared on the latest revelations of incompetence and sadistic fantasy that have been published this week about the ways in which the American nation lost its honor and international reputation because of the Bush administration's infatuation with torture.

The Diplomatic Myths and Illusions of the Middle East
by Robert Schlesinger

Incorrect preconceptions and misguided conventional wisdom hamper American policy in the Middle East, Dennis Ross and David Makovsky write in Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East.

Dealing With Irrational, Possibly Nuclear, Enemies
Louis R. Beres, Thomas G. McInerney and Paul E. Vallely

To back up credible U.S. deterrence against a still-growing number of adversaries, Barack Obama will need to rebuild a declining military infrastructure and doctrine. Otherwise, it is likely that this country's state and sub-state enemies may increasingly dismiss American retaliatory and other threats as empty bluster and false bravado.

How the CIA Became Dangerously Dependent on Outside Contractors
Allison Stanger

Recent revelations of contractor involvement in CIA covert operations have been shocking. The CIA deploys contractors because it no longer has the in-house capacity to pursue new mission-critical tasks without an assist from the private sector. At first glance, this looks like free-market fundamentalism taken to its logical extreme ...

CIA Memo Reveals Flaws in Waterboarding's Legal Justification
Alex Kingsbury

A footnote in the recently released 2004 CIA Office of Inspector General's review of the government's interrogation program appears to undermine a key legal justification that allowed the spy agency to use the controversial technique of waterboarding against suspected terrorist detainees.

Journalists freed from North Korea
(c) M. Ryder

Relief Over Freed U.S. Journalists Tempered by Long-Term Implications
Henry A. Kissinger

Amidst the widespread relief that the two American journalists have avoided the brutal fate meted out to them by a North Korean court, it may seem captious to consider the long-term implications. The impulse to save two young women from 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean gulag is powerful. Yet now that this goal has been achieved, we need to balance the emotions of the moment against the precedent for the future.

Time to Get Out of Iraq
Joe Galloway

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested that he might speed up our withdrawal from Iraq by pulling out an additional brigade combat team by year's end. Good idea! How about pulling out FIVE more brigades by then

One Year to Prove Strategy Is Working in Afghanistan
Robert Gates Interview

The clock in Washington on Afghanistan is going to depend on what happens on the ground. I think we need to show we are making some headway by next spring or early summer. We are not going to win it by next summer. We aren't going to be on the verge of winning it next summer; this is a long-term prospect.

General McChrystal: The New Strategy In Afghanistan
General McChrystal Interview

General Stanley A. McChrystal is commander of international forces in Afghanistan. In his interview with Julian Barnes, General McChrystal discusses the strategy and progress in Afghanistan.

American Foreign Policy and Military Intervention
(c) Kevin Kreneck

American Military Intervention Today Means a Less Secure Tomorrow
William Pfaff

A once-fashionable subject in America's think tanks was futurology. It worked by projecting what were thought to be plausible developments in the situation of a given subject that would lead to a series of 'branching points,' expected eventually to lead the analyst to unforeseen conclusions about what could happen.

However, unexpected developments actually were fairly uncommon, since nearly everyone started with a bias toward one or another desirable outcome.

How to End the Insurgency and Win the War in Afghanistan
by Anna Mulrine

A longtime Afghanistan expert with the Rand Corp. and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Jones talks about how the United States should handle Afghanistan.

Britsh prime minister Gordon Brown
(c) Nancy Ohanian

Why Sometimes Pays to Be Like Gordon Brown
by William Pfaff

Flamboyance of the Latin kind gets you into the newspapers, but for bad reasons as well as good.

Nicolas Sarkozy of France is not a man noted for charm but for his unchecked energies and the restless activity. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi is another matter entirely. He is a success in politics apparently because the majority of Italians like him.

Indeed, sometimes pays to be a nondescript politician like Gordon Brown of Britain.

From Iraq to Afghanistan, U.S. Foreign Wars Not Going According to Plan
by William Pfaff

In Iraq, tension was reported to be increasing between the Americans and the Iraqi military and security forces, who were supposed to take over the Americans' responsibilities. Move to another front: Pakistan-Afghanistan. Here there was also supposed to be a straightforward job to do: drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan, into the Tribal Areas of the Pakistan border. There, the Pakistan army, with American urging and help, would defeat and disarm them.

Israeli - Palestinian Peace
(c) M. Ryder

Obama, Solana Mean Business About Two-State Solution
by William Pfaff

The Israeli press reports with alarm that the United States has threatened to reduce by $1 billion the guarantee the U.S. Treasury customarily provides for Israel state borrowings, which assure them the best commercial terms.

This is evidence that the Obama government is serious about halting Israel's colonization of the Palestinian territories -- and about imposing, rather than merely inviting, a two-state Middle East solution.

Why Congress & the CIA Clash, and Why That Hurts National Security
by Margaret Henoch

The recent dispute over intelligence briefings -- with members of Congress complaining that they were insufficiently informed of reported plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill al Qaeda leaders -- highlights the dysfunction haunting the CIA and Congress. There are several sources for the tension plaguing the relationship.

Obama's Balancing Act With Russian Relations
by Joshua Kucera

Does President Obama's "reset" of Russian relations mean that Washington will sell out its allies in the region? But Biden's trip gave political leaders in Kiev and Tbilisi reasons for concern.

Lesson From Vietnam for Obama's War in Afghanistan
by Joe Galloway

There's no question that President Obama inherited these two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, from the Bush / Cheney administration. But the buildup in Afghanistan and the change in strategy belong to Obama and his version of the best and brightest. The new administration has dictated an escalation from 30,000 U.S. troops to more than 60,000, and even before most of them have actually arrived commanders on the ground are already back asking for more

Robert S. McNamara's Ghosts in Afghanistan
by Tom Hayden

Robert McNamara died the other day, as seven American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. It wasn't the deaths on the same day that made me remember McNamara's folly. It was the sense that McNamara's ghost is hovering over the new graveyard of America's future. McNamara's team, most products of the United States' elite universities, was dubbed "the best and the brightest." They were deluded by their arrogance into believing computer-driven measures of success, like body counts.

Robert S. McNamara's Tortured Life
by Jules Witcover

When former Kennedy and Johnson Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara died the other day at age 93, he was widely remembered, and castigated, as 'the architect of the Vietnam War.' McNamara came to the Pentagon, however, ill equipped emotionally to be the most powerful warlord in modern history. His benign background belied that role thrust upon him by Kennedy, who was looking for the right man not to wage a war, but to bring order and discipline to the military establishment.

Anger Over CIA Plans Is Misplaced
by Jonah Goldberg

The Democrats and much of the press insist the scandal is that Cheney never briefed Congress about specifics of the plan. There's only one hitch: The program never made it off the drawing board. No CIA operatives were sent out to kill members of al-Qaida. Call me crazy, but I just assumed that the CIA was out there trying to kill as many senior members of al-Qaida as it could

Plans to Assassinate al-Qaida Leaders
by Jules Witcover

The disclosure that the George W. Bush administration had plans to assassinate al-Qaida leaders and never told Congress about them must certainly come as no surprise to anybody by now. The credibility of Bush and Co. had long since been shot full of holes by the time the Obama administration's new CIA director, Leon Panetta, learned of the scheme, killed it and spilled the beans to Congress.

Heart of the Future Between Russia & United States
by Robert C. Koehler

Last week's announcement from Moscow, of a new treaty between the U.S. and Russia to begin cutting their nuclear stockpiles by a quarter to a third, is indeed "modest" and perhaps downright "disappointing" in its tentativeness, as critics have pointed out. Even so, the heart of the future beats here.

Iran Election Historical Analogies Misleading & Dangerous
by Paul J. Saunders

Many political leaders and pundits have called for more active and vocal American support of the Iranian opposition, typically on the basis of analogies to oppressive regimes of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these analogies are misleading and even dangerous if used as guides to policy. The historical cases most similar to present-day Iran should instill caution.

On Iran, the U.S. Needs Handshakes and an Iron Fist
by Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The argument went, civilized dialogue with Iran was more likely if we chose to treat its external conduct separately from its internal character. Such an approach, not threatening the Islamic republic's claim, would give us a better chance of restraining its nuclear ambitions and its support for terrorism. Obama did his bit to press the reset button with grace and eloquence. And what was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's response? ...

Diplomacy Can and Will Work With Iran
by Senator John Kerry

President Obama is right to open the door to direct engagement with Iran. Negotiations-backed by escalating sanctions to show we mean business if talks fail are the only way short of war that we can persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions and begin building a more stable and secure Middle East.

Obama Turns Focus to War in Afghanistan
by Anna Mulrine

Afghans struggle to describe the enormity of the task that confronts President Obama in Afghanistan, where conditions have deteriorated dramatically over the past year. Deaths among both Afghan and U.S. troops are on the rise, confidence in the Kabul government is falling, and the ability of America to turn things around remains an open question.

Les Gelb on How America Muddles Its Power
by Andrew Burt

Leslie H. Gelb's r�sum� is all about power. But Gelb, currently president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, thinks American politicians have forgotten how to use it. He recently spoke about how his new book, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy, offers lessons on navigating the challenges confronting the United States.

Obama Stresses Common Ground With Pope Benedict
by Dan Gilgoff

President Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI for the first time in Rome, and while they offered little in the way of public comment before or after their sit-down, Vatican and U.S. sources said the two engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that touched on

American Marine Offensive Tests New Strategy in Afghanistan
by Anna Mulrine

U.S. troops mobilized in Helmand province to fight the Taliban again. Some 4,000 marines flooded the fiercely contested drug-growing epicenter of Afghanistan last week in what amounts to the force's largest operation inside the country to date

Obama's Honduras Predicament
by Cal Thomas

President Obama immediately "meddles" in the affairs of Honduras, denouncing a military coup, the intent of which is to preserve the country's constitution, but when it comes to Iran's fraudulent election and the violent repression of demonstrators who wanted their votes counted, the president initially vacillates and equivocates. Are we expected to accept this as a consistent foreign policy

A Hegemon's Coming of Age
Walter Russell Mead

More than 230 years have passed since the Declaration of Independence; the United States has been the most powerful country in the world since World War I ended, in 1918; and since the end of World War II, it has consciously assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the global economic and political system.

The Pentagon's Wasting Assets
by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.

Several events in recent years have demonstrated that traditional means and methods of projecting power and accessing the global commons are growing increasingly obsolete--becoming "wasting assets," in the language of defense strategists

Defining American Interests in Afghanistan
Steven Simon

The Obama administration recently completed its 60-day review of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the president, "The core goal of the U.S. must be to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan, and to prevent their return to Pakistan or Afghanistan."

Thuggery 101
World's Thugs do not Appreciate Obama's Goodwill
Victor Davis Hanson

President Barack Obama came into office apparently believing that his non-traditional background, charisma and good intentions could placate dictators hostile to America and ease global tensions.

President Obama: The Too Usable Past
Paul Greenberg

This year Barack Obama went to Normandy with his own view of the past, the better to support his policies in the present. For him, the titanic struggle of which Normandy was a decisive part represented an exceptional time when choices were clear and values universal. Unlike these vague, uncertain times. Or as he put it: "We live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true"

Middle East Foreign Policy - Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan

Violence Spikes as U.S. Troops Withdraw From Iraq's Cities
by Alex Kingsbury

Militants in Iraq staged a series of bomb and machine gun attacks in the past ten days that left more than 250 dead and the country on edge. Increased carnage as the U.S. forces prepare to depart was not unexpected, American and Iraqi officials say.

Attacks on U.S. Soldiers Show Iraq Is Not Yet Safe
by Anna Mulrine

U.S. combat troops officially withdrew from all Iraqi cities this week, and the Iraqi government declared a national holiday to commemorate the event. But with the celebration came a stark reminder that the war in Iraq continues for U.S. troops and that the country is far from safe.

Obama's Iran Policy Is a Bomb
by Jonah Goldberg

Here is the one immutable fact of Barack Obama's foreign policy agenda as it relates to Iran: It's over. If the forces of reform and democracy win, Obama's plan to negotiate with the regime is moot, for the regime will be gone.

Obama's Choice Is Not to Choose on Iran
by Jonah Goldberg

Stop measuring the success of your diplomacy with Iran by the degree to which the grinning, hate-filled stooge of a clerical junta will "temper" his rhetoric about the pressing need to destroy Israel and slow his ineluctable pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Events in Middle East & Central Asia Challenge U.S's Conventional Assumptions
William Pfaff

Three recent developments in the Muslim Middle East and Central Asia challenge Washington's conventional assumptions about Pakistan, the Taliban, Lebanon and Iran.

McChrystal Faces a Tough Road Ahead in Afghanistan
Amanda Ruggeri

Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the special operations veteran confirmed to take over command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, predicted tough months ahead there, bluntly warning Congress to expect more casualties.

Violence Spikes as U.S. Troops Withdraw From Iraq's Cities
by Alex Kingsbury

Militants in Iraq staged a series of bomb and machine gun attacks in the past ten days that left more than 250 dead and the country on edge. Increased carnage as the U.S. forces prepare to depart was not unexpected, American and Iraqi officials say.

Attacks on U.S. Soldiers Show Iraq Is Not Yet Safe
by Anna Mulrine

U.S. combat troops officially withdrew from all Iraqi cities this week, and the Iraqi government declared a national holiday to commemorate the event. But with the celebration came a stark reminder that the war in Iraq continues for U.S. troops and that the country is far from safe.

Richard Haass on Bush's Unjust Iraq War Blunder
by Andrew Burt

The two wars the United States has waged in Iraq have defined the post-Cold War era, argues Richard Haass in War of Necessity, War of Choice. Why did you write this book? What's the difference between a war of necessity and a war of choice?

Obama Should Not Abandon Israel in Effort to Court Muslims

President Obama's trip to Saudi Arabia and his speech in Cairo illustrate that he is firmly committed to a major outreach to the Muslim and Arab worlds. However, it is always dangerous to court new friends if you risk doing it at the expense of old friends, in this case the long-standing friendship between Israel and America.

Tehran's Take: Understanding Iran's U.S. Policy
by Mohsen M. Milani

Iran's foreign policy is often portrayed in sensationalistic terms, but in reality it is a rational strategy meant to ensure the survival of the Islamic Republic against what Tehran thinks is an existential threat posed by the United States

Indian Ocean: Center Stage for 21st Century Struggles Between India & China
by Robert D. Kaplan

Competition between India and China suggests that the Indian Ocean is where global struggles will play out in the twenty-first century. The old borders of the Cold War map are crumbling fast, and Asia is becoming a more integrated unit, from the Middle East to the Pacific.

Today, North Korea; Tomorrow, Iran - Nuclear Weapons
By Paul Greenberg

North Korea has been playing around with nuclear weapons again, this time setting off an even bigger underground explosion. To which the five veto-wielding powers at the United Nations have responded much as they did the first couple of times the North Korean regime defied the UN by setting off nukes: with oh-so-serious, oh-so-official statements.

Time to Test North Korea - Nuclear Weapons
Global Viewpoint

John Bolton, a leading neo-conservative official during the Bush administration, is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In this interview Bolton provides his opinion on North Korea's nuclear weapons testing and what the United States and the World needs to do in response

North Korea's Nuclear Weapon Challenge
Henry A. Kissinger

The Obama administration has so far dealt publicly with the North Korean challenge in an understated, almost leisurely, manner. The challenge goes far beyond the regional security issue. For the United States, it involves relations with an emerging superpower (China); relations with a re-emerging Russia; relations with key U.S. allies (Japan and South Korea); and a major escalation in the threat of proliferation to non-state parties.

The West's Reckless Approach to Relations with Russia
by Wiliam Pfaff

The failure last week of Russian talks with the European Union on energy supplies to Europe is one more occasion for Russian-Western tension.

The Nation-State is Back & How
International Politics & Foreign Affairs
by Paul Kennedy

About 500 years ago, in parts of Western Europe, a funny thing happened to human society. The national state had arrived, and the world would never be the same.

Our Historically Challenged President
by Victor Davis Hanson

Despite President Obama's image as an Ivy-League-educated intellectual, he lacks historical competency, both in areas of facts and interpretation.

A Bright Star on the World Stage: Smiles & handshakes a Start But Obama's real challenge will be to show results
by Thomas Omestad

White House officials say Obama's appeal extends beyond just the leaders of the world. "What has happened is that anti-Americanism isn't cool anymore," says top Obama adviser David Axelrod.

But this initial repositioning of the American leadership brand onto more popular terrain internationally will be the easier part of Obama's task. For all the sense of fresh starts and of goodwill, the seeds of perhaps inevitable disappointments are present as well.

Obama Expected to Deliver Statement on US & Islamic World
by William Pfaff

Next week President Barack Obama travels to Cairo to deliver what is expected to be a major statement on relations between the United States and the Islamic world.

The speech is expected to offer a redefinition of American foreign policy in the region; it's meant to replace the Bush administration's "war against terrorism" and to repudiate Samuel F. Huntington's famous formulation of a war between Islamic civilization and the West, which many in the Middle East believe motivates American policy.

In Afghanistan, It's President Obama's War Now

There is a popular proverb that has been making the rounds in Kabul involving the inadvisability of juggling two watermelons with one hand. It is used to suggest the peril--some say folly--of taking on large tasks with too few resources. Lately, it has been cropping up as Afghans struggle to describe the enormity of the task that confronts President Obama in their country, where conditions have deteriorated dramatically over the past year

In Balkans, U.S. Could Use 1800s Supreme Court Case for Guidance
By Ralph R. Johnson

Vice President Biden is on a diplomatic tour in the Balkans, visiting what many regard as the most problematic areas in the region. In his visit to Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, he has the opportunity to foster improved relations among parties whose cooperation needs additional encouragement, and few are as well-suited as he to do just that: In Bosnia-Herzegovina, in particular, the vice president has significant experience and meaningful relationships.

Why China & U.S. Not Ready to Upgrade Ties

Calling on the United States and China to do more together has an undeniable logic. Both Washington and Beijing are destined to fail if they attempt to confront the world's problems alone, and the current bilateral relationship is not getting the job done.

But elevating the bilateral relationship is not the solution. It will raise expectations for a level of partnership that cannot be met and exacerbate the very real differences that exist between Washington and Beijing.

Obama's Foreign Policy Challenge - Henry Kissinger

The first overseas trip of a new president always has a significance beyond its itinerary. The president has an opportunity to test the impact of his policies; his interlocutors begin to assess the leader with whom they will have to deal over at least four years.