The End of Oil?
BEYOND THE AGE OF
PETROLEUM. Klare, Michael. The Nation, November
2007. n.p.
The author notes that, in its projections of future
petroleum availability, the U.S. Department of Energy recently
stopped talking about “oil” and began referring to “liquids”, a
catch-all term for fuels from a variety of non-oil sources. In this
oblique way, Klare writes, the U.S. government has “signaled a
fundamental, near-epochal shift: we are nearing the end of the
Petroleum Age and have entered the Age of Insufficiency.”
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A SOLAR GRAND PLAN. Zweibel, Ken;
Mason, James; Fthenakis, Vasilis.
Scientific American, January 2008. Solar power could
eliminate U.S. dependence on imported oil and slash greenhouse gas
emissions, note the authors, in this article on a bold proposal to
construct a nation-wide solar-energy generation and distribution
system by the year 2050. READ MORE
ENERGY RESOURCES
AND OUR FUTURE. Energy Bulletin, December 2, 2006.
On May 14, 1957, Navy Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover, considered
the Father of the Nuclear Submarine, gave a speech to the Minnesota
State Medical Association which he acknowledged “had no medical
connotations” -– the rapidly growing consumption of fossil fuels in
modern society. He noted that our technological base depends on
enormous amounts of energy: “What assurance do we then have that our
energy needs will continue to be supplied by fossil fuels? The
answer is - in the long run – none ...
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China
Rivals or Partners?
Globalization and US-China Relations. Michael Mastanduno.
Harvard International Review,
Fall 2007. pp. 44-49. The
global political economy currently stands at a crossroads. There are
many key economic players -- an integrated European Union, a
resource-rich Russia, a recovering Japan, and a rising India and
Brazil. But two countries, the US and China, will continue to have
disproportionate influence over the direction of the world economy,
primarily due to their economic size and geopolitical prominence.
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Russia and China in the Global Economy. Harley Balzer.
Demokratizatsiya, Winter 2008. pp. 37-47. When Mao died
in 1976, Russia appeared better poised than China to become an
important commercial and industrial power in the global economy. Yet
it is China rather than Russia that has embraced globalization and
developed trade and manufacturing, exporting increasingly
higher-value-added goods. The explanation for this surprising
outcome in found is Chinese elites viewing globalization as their
best opportunity to catch up and overtake developed nations, while
Russian elites are far more guarded in their acceptance of
integration. The differences are illustrated by comparing leading
sectors, regional development, human capital, and corruption.
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Europe and America
Staying Competitive with Europe.
Susanne Forrest. International
Educator, May/June 2008. pp. 88-92. While much of
that loss has been attributed to political fallout of 9/11 and the
attendant difficulties for students from some countries to receive
student visas, as well as the encroachment of UK, Australian, and
Canadian universities upon traditional U.S. international student
markets, not enough attention has been paid to the impact the
Bologna Process and the ERASMUS program have had on declining
international student enrollments in the United States. In addition
to these changes that can be precipitated solely at the university
level, federal and state government must become involved in the
change process that will allow public universities stay globally
competitive.
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Afghanistan
NO SIGN UNTIL THE BURST OF FIRE:
UNDERSTANDING THE PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN FRONTIER Johnson, Thomas H.;
Mason, M. Chris International Security,
Spring 2008, pp. 41-77 The authors assert that the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border area has become the most dangerous
frontier on earth and the most challenging for U.S. national
security interests. The portion of the border region that is home to
extremist groups such the Taliban and al-Qaida coincides almost
exactly with the area overwhelmingly dominated by the Pashtun
tribes. The fact that most of Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s violent
religious extremism, and with it much of the counterterrorism
challenge to the U.S., are contained within a single
ethno-linguistic group, has not been fully grasped by U.S.
policymakers.
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The Rise of Afghanistan's Insurgency: State Failure and Jihad,
Seth G. Jones
International
Security,
Spring 2008, pp. 7-40. In 2002 Afghanistan began to
experience a violent insurgency as the Taliban and other groups
conducted a sustained effort to overthrow the Afghan government. Why
did an insurgency begin in Afghanistan? Answers to this question
have important theoretical and policy implications. Conventional
arguments, which focus on the role of grievance or greed, cannot
explain the Afghan insurgency. Rather, a critical precondition was
structural: the collapse of governance after the overthrow of the
Taliban regime. The Afghan government was unable to provide basic
services to the population; its security forces were too weak to
establish law and order; and there were too few international forces
to fill the gap.
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Africa
When China Met Africa. Serge Michel. Foreign Policy,
May/June 2008, pp. 39 - 46. In Brazzaville, everything new
appears to have come from China: the stadium, the airport, the
televisions, the roads, the apartment buildings, the fake Nikes, the
telephones, even the aphrodisiacs. Walking through this poor capital
city in West Africa, a visitor could be forgiven for assuming he was
in some colonial Chinese outpost. No one knows more about China’s
reach in Congo than Claude Alphonse N’Silou, the Congolese minister
for construction and housing. In fact, in Brazzaville, the Chinese
are building more than a thousand units of housing designed by...
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Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa: Flawed Ideas about Failed
States. Pierre Englebert, Denis M. Tull.
International
Security,
Spring 2008, pp. 106-139. Post-conflict state
reconstruction has become a priority of donors in Africa. Yet,
externally sponsored reconstruction efforts have met with limited
achievements in the region. This is partly due to three flawed
assumptions on which reconstruction efforts are predicated. The
first is that Western state institutions can be transferred to
Africa. The poor record of past external efforts to construct and
reshape African political and economic institutions casts doubts on
the overly ambitious objectives of failed state reconstruction.
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Russia
DEALING WITH THE "NEW" RUSSIA: WILL
U.S. RUSSIAN RELATIONS IMPROVE UNDER MEDVEDEV? Roland Flamini,
The CQ Researcher, June 6, 2008, pp. 481-504. "Winston Churchill once famously called Russia
'a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma.' Viewed from Washington, or any Western
capital, Churchill's observation still rings true in today's
post-Soviet era. On May 7, Dmitry Medvedev became Russia's third
president. But no one knows how much clout he'll exercise, given
that he appointed his powerful predecessor, Vladimir Putin, as prime
minister, a post that until now has been only marginal."
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EUROPE, RUSSIA AND AMERICAN MISSILE
DEFENCE. Walter B Slocombe, Survival, April/May 2008, pp. 19-24.
"Slocombe talks about the ballistic-missile-defense program of the
US. He asserts that the proposal by the US has has set off a major
controversy. It touches on many other issues: differences over Iran;
a resurgent and assertive Russia; European suspicions of American
unilateralism and militarism; strains within Europe between old and
new; the future of arms control and the future of NATO--all overlain
by domestic political issues."
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WHERE US AND RUSSIAN INTERESTS OVERLAP. Dmitri Trenin, Current History, May 2008,
pp. 219-224. "Among the emerging priorities of American foreign policy, Russia
hardly features. A
return to the cold war is highly improbable— it could only result
from a colossal policy
failure in both Washington and Moscow. A sudden rekindling of
'strategic partnership,' under which Russia would follow the us
lead, is even less likely. When Russia does come up in
conversations, American frustration with Moscow is palpable. Russia
is portrayed as a country on the margins, a petro-power, a failed
democracy, and the authoritarians’ best friend. But this is a
narrow-minded and shortsighted view. While Russia itself is hardly
an issue for America today (which in itself is not so bad), Moscow
could be instrumental in helping to address a number of global
problems that a new us president will face on taking office in
2009."
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Future U.S. Foreign Policy
A BETTER
APPROACH TO FOREIGN AID POLICY. Justin Muzinich and Eric Werker,
Policy Review, June/July 2008, var. pages.
"Frustration with u.s. foreign aid is widespread. The left complains
that the United States does not provide enough money to developing
countries. The right laments that aid is an inefficient use of
resources. Both sides are to some degree correct. While the United
States distributed $ 23 billion in 2006 — more than any other
country — it was still very little for the billion people living on
less than one dollar a day. And for every dollar given to
sub-Saharan Africa, less than 44 cents reached the ground, partially
because of inefficient spending and corruption.
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THE ETHICS OF FLEEING: WHAT AMERICA STILL
OWES IRAQ. Jean Bethke Elshtain, World Affairs, Spring 2008,
pp. 91-98. "The Iraq War has, or bids to, become a litmus test of political
identity of the sort that Americans associate with the Vietnam War.
We should all be troubled by this. There are other facts to keep in
mind. We remain in Europe sixty years after the conclusion of World
War II. We are still in the Korean Peninsula fifty years on from the
truce that ended that conflict. Although there are real questions
about whether we have at present a political culture that can
sustain such a longterm effort, the notion that we would just turn
about and head home, without condition and regardless of
consequence, runs counter to historical precedent (Vietnam being the
dishonorable exception)."
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RETHINKING THE NATIONAL INTEREST:
AMERICAN REALISM FOR A NEW WORLD. Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Affairs,
July/August 2008, var. pages.
"What is the national interest? This is a question that I took up in
2000 in these pages. That was a time that we as a nation revealingly
called 'the post-Cold War era.' We knew better where we had been
than where we were going. Yet monumental changes were unfolding --
changes that were recognized at the time but whose implications were
largely unclear."
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STATECRAFT IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Dennis Ross, The Washington Quarterly,
Summer 2008, pp. 7–22. "To leave a more favorable legacy on Iraq, Iran, and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the administration must clarify its
objectives, make them more realistic, and use different forms of
leverage to change behaviors."
READ
MORE
Public Diplomacy
EDUCATIONAL AND
CULTURAL EXCHANGES TO RESTORE AMERICA'S IMAGE. Carol Bellamy and
Adam Weinberg, The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2008, pp.
55-68. "A new public diplomacy strategy to enhance the U.S.
reputation will require a thorough understanding of the role of
cultural and educational exchanges, or what is commonly called
citizen diplomacy, and the many ways it can be more effectively
leveraged."
READ
MORE
HARD POWER, SOFT POWER, SMART POWER.
Ernest J Wilson III, Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, March 2008, pp. 110-124. "This
article pushes beyond hard power and soft power to insist on smart
power, defined as the capacity of an actor to combine elements of
hard power and soft power in ways that are mutually reinforcing such
that the actor's purposes are advanced effectively and efficiently."
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THE POST-9/1
AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: HOW TO WIN THE WAR OF IDEAS IN THE WORLD OF
ISLAM. Ehsan Ahrari, Mediterranean Quarterly, Spring 2008, pp.82-98.
"In America’s global war on terrorism, phrases like 'the war of
ideas,' 'campaign
to win the hearts and minds of Muslims,' and 'public diplomacy'
describe important themes. Although the United States had grown
accustomed
to conducting highly successful public diplomacy to win the war of
ideas during the Cold War, its record in this realm in the post-9/11
era has
been far from impressive. In this essay I describe the new challenge
and
spell out possible ways of gaining an upper hand in this 'war.'"
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TO WIN THE "WAR ON TERROR," WE MUST FIRTS
WIN THE "WAR OF IDEAS": HERE'S HOW. Hady Amr and P. W.Singer,
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
July 2008, pp. 212-222. "This article addresses the critical
role that public diplomacy plays in improving the deteriorating
image of the United States in the Muslim world. The authors argue
that both public diplomacy and policies, including those on civil
liberties, are vital to U.S. success in the war on terrorism and
that the next U.S. president must designate this effort as a matter
of highest national security importance."
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Elections 2008
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: HAVE EFFORTS TO
REIN IN POLITICAL DONATIONS FAILED? Thomas J. Billitteri, The CQ
Researcher, June 13, 2008, pp. 508-528. "As the 2008 presidential contest continues, the campaign finance
system is in upheaval. Six years after Congress passed the landmark
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act to help curb the influence of
unregulated "soft" money in politics, the so-called McCain-Feingold
law is facing court challenges and persistent claims that it
infringes on free-speech rights. Meanwhile, the system of public
funding for federal campaigns is teetering. Presumptive Democratic
nominee Barack Obama is poised to be the first major-party
presidential candidate to bypass the system in a general election."
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THE LONG ROAD TO HEALTH REFORM REQUIRES BIPARTISAN LEADERSHIP.
Christine C Ferguson et al. Health Affairs, May/Jun 2008, pp. 711-717.
"The United States appears headed toward another national debate
about health system reform. Worry about access and health system
deficiencies has reached critical mass, and polls indicate that
health care leads the domestic agenda for the 2008 elections. This
debate, like previous debates, will succeed or fail in Congress. We
highlight key elements of recent sagas in health legislation and
offer advice to the next president and Congress for improving the
likelihood of a successful outcome in 2009-10: (1) make health
reform a top legislative priority; (2) be leaders, not partisans;
and (3) develop broad policy consensus but leave the policy details
to Congress."
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THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES: WHAT IN
AMERICA'S NAME IS GOING ON? Charles E. Cook Jr., The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2008,
pp. 193-204. "The 2008 presidential race has already featured
more surprises and greater volatility than any since 1968. A look
back at the spring presidential campaigns and a look ahead to what
should be a similarly wild and turbulent general campaign in the
general campaign in the fall."
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MORE
