THE ASCENSION. R. Nicholas Burns, National Interest, Jan/Feb 2009, var pages. "The creation of Barack Obama’s legacy will play out against three fundamental backdrops: America’s financial crisis; the ability to shore up the power of the United States; and the willingness of Joe Q. Public to spend blood and treasure beyond our borders. Obama faces tasks no less significant than the crises of the 1930s. The question is whether the new president can craft a legacy in the vein of past great American leaders." READ MORE

DEFENSE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Ashton B. Carter, Orbis Winter 2009, pp. 41-53. "The next American president will face a daunting list of national security problems, including a serious defense budget crunch. The budget crisis will be deepened by the global financial crisis, a tapering of supplemental funding associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the steady growth of military healthcare and other personnel costs. After six years of rapid defense budget increases, the Pentagon has lost the practice of matching strategy and resources. The next president will need to manage risk among investments in irregular warfare, counterterrorism, balancing new super powers, countering weapons of mass destruction, and traditional warfare. He will also need to begin to build non-military 'soft power' capabilities outside of the Pentagon." READ MORE

The Middle East Conflict

HAMAS AND ISRAEL: CONFLICTING STRATEGIES OF GROUP-BASED POLITICS. Dr. Sherifa D. Zuhur. Strategic Studies Institute monograph, Dec. 23, 2008, pp. 1-91. “The changing fortunes of the Palestinian movement, Hamas, and the recent outcomes of Israeli strategies aimed against this group and Palestinian nationalism external to the Fatah faction of the Palestinian Authority are discussed. The example of Hamas challenges much of the current wisdom on ‘insurgencies’ and their containment. Efforts have been made to separate HAMAS from its popular support and network of social and charitable organizations.” READ MORE

THE OTHER HOUSING CRISIS. Gershom Gorenberg, Foreign Policy, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages. “Why can’t Israel and the Palestinians make peace? There are many complicated reasons, but at the root of the conflict is one simple problem: It’s the settlements, stupid.” READ MORE

CHANGE THEY CAN BELIEVE IN. Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages. “If it hopes to bring peace to the Middle East, the Obama administration must put Palestinian politics and goals first.” READ MORE

Climate and Energy

CONFRONTING WARMING: CAN STATES AND LOCALITIES PREVENT CLIMATE CHANGE? Alan Greenblatt, The CQ Researcher, January 9, 2009, pp. 1-24. "Growing concern about climate change has led states and cities to adopt new policies to try to conserve energy and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. California recently adopted new rules that aim to reduce such gases by 30 percent by 2020, while a cap on carbon emissions in the Northeast took effect Jan. 1. But critics say the efforts are more symbolic than substantive, pushing real sacrifices far off into the future. Many business groups, meanwhile, complain that the new rules will increase the cost of energy and hurt the economy — despite current promises that a "Green New Deal" can create jobs. The Obama administration promises to be far more aggressive in addressing global warming than the skeptical Bush White House. Even though the issue is coming to the fore in Washington, states and cities that have filled the policy vacuum in recent years pledge to stay vigilant in addressing the issue." READ MORE

THINK AGAIN: CLIMATE CHANGE. Bill McKibben, Foreign Policy, January/February 2009, var pages. "Act now, we’re told, if we want to save the planet from a climate catastrophe. Trouble is, it may be too late. The science is settled, and the damage has already begun. The only question that remains is whether we will stop playing political games and embrace the few imperfect options we have left." READ MORE

Financial Crisis

THE GREAT CRASH, 2008. Roger C. Altman, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages. “The financial and economic crash of 2008, the worst in over 75 years, is a major geopolitical setback for the United States and Europe. Over the medium term, Washington and European governments will have neither the resources nor the economic credibility to play the role in global affairs that they otherwise would have played. These weaknesses will eventually be repaired, but in the interim, they will accelerate trends that are shifting the world's center of gravity away from the United States.” READ MORE

FAITH IN THE MARKET. Carla Power, Foreign Policy, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages. “The champions of Islamic finance—banking and investing based on the Koran—believe that if Islamic principles had been applied to Wall Street, the global economic crisis never would have happened. The handful of men who decide which mortgages, car loans, and credit cards are spiritually sound are making millions. But critics smell a con.” READ MORE

Military Interventions

MULTILATERAL MILITARY INTERVENTIONS: THEORY AND PRACTICE. Sarah E. Kreps, Political Science Quarterly, Winter 2008-2009, pp. 573-603. The author "advances a two-level definition of multilateralism that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative attributes of cooperation. She argues that the relative decline in American power, rather than leading to more robust multilateralism, might instead make UN-authorized interventions less tenable and ad hoc 'coalitions of the willing' a viable alternative." READ MORE


A BALANCED STRATEGY. Robert M. Gates, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages. "The Pentagon has to do more than modernize its conventional forces; it must also focus on today's unconventional conflicts -- and tomorrow's. The defining principle of the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy is balance. The United States cannot expect to eliminate national security risks through higher defense budgets, to do everything and buy everything. The Department of Defense must set priorities and consider inescapable tradeoffs and opportunity costs." READ MORE

HOW TO WIN A LOSING WAR.  Nathaniel C. Fick and John A. Nagl, Foreign Policy, Jan/Feb 2009, var. pages.  “Two years ago, a controversial military manual rewrote U.S. strategy in Iraq. Now, the doctrine’s simple, yet powerful tenets—radical, to some—must be applied to the far different and neglected conflict in Afghanistan.” READ MORE Plus, an exclusive interview with Gen. David Petraeus

State of the Union

AMERICA'S EDGE. Anne-Marie Slaughter, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2009, pp. 94-113. "Slaughter delves into the potentiality of the US to be the most connected country and its need to be connected to other power centers that are themselves widely connected. She believes that if it pursues the right policies, the US has the capacity and the cultural capital to reinvent itself. She rationalizes that the US need not see itself as locked in a global struggle with other great powers; rather, it should view itself as a central player in an integrated world." READ MORE

THE END OF WHITE AMERICA? Hua Hsu, The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2009, var pages. "The Election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of 'whiteness' as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided—or more so?" READ MORE