Changes

THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY: CAN BARACK OBAMA DELIVER THE CHANGE HE PROMISES? Kenneth Jost, The CQ Researcher, January 30, 2009, pp. 73-104. "As the 44th president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama confronts a set of challenges more daunting perhaps than any chief executive has faced since the Great Depression and World War II. Still, Obama begins his four years in office with the biggest winning percentage of any president in 20 years and a strong Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. In addition, as the first African-American president, Obama starts with a reservoir of goodwill from Americans and people and governments around the world. But he began encountering criticism and opposition from Republicans in his first days in office as he filled in the details of his campaign theme: 'Change We Can Believe In.'" READ MORE

HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD. Sherle R. Schwenninger, World Policy Journal, Winter 2008/09, pp. 3-13. "The U.S. economy is no longer in a position to be the demand locomotive that pulls the rest of the world out of recession. Other economies will need to pull alongside ours." READ MORE

EMPIRE FALLS. Robert A. Pape, The National Interest, Jan/Feb 2009, pp. 21-34. "The United States is in unprecedented decline. Future generations will look back at the past decade as the beginning of the end of American hegemony. A combination of bad domestic policies, excessive foreign-policy commitments and the rise of China are eroding America’s relative economic strength. Past empires have risen and fallen on their financial performance, and America is no exception. Without better policies, this will be the end of our run as a great power." READ MORE

MULTILATERALISM MATTERS EVEN MORE. Margaret P. Karns, Sais Review of International Affairs, Summer-Fall 2008, pp. 3-15. "The next U.S. president will face a world in which multilateral institutions and diplomacy matter far more than at any time in the past. This importance arises from the nature of many contemporary issues, the proliferation in number and importance of nonstate actors, and the evolution of international diplomatic practice with the growth of multilateralism and pieces of global governance. This article addresses the broad need for U.S. foreign policy under the next administration to be more oriented toward multilateralism than it has been in recent years. In addressing this need, however, the next U.S. president will face a significant challenge in rebuilding US credibility, goodwill and soft power lost during the Bush administration. Symbolic gestures, words, and actions early in the new administration will be essential in demonstrating the United States’ commitment to international law and organizations." READ MORE

The Wars

STRIKING THE BALANCE: THE WAY FORWARD IN IRAQ. John A. Nagl, Brian M. Burton, World Policy Journal, Winter 2008/09, pp. 15–22. "Late in the presidential race, after Senator John McCain suspended his campaign in the wake of the financial crisis, Senator Barack Obama remarked, 'A president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time.' Indeed, an administration’s ability to balance competing demands is essential— especially in conducting effective foreign policy at a time when the nation is involved in two wars. The key foreign policy balancing act that President Obama will have to perform will be preserving security progress in Iraq while drawing down the U.S. military forces there in order to reinforce Afghanistan." READ MORE

ROBOTS AT WAR: THE NEW BATTLEFIELD. P.W. Singer, The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2009, pp. 30-48. "It sounds like science fiction. but it is fact: On the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, robots are killing America's enemies and saving American lives. But today's PackBots, Predators, and Ravens are relatively primitive machines. The coming generation of 'war-bots' will be immensely more sophisticated. and their development raises troubling new questions about how and when we wage war." READ MORE

REFLECTIONS ON THE IRAQ WAR: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. Bing West, Orbis, Winter 2009, pp. 54-64. "Our foreign policy elites, the press, our elected representatives and the general public internalize 'lessons' from each war, although the lessons may be wrong or misapplied. How we arrive at such consensus lessons is a mystery. It is too early to predict what lessons from Iraq will guide future U.S. decision-making. But on the situation as it now stands, it is possible to make some broad generalizations concerning what went right in Iraq and what went wrong." READ MORE

Democracy & Development

FRAGILE STATES: SECURING DEVELOPMENT. Robert Zoellick, Survival, December 2008, pp. 67-84. "Fragile states are the toughest development challenge of our era. But we ignore them at our peril: about one billion people live in fragile states, including a disproportionate number of the world's extreme poor, and they account for most of today's wars. These situations require a different framework of building security, legitimacy, governance, and the economy. Only by securing development - bringing security and development together to smooth the transition from conflict to peace and then to embed stability so that development can take hold - can we put down roots deep enough to break the cycle of fragility and violence. Currently, we face critical gaps in our international capabilities to secure development." READ MORE

Democracy in the Middle East

THE INFORMATION CONFRONTATION WITH RADICAL ISLAM. Thomas R. McCabe, Orbis, Winter 2009, pp. 99-121. "Information has emerged as a critical—potentially the decisive—front in both the global war with violent radical Islam and the overlapping but so far largely unadmitted Cold War with nonviolent radical Islam. In fact, the information front is undoubtedly the closest thing that al Qaeda has to a strategic center of gravity. Unfortunately, America faces an extremely hostile information environment in the Middle East and al Qaeda has proven far more effective at getting its message across than has the United States. A more effective U.S. information strategy would be one that stresses three themes: a democratic critique of radical Islam; an Islamic critique of radical Islam; and a critique of the crisis in Middle Eastern civilization. While these will not necessarily make the U.S. or its policies more popular, they may drive a wedge between radical Islam and potential supporters." READ MORE

IS THE ARAB WORLD IMMUNE TO DEMOCRACY? Volker Perthes, Survival, December 2008 , pp. 151-160. "The debate over whether the political development of the Arab world is exceptional has been going on since before the collapse of the Eastern bloc governments. Arguments and approaches based in economic or cultural determinism, or even conspiracy theory, were adduced to explain the exceptional condition of the Arab world: Western schemes for domination, oil, Islam or simply 'the Arab mind'. Instead of resorting to such essentialism, we should rather attempt to uncover forces that improve or decrease the chances for political reform or democratisation in the Arab states and Iran. Though outside powers cannot successfully engage in social and political engineering in the states of the region, Western actors can decide whether they want to make life more difficult for their actual and potential partners in the region by making them the object of their policies, or whether they want to make their task easier through credible political, societal and economical engagement." READ MORE

US Society

McCULTURE. Aviya Kushner, The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2009, pp. 22-29. "As a child, I lived in a house where we spoke only Hebrew. I remember relatives from the American side of the family complaining about my parents' language policy when they visited our house in New York. "She'll suffer if she doesn't speak English at home," one worried. "She won't be able to write well enough to get into college:' But something unexpected happened as my Israeli mother sang the Psalms to my siblings and me while we bathed: Empires fell. The Berlin Wall literally came down. Droves of immigrants and refugees--huddled masses who had long yearned to be free--changed London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York. India rose, China skyrocketed, and four young Israelis invented instant messaging. Bilingual kids like me, toting odd foods at lunch and speaking with their mothers in something unintelligible, were suddenly not the problem, but the glittering future. I did learn to write in English well enough to get into college. So did an entire generation of bilingual writers who discovered that another language rumbling in their ears was an advantage on the page, a double richness. For a third of the 21 writers on Granta's 2007 Best Young American Novelists list, English is a second language." READ MORE

REGULATING TOXIC CHEMICALS: DO WE KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT CHEMICAL RISKS? Jennifer Weeks, The CQ Researcher, January 23, 2009, pp. 49-72. "Chemicals are integral to many everyday products, from electronics and toys to building materials and household goods. But environmental, health and consumer advocates say the agencies responsible for protecting Americans from exposure to harmful chemicals are allowing too many dangerous substances into the market without testing them for toxicity. Some goods, such as medicines, are tested for safety before they can be sold, but many common products do not go through premarket safety screening. Many concerns focus on infants and young children, who are especially sensitive to toxic hazards. Chemical manufacturers say the existing regulatory system works effectively and can be tightened to address new concerns, but critics argue that a precautionary approach — which would require producers to show that materials are safe before they can be marketed — would protect consumers more fully." READ MORE