THE FUTURE OF
EUROPEAN DEFENSE POLICY. Pierre-Henri
d'Argenson, Survival, October 2009, pp 143 -
154. "Although ESDP has made
considerable progress in the past ten years,
it will soon have to make choices on its
final aims: either to make the European
Union a subcontractor of international
security or to become the major instrument
of the EU's strategic interests in the
world. In any case, EU states should
preserve ESDP's specific nature among other
EU policies if they want to secure its
future, as it would lose its value if
diluted in institutional machinery
incompatible with the moral and operational
requirements of military engagement."
READ MORE
THE NEW
PROBLEM OF ARCTIC STABILITY. Margaret
Blunden, Survival, October 2009 , pages 121
- 142. "There is growing
recognition of the new strategic
significance of the Arctic. Tensions have
been rising between Russia and the four
other Arctic Ocean littoral states as
climate change alters the region's
geostrategic dynamics. There are unresolved
disputes among the four NATO members, the
fault lines between the NATO states on the
one hand and Russia on the other appear to
be deepening, and the sense of common space
is under pressure. Military conflict, while
not likely, cannot entirely be ruled out.
There is a risk that the overall strategic
objective of maintaining stability could be
forgotten. Growing military activity, closer
security coordination among the Western
states, and inflammatory rhetoric could set
off a vicious circle, jeopardising the
wide-ranging collaboration put in place
since the end of the Cold War."
READ MORE
OBAMA's MISSILE DEFENSE CHANGE SHOWS DIFFERENT TARGETS. Tomas Valasek, Yale Global, September 21, 2009, var. pp. "Obama’s decision not to build a missile defense base in the Czech Republic and Poland presents new challenges and risks to the European theater. First, according to Director at the Center for European Reform Tomas Valasek, it risks rewarding Russia for its truculence in the hopes of getting the country to support the US in tempering Iran. Second, while the plan to use a sea-based shield may better protect Europe from Iranian launched missiles – as a defense to intercept shorter range missiles is now likely to be deployed – the plan risks exposing Poland and the Czech Republic to greater Russian influence. But Poland has already prepared for what it viewed as an inevitable cancellation of the missile defense base, so this worry may overstate the risk. Scrapping the base appears to make economic sense too given that the technology was unproven. The next step – still some months off – is for the US to show its continued commitment to Eastern Europe while still smoothing the way for Russia to cooperate on Iran." READ MORE
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: GETTING BACK TO BASICS. Michael G. Mullen, Joint Force Quarterly, no. 55, Fourth Quarter 2009, pp. 2-4. "Adm. Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, writes that in the world of communication, “the lines between strategic, operational, and tactical are blurred beyond distinction . . . we have walked away from the original intent.” He notes that our biggest problem is credibility, because the U.S. has not invested the time and resources to build trust or deliver on promises. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have become effective at governance, and in doing so, they erode the legitimacy of the Afghan government. He says that strategic communication problems are really “policy and execution problems -- Each time we fail to live up to our values or don't follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are.” The irony, says Mullen, is that we know better, and have only to look at our past – the post-World War II Marshall Plan did not need a “strat comm” plan or public opinion poll to rebuild Europe. Mullen is an avowed fan of Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea, who has built schools for girls in the Panjshir Valley of Pakistan. Mullen writes that we “must also be better listeners -- the Muslim community is a world we don't fully -- and don't always attempt to – understand.” READ MORE
HOW TO MEASURE THE WAR. JUDGING SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN COUNTERINSURGENCY. Jason Campbell, Michael E. O'Hanlon and Jeremy Shapiro, Policy Review, October/November 2009, pp.15-30. "How to tell if a counterinsurgency campaign is being won? Sizing the force correctly for a stabilization mission is a key ingredient — and it has been the subject of much discussion in the modern American debate. But in fact, there is no exact formula for sizing forces. Even if there were, getting the numbers right would hardly ensure success. Troops might not perform optimally if poorly prepared for the mission; the security environment might pose too many daunting challenges for even properly sized and trained forces to contend with; indigenous forces might not be up to the job of gradually accepting primary responsibility for their country’s security themselves; and the politics of the country in question might not evolve in a favorable direction due to the actions of internal or external spoilers. So to know if we are being successful, we must also track and study results on the ground." READ MORE
PAY TO PLAY. Bruce Slawter, American Interest, September-October 2009, "The U.S. commercial nuclear power industry has languished for years, notes the author, a result of huge cost overruns on plants built in the 1970s and 1980s, and of notable accidents such as those at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The decline of expertise and research in the U.S. nuclear power industry is now translating into erosion of our ability to influence nonproliferation internationally, notes Slawter, as other countries, notably France, Japan, Russia and now China surpass the U.S. in certain areas of reactor development. Slawter notes that what is emerging is a “pay-to-play” arrangement -- in order to be recognized as a nuclear authority, countries have to invest in their own nuclear technology. He notes that President Obama has become increasingly pragmatic with respect to nuclear power, which will put him at odds with many of his Democratic supporters. In order to maintain the U.S. lead in safety and nonproliferation, Slawter writes that the Obama administration should redouble its efforts in conjunction with France and Japan to develop new-generation reactors, conduct further research into closing the nuclear fuel cycle, and strengthen existing international frameworks, and provide a global fuel repository, so that countries aspiring to nuclear energy do not develop a nuclear fuel cycle on their own." READ MORE
THE WOMEN’S CRUSADE. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, New York Times Magazine, August 23, 2009, pp. 28-39. "In many parts of the world, women are routinely beaten, raped or sold into prostitution; they are denied access to medical care and education, and have little or no economic and political power. Changing that could change everything, write the authors, saying that “the oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time.” Their liberation could help solve many of the world’s problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism. The United Nations has estimated that there are five thousand honor killings a year, the majority in the Muslim world, while one percent of the world’s landowners are women. Still, they note that things are changing; educating girls and empowering women can help fight power and extremism. For example, in Egypt, 98% of people say they believe that “girls have the same right to education as boys.” This is one of a series of articles in a special issue of the magazine entitled Saving The World’s Women." READ MORE
HILLARY'S CHALLENGE. WOULD PUTTING WOMEN FIRST MAKE FOR BETTER FOREIGN POLICY? Michelle Goldberg, The American Prospect, Jul/Aug 2009, pp.23-26."[...] as Clinton attempts to advance women's rights in other areas of foreign policy, including those that haven't traditionally put much emphasis on gender, such as peace and security and agricultural development. Despite her deep personal convictions, the supportive political environment, and the growing consensus about the importance of women's rights to global development, she is going to face real obstacles. American conservatives are determined to fight not only international family planning but also multilateral treaties on women s rights. Fundamentalists in Muslim countries often react furiously to attempts to empower women and accuse local feminists of being agents of Western imperialism, which complicates American efforts to bolster them. And Clinton is going to have to contend with a State Department culture that isn't used to paying much attention to women's issues." READ MORE
Bowden, Mark. THE STORY
BEHIND THE STORY. Atlantic Monthly, October
2009.
Unbiased journalism is being replaced by the
work of “political hit men,” Bowden says,
citing the televised treatment of Judge
Sonia Sotomayor after she was nominated by
Obama for the U.S. Supreme Court. The
information on Sotomayor -- specifically the
“make policy” and “Latina woman” comments --
wasn’t uncovered by journalists, but simply
reprocessed by television news rooms from
conservative web sites. The conservative
Judicial Confirmation Network had gathered
an “attack dossier” on each of the
prospective Supreme Court nominees and had
fed them all to the networks in advance,
Bowden says. He decries the demise of the
disinterested newspaper reporter: “What gave
newspapers their value was the mission and
promise of journalism -- the hope that
someone was getting paid to wade into the
daily tide of manure, sort through its
deliberate lies and cunning half-truths, and
tell a story straight.”
READ MORE
Rieder, Rem. DAYDREAM
BELIEVERS. American Journalism Review,
August/September 2009. “America has become a country filled with
people who stubbornly continue to believe
what they want to believe, regardless of the
facts,” says Rieder, using as examples the
persistence of people who refuse to believe
Obama was born in the United States and
those who believe that there are in fact
provisions for “death panels” in health-care
reform proposals. This situation makes it
all the more critical for journalists to go
beyond the “he-said, she-said” reporting of
the past and not hesitate to reach firmly
expressed conclusions –- with fairness, of
course. Mainstream journalism has long been
uncomfortable about making and expressing
conclusions, but according to Rieder, “as
long as that conclusion is based on
carefully reported evidence, not ideology,
there's no good reason not to do it.”
READ MORE
Gause, F. Gregory III ISLAMISTS AND THE GRAVE BELL. National Interest, September/October 2009. The author, professor of political science at the University of Vermont and currently visiting professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, writes that the recent elections in Lebanon and the events surrounding the elections in Iran have led many U.S. opinion-makers to argue once again that democracy in the Middle East will lead to the decline of Islamist regimes due to popular opposition. Gause notes that if most Arab countries had true democracy, Islamist parties would gain even more ground, in countries with authoritarian regimes that are U.S. allies. He believes that our interests are best served by promoting civil society in those countries whose leadership is resistant to change; the U.S. must walk a fine line between its desire to promote democracy, and its interests that are not always best served by pushing for elections in the Middle East. READ MORE
Rubin, Michael Rubin. LISTENING TO FREEDOM'S
VOICES. Commentary. September 2009,
pp. 63-65. 'Opponents of Bush's
emphasis on democratization in the Middle
East adopted two strategies during his time
in office. The first, employed by those
within the administration who found his
idealism imprudent, was to play down the
extent of repression in a given autocracy.
"There's one dramatic difference between
Iran and the other two axes of evil, and
that would be its democracy," Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the
Los Angeles Times in 2003. 'You approach a
democracy differently." Thus, rather than
promote civil society or unleash forces that
might lead to a velvet revolution in the
Islamic Repubic, Armitage led a thinly
veiled insurrection against democratization,
hampering implementation of the
administration's own Middle East Partnership
Initiative and, in many cases, blocking
discharge of its Iran Democracy Fund.
The second strategy, voiced more broadly in
both the academic and foreign-policy
communities, based itself on cultural
relativism. "Arab societies lack certain
dispositional prerequisites for democracy,"
wrote Adam Garfinkle in a smart essay in the
National Interest. "Perhaps in our
desperation to achieve absolute security in
a newly perilous world, we are distorting
the social history of democracy and
misreading the nature of the societies whose
political virtue we mean to raise up." Juan
Cole, president of the one-man Global
Americana Institute, tarred democratization
as "neocolonialism."'
READ MORE
