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- National Strategy for Global Development,
Reuben Brigety and Sabina Dewan
- Beyond the 'Reset Button', Samuel Charap
- Pakistani Nuclear Security, Lawrence Korb
- World Powers Must Shift Mindsets, Nina
Hachigian
- A Critical Alliance, Alon Pinkas
- Obama Can't Keep Torture Under Wraps, Ken
Gude
- Why Iran is Not Hitler's Germany,
Lawrence Korb
- Congressional Review of the Defense
Budget, Rudy deLeon
- Clinton Statements on Pakistan, Brian
Katulis
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Reuben Brigety and
Sabina Dewan, "A National Strategy for Global Development," Center for
American Progress, May 19, 2009
Although the United States is the largest national provider of
overseas development assistance, it does not have a comprehensive
strategy to guide the delivery of these resources. The increasing
connectivity among the depravation of essential human needs, state
fragility, regional stability, and U.S. foreign policy interests
suggests that our government must approach development assistance with
coherent and complementary policies.
To do so, the administration should produce a National Strategy for
Global Development.
Click here to
read the full report.
Samuel Charap,
"Beyond the 'Reset Button,'" Center for American Progress, May 20, 2009
When President Barack Obama alights in Moscow in early July for a
summit with President Dmitry Medvedev, he must have more than a
“reset
button” to make real progress in creating a robust relationship
with
Russia. The reset—an attempt to create a productive atmosphere
for
discussion of critical issues—has encapsulated the
administration’s
approach to Russia thus far, and it has for the most part succeeded.
But the reset was an opening tactic, not a long-term strategy.
Click here to
read the full article.
Lawrence Korb,
"The Security of Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons," Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists
, May 19, 2009
Pakistan has a great many political,
economic, and social problems that
prevent it from achieving its full potential. But the majority of the
population wants the duly constituted government to fulfill its
responsibilities to promote the general welfare and provide for the
common defense. They aren't looking to some outside force such as the
Taliban to assume control of the country and solve these problems.
Unlike Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban in Pakistan isn't seen as
a group capable of imposing order on a chaotic situation. Rather, the
Taliban is seen as an organization trying to upset the existing order.
Click here to
read the full article.
Nina Hachigian, "World Powers Must Shift Mindsets," WorldFocus, May 19, 2009
Our national security policies need to
focus on transnational forces
like terrorists, proliferators, global warming, financial crises,
poverty and viruses. These are the forces that are directly harming our
population and sewing chaos around the world. Other strong powers could
well pose a dire threat to America or its interests on a distant day,
and we must be prepared. But at this moment, China, Russia and India
—
not to mention Europe and Japan — are caught along with us, and
every
other country, in these global tornadoes. The best way out is through
collaboration and coordination with them. In this new era, strong
nations will hang together or fail apart.
Click here to
read the full article.
Alon Pinkas, "A
Critical Alliance," Middle East Bulletin interview, May 19, 2009
"Israel's
relations with the United States are a pillar of Israel's national
security. They should not be tampered with, they should not be 'fixed'
because they are not broken and they should be nurtured and lubricated
on a daily basis. I think there is a growing fatigue with the Middle
East in U.S. public opinion, and a lack of understanding of the
complexities in which Israel finds itself. If I were to appeal to
American public opinion and to American decision-making circles, I
would first and foremost highlight the alliance between the two
countries and urge the United States to be a facilitator and a mediator
in the peace process. ... I happen to have a kind of a heretic
view—because I think many people disagree with me—on what's
good for Israel from a U.S. perspective and my conclusion is that if
it's good for the United States, it is almost inevitably good for
Israel. That established, any talk of U.S. 'pressure' on Israel is
usually counterproductive and not really going to produce the desired
results."
Click here to
read the full interview.
Ken Gude, "Obama
Can't Keep Torture Under Wraps," The Guardian Comment is
Free, May 14, 2009
No matter how badly the Obama
administration wants it to, torture
is not going to go away. News just continues to roll out, from a front
line interrogator dismissing torture as the tool of the ignorant to the
return of one of the architects of the Bush administration torture
regime. The Obama administration supplied the big
news this week by reversing its earlier decision to accept a court
ruling and release photographs depicting torture and abuse in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Click here to
read the full article.
Lawrence Korb,
"Why Iran is Not Hitler's Germany," Jerusalem Post, May 14, 2009
Iran is a rational actor seeking to
protect its security and promote its influence throughout the greater
Middle East. Since Iran's interests and those of its Arab neighbors do
not always coincide, these nations are concerned that by acquiring the
bomb, Iran will be able to promote its interests even more
aggressively. The best way to prevent nuclear proliferation in the
Middle East is for the U.S. to make it clear that it will bring these
nations under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. This policy has kept nations
like Germany and Japan from developing nuclear weapons to counteract
the weapons developed by the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War
and by North Korea today.
Click here to
read the full article.
Defense News - Rudy deLeon says preliminary
hearings on the upcoming defense budget are a preview for deeper
Congressional scrutiny: "Right now, the members are gathering more
information, while also trying to figure out the basic politics of all
this... the test for the president's budget will come when the
committees begin their mark-ups and work through the budget decisions."
Chicago Tribune
- Brian Katulis catuions that comments by Secretary Clinton on
Pakistani "abdication" against Taliban operations in Swat may have made
it harder for the government to build indigenous support for action:
"Perhaps the statements took a serious situation a couple of steps too
far, and impeded the natural process of the government responding to a
threat they saw themselves."
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