|
- Advancing Sustainable Security in South
Asia, Brian Katulis
- Our Faustian Bargains in Afghanistan,
Caroline Wadhams, Colin Cookman, and Christina Misunas
- Jordanian-Israeli Relations, Assaf David
- The View from Amman, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al
Hussein
- Impressions from Iraq: Part Three,
Lawrence Korb
- Honoring the Unaccounted and Missing in
Action, Rudy deLeon
- The Changing Climate in India, Andrew
Light, Julian Wong, and Sabina Dewan
- Will Obama Finally Pay Attention to
Sudan?, John Prendergast
- Baghdad Blasts Suggest Internal
Dissension, Brian Katulis
- Blasts Do Not Show Signs of Sectarian
Conflict, Lawrence Korb
- U.S.-Turkey Partnership Critical, Michael
Werz
- Obama Statement on Sudan Fills a Policy
Vacuum, John Prendergast
|
|
|
Brian Katulis, "Advancing
Sustainable Security in South Asia," Center for American Progress,
October 28, 2009
Two key elements are missing at this stage in South Asia policy—a
set
of clearly defined positive goals for the region and more discussion on
India’s important role on regional security dynamics. First,
whatever
choices President Obama makes at the conclusion of his second policy
review on Afghanistan, he should take care to outline a positive vision
and a set of goals that explains a viable end state in the region. The
American people are open to spending more resources if it achieves
tangible results, despite recent warranted skepticism about the war in
Afghanistan. President Obama should make the case that America and its
allies are working to build a sustainable security framework for South
Asia—one that moves beyond the decades of war and violence that
have
claimed millions of lives and been a source of global instability.
Click here to
read the full article.
Caroline Wadhams,
Colin Cookman and Christina Misunas, "Our Faustian Bargains in
Afghanistan," Center for American Progress, October 28, 2009
The
administration appears to be debating between a
population-focused, counterinsurgency strategy that views the defeat of
the insurgency as a necessary condition for stabilizing Afghanistan, or
a counterterrorism strategy that prioritizes targeted special
operations raids and remote Predator strikes on members of the
international Al Qaeda network over the more locally focused Taliban
insurgency.
The administration will have to contend with Afghanistan’s
entrenched powerbrokers and former warlords, regardless of which
approach it pursues. But any strategy must recognize how
counterterrorism cooperation with these figures works at cross purposes
to the simultaneous efforts to build a state capable of resisting the
Taliban insurgency.
Click here to
read the full article.
Assaf David, "Jordanian-Israeli
Relations," Middle East Bulletin
interview, October 28, 2009
There is a dissonance in Jordan—every time Israelis and
Palestinians seem to get close to an agreement, even a draft, two
contradicting approaches emerge among Jordanian elite. On the one hand,
Israeli-Palestinian peace is a Jordanian strategic interest. The way
Jordan sees it, the alternative to peace is further deterioration which
could lead to Israel's completion of the security barrier and the
pushing of the West Bank into the arms of Jordan, similar to what
happened in Gaza. On the other hand, the decision makers still cannot
seem to convey to the trans-Jordanian elite that one of the
implications of an Israeli-Palestinian peace is the settlement of
Palestinian refugees permanently in Jordan.
Click here to
read the full interview.
Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, "The
View from Amman," Middle East
Bulletin interview, October 27, 2009
When we signed our peace treaty with Israel ... we in Jordan hoped the
treaty would not only bring peace to Jordanians and Israelis but also
lay a firm foundation for a just and comprehensive peace in our region.
... Unfortunately, today, we
have not achieved comprehensive peace. The Arab-Israel conflict remains
a source of instability, tensions and hopelessness in the region. So
despite our peace treaty with Israel, we cannot live in a peaceful and
secure neighborhood as long as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict lingers
on. The perpetuation of the conflict affects Jordan and Jordanians and
certainly impacts our relations with Israel. Our bilateral relations
with Israel do not exist in a vacuum. ...This is not a local conflict;
it resonates with 1.57 billion Muslims worldwide; a reality we cannot
ignore. We can no longer afford to postpone or delay or wait it out.
With the commitment of President Obama to peace, there is a unique
opportunity that we all must seize to achieve peace that will ensure
security and stability.
Click here
to read the full interview.
Lawrence Korb, "Impressions from
Iraq: Part Three," Center for American Progress, October 23, 2009
I flew to Camp Victory in a Blackhawk on October 17, 2009, and then
flew around the country in the helicopter over the next four days. The
camp is located at Baghdad International Airport and has between 20,000
and 40,000 people (depending on who you ask), including General Ray
Odierno, the commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, soon to be
renamed U.S. Force-Iraq because we are the only military force still in
Iraq and essentially have been the only force since we invaded.
Click here to
read the full article.
Rudy deLeon, "Honoring the Unaccounted and Missing in
Action," Center for American Progress, October 22, 2009
With American forces engaged in two
theatres of combat, and with the
exceptional sacrifice that is being asked of our service members and
their families, it is appropriate that our country remember those
unaccounted and missing in action and the families that maintain a
respectful and faithful vigil. Those families expect that their country
through its government will provide for a full accounting, and use all
of the resources of the United States and bring these Americans home.
Click here to
read the full speech.
Andrew Light, Julian Wong, and Sabina Dewan, "The
Changing Climate in India," Center for American Progress, October 22,
2009
Most of the attention in the lead up to
the December United Nations
climate change summit in Copenhagen has been focused on the United
States and China—the two biggest annual emitters of greenhouse
gases.
But India may be the country that provides the necessary breakthrough
in international negotiations to help developed and developing
countries reach an agreement. Indian Minister of State for Environment
and Forests Jairam Ramesh is urging the Indian government to commit to
action without the promise of financial and technological assistance,
and subject its domestic efforts to international scrutiny. And this
change of position could not come at a more critical time.
Click here to
read the full article.
John Prendergast,
"Will Obama Finally Pay Attention to Sudan?," Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2009
For the past seven months, U.S.
diplomacy toward Sudan has veered
dangerously in the direction of appeasing Sudan's ruling National
Congress Party (NCP). Since taking power in a 1989 coup, the NCP has
engaged in a systematic assault on the Sudanese people. The use of
starvation as a weapon in Southern Sudan and the genocide in Darfur
have killed nearly two and a half million people. Omar al-Bashir, the
country's president, is the first sitting head of state indicted by the
International Criminal Court. Under his rule, the body count continues
to climb.
Click here to
read the full article.
MSNBC
- Brian Katulis tells Rachel Maddow that recent massive car
bombs in central Baghdad suggest some level of inside cooperation with
the attackers: "If there is an objective, it is to send a message to
whoever is in power that not everyone recognizes them as being in
charge."
Reuters - Lawrence Korb also interprets
the attacks as indicative of internal tensions, but says he does not
see signs of sectarian civil war: "They are not attacking Shiia mosques
for example.. I think there are a group of Baathists who to put it
literally will not be happy unless Saddam Hussein rises from the dead
and takes over again."
Today's Zaman
- Michael Werz argues that the U.S. partnership with Turkey will hold
growing importance as the country's role as a regional power
increases: "Turkey is engaged in
developing its foreign
and domestic policies for the coming decades. Since this foreign policy
and the exercise of Turkish power are tied to a democratic political
process, it will have a lot of contact points with US interests and
policies in the region."
Ask the Expert
- John Prendergast says that the Obama administration's
recent policy statements on Sudan fill a "policy vacuum": "We've been
waiting for President Obama to deliver a policy statement
about what the United States will be doing in Sudan, and in that vacuum
while we've been waiting, he sent a special envoy out there whose done
a lot of things that frankly concern many of us. And the diplomacy that
was undertaken often hurt U.S. objectives regarding peace, rather than
helped them. But now, this policy has been issued, it's a very very
clear ... there are pressures and
there are incentives."
|
|
|
|
