Strategic Paradigms by Ehsan Ahrari

This dispatch from the London Times is a sad commentary on Pakistan, a country that has been pulled between coups and sporadic emergence of democracy.  Pakistan is also a country where both the civilian political elites and the military have been indulging in an endless competition for ineptness and corruption.   The latest dictator, General Pervez [...]

The confluence of the waning months of the Bush presidency—when the lameduck factor is looming large— the continued insistence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the U.S. set a timetable of withdrawing from Iraq, the Russian invasion of Georgia, and the forced resignation of General Pervez Musharraf—President Bush’s favorite strongman in Pakistan—are creating a new [...]

There is something imprudent about strategic thinkers when it comes to history.  For some reason, for some of them, it has to come to an end when an idea experiences a temporary—but significant—success.  But when that idea appears to fail, they make an equally rash extrapolation, and start talking about the “return” of history.  Francis [...]