Published in Foreign Policy in Focus (30 Dec 09) – Click on link to read entire article
The real test of President Barack Obama’s dealing with China and Russia will be whether he can persuade them to support U.S. pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear weapons aspirations. Obama is reported to have lobbied China [...]

The real test of President Barack H. Obama’s dealing with China and Russia will emerge in his success to persuade those countries to support the U.S. in pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear weapons aspirations.  Obama has reported to have lobbied China on that issue during his recent visit. He also broached Russia in the recent [...]

On the front page of Saturday’s Financial Times (September 26, 2009) there was a somber looking picture of the American President Barack H. Obama, U.K.’s Premier Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy heading toward a podium to address the world press condemning Iran’s secret uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. The United [...]

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The administration of President Barack H. Obama has started the highly intricate process of developing its own strategy with a bang in different regions of the world.  Here are the ingredients of that strategy: multilateralism, looking for a fresh start—which promises to be substantially different from the preceding administration—search for common ground involving Russia, invitation [...]

The continuing public spat between Hezbollah and Arab states is a mixture of old and new styles of power play.  The “old” part implicitly involves Iran–the chief supporter of Hezbollah–while the new aspect of this power play is between the antiquated monarchies and the nexus between Iran and Hezbollah.  Iran is the “rising power” of [...]

The ongoing positive diplomatic overtures of President Barack H. Obama toward Iran definitely point to a new beginning, but the time has come to go beyond diplomatic symbolism.  Iran is listening, and is sending clear signals that it wants to see concrete policy changes as evidence of America’s earnestness.  Speaking of policy changes, the Obama [...]

There comes a time in the history of nations—even for the lone superpower—when it needs a fresh start.  Today is just that day.  America is going to have a fresh start.  As President Barack H. Obama stated, America is ready to lead the world once again.  This is not an appropriate time to dwell on [...]

The United States is number one in the realms of nuclear and conventional weapons.  Its conventional superiority is so awesome that no nation-state would dare challenge it.  Yet it has no intention of reducing the size of its huge nuclear arsenal. 

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One of the hottest topics of discussion in the United States strategic community is that the neo-conservatives have launched a campaign of “redemption”. For now, the person most active is Douglas Feith, who served as under secretary of defense for policy under former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Feith has written a book, War and Decision: Inside [...]