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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Aspen Institute Author Kurt M. Campbell

1. China's March on the 21st Century

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell and Willow Darsie
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
After a protracted period of uncertainty concerning the nature of the foreign policy challenges that are likely to confront the nation over the course of first half of the 21st century, twin challenges are now coming into sharper relief. For the next generation or more, Americans will be confronted by two overriding (and possibly overwhelming) challenges in the conduct of American foreign policy: how to more effectively wage a long, twilight struggle against violent Islamic fundamentalists, and at the same time cope with the almost certain rise to great power status of China.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, China, America, and Asia

2. Mapping the Jihadist Threat: The War on Terror Since 9/11

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell and Willow Darsie
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously bemoaned the challenges of measuring success in a long twilight struggle with Islamic fundamentalists. There are the “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” that confront the United States in the most unfamiliar set of foreign policy challenges in the country's history. In addition to the difficulties of establishing “metrics” – as Rumsfeld would put it – in our war on terror, there is also the intrinsically related and perhaps more vexing question of how the global ideological virus of Islamic fundamentalism is morphing and evolving. An influential and well-funded cohort of radicalized Islamists, seizing upon an unyielding interpretation of religious text (a kind of Koranic original intent), has been at war with the West for nearly a generation, and the pace of operations globally is accelerating. According to recently released U.S. government reports, there has been a sharp surge in the number of global terrorist attacks in recent years, a tally substantially comprised of incidents initiated by Islamist instigators. Taken in its totality with all its many manifestations, the jihadist challenge stretches from the Taliban strongholds in the rugged Afghan mountains and the dense jungle hideouts of the Philippines, to the ornate mosques of Saudi Arabia, from a quiet neighborhood in Leeds, England to, just possibly, a place near you.
Topic:
Islam, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Middle East

3. Crossing the Atlantic, A Report from the Aspen Atlantic Group 2003 Workshops

Author:
Madeleine Albright and Kurt M. Campbell
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
In two workshops, June 6-8 and July 31-August 2, 2003, the Aspen Atlantic Group and its guests examined avenues for renewed transatlantic cooperation in light of contemporary and cumulative challenges to the relationship. Having conducted a frank and in-depth diagnosis of core differences and commonalities in the first workshop, the second workshop extended its scope to include sessions on specific areas of collaboration such as homeland security and humanitarian intervention.
Topic:
International Relations and NATO
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

4. An American Grand Strategy for the Middle East: A Report of the Aspen Strategy Group

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara was fond of saying that the Middle East was the graveyard of American diplomatic hopes and dreams, and this is a man who knows something about disappointment in global politics (as well as cemeteries). Now, the United States has embarked upon an ambitious mission to remake the Middle East – rebuilding war-ravaged and leader-abused countries in Afghanistan and Iraq, seeking to settle the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, blocking further nuclear proliferation, pushing the region to embrace political moderation and reform, and hopefully improving America's image in the region in the process. There are unintentional though unavoidable echoes of the “best and the brightest” in this campaign as the U.S. embarks upon a global crusade (call it what it is) to help re-direct the course of one of the world's dominant civilizations and the institutions that have served it so poorly. This uniquely American sense of mission and manifest destiny is apparent in a range of endeavors worldwide but it is in the Middle East where U.S. ambitions approach the point of audacity.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Democratization
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Middle East

5. Biological Security Public Health: In Search of a Global Treatment

Author:
Kurt M. Campbell and Philip Zelikow
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
This summary is drawn from discussions held from August 4 to August 8, 2002 in Aspen, Colorado, building on the background research prepared for the participants. For four consecutive days, the Aspen Strategy Group and its guests examined the nexus of bio-logical security and global public health, focusing on national preparedness for biological attack and for new naturally occurring biological dangers, as well as global preparedness to address extreme biological dangers faced by much of humanity. The ensuing summary draws out the pol-icy recommendations from this dialogue, thereby omitting much of the detail and factual exchanges that were also extremely beneficial to all the participants. The participants were a distinguished group, and a list of them follows. They benefited from a thought-provoking and insightful set of papers, to be found in the subsequent sections of this publication.
Topic:
Security, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology