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632. AsiaSource Interview with Under Secretary Nicholas Burns
- Author:
- Nermeen Shaikh
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the Department of State's third ranking official. Prior to his current assignment, Ambassador Burns was the United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As Ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the Alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Asia
633. National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The lack of sustained attention to energy issues is undercutting U.S. foreign policy and U.S. national security. Major energy suppliers—from Russia to Iran to Venezuela—have been increasingly able and willing to use their energy resources to pursue their strategic and political objectives. Major energy consumers—notably the United States, but other countries as well—are finding that their growing dependence on imported energy increases their strategic vulnerability and constrains their ability to pursue a broad range of foreign policy and national security objectives. Dependence also puts the United States into increasing competition with other importing countries, notably with today's rapidly growing emerging economies of China and India. At best, these trends will challenge U.S. foreign policy; at worst, they will seriously strain relations between the United States and these countries.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Middle East
634. China: What's the Big Mystery?
- Author:
- John Feffer
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- The latest recruitment brochure from the Central Intelligence Agency, which beckons the uninitiated to be a part of a mission that's larger than all of us, opens to reveal an image of the red-roofed entrance to Beijing's Forbidden City. From an oversized portrait on the ancient wall, Chairman Mao and his Mona Lisa smile behold the vast granite expanse of Tiananmen Square. The Cold War is over, and the Soviet Union is gone. The cloak-and-dagger games of Berlin and Prague have been replaced by business and tourism. But Chinaland of ancient secrets, autocratic leaders, and memories of suppressed uprisingsstill holds out the promise of world-historical struggle that can help the CIA meet its recruitment goals.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Cold War
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Asia, and Soviet Union
635. North Korea Returns to the Negotiating Table
- Author:
- John Feffer
- Publication Date:
- 10-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- North Korea's decision to return to the negotiating table is a win-win-win situation, at least temporarily. The United States, China, and even North Korea gain from the announcement. However, the boost given to each country—a modest “October surprise” for the Bush administration, a diplomatic achievement for China, and a stronger negotiating position for North Korea—will not carry over into the negotiations themselves. A decision to talk, after all, does not translate automatically into a decision to compromise.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Asia
636. Bush at the UN: Annotated
- Author:
- Stephen Zunes
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- President George W. Bush's address before the United Nations General Assembly on September 19 appeared to be designed for the domestic U.S. audience. Indeed, few of the foreign delegations or international journalists present could take seriously his rhetoric regarding the promotion of democracy in the Middle East, given the reality of U.S. policy in the region.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Democratization, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- United States
637. A View from the Inside: Congressional Decisionmaking and Arab-Israeli Policy
- Author:
- David Dumke
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
- Abstract:
- In the post-Vietnam era, the nature of American politics and the congressional role in foreign policy have been greatly altered. The role of media, money, lobbyists, political parties, the White House, and Congress—as an institution and as individual members—have collectively established a system that allows special interests to shape the narratives of key foreign policy issues and, in turn, manipulate the manner in which Congress asserts itself. The reaction of the 107th Congress to the second Palestinian intifada, which began in September 2000, is a case in point: Congress selectively viewed the conflict through the lens offered by others. The reaction of Congress has little to do with deep-seated bias toward Israel or instinctive hostility toward Palestinians. Rather, for its own reasons—including self-serving political calculations—Congress sided with Israel. As a congressional staff member during this period, I was privy to inside information—letters to and from members of Congress, “Dear Colleague” internal memos, letters from the administration and foreign governments, letters from interest groups pertaining to Middle East policy—and witnessed or participated in numerous conversations and debates about the Middle East. My first-hand source material and experience gave me a unique perspective on the often misunderstood process of congressional decisionmaking.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, Middle East, Israel, Vietnam, Palestine, and Arabia
638. Debunking the 1930s Analogy: Neville Chamberlain's Grand Strategy Re-Examined
- Author:
- Christopher Layne
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The key events of the 1930s Hitler's rise to power, Germany's reoccupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria, Munich and the subsequent German occupation of Prague in March 1939, and the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 transpired some seventy years ago. The events of the 1930s or at least Churchill's depiction of them have provided the standard images that have shaped U.S. foreign policy and scholarly research alike: falling dominoes, insatiable dictators, the interdependency of strategic commitments, the importance of demonstrating resolve, and the impossibility of achieving diplomatic accommodation with nondemocratic regimes. But does the myth track with the historical record? Does the 1930s myth accurately explain British grand strategy in the 1930s? Simply stated, my argument is that the 1930s myth as commonly understood in the United States is bad history, and that its use has contributed importantly to a series of dubious policy decisions by U.S. decisionmakers and still does. As I demonstrate, the British, in fact, were not willfully blind to the German threat or indifferent to the need to rearm to meet it. Rather, during the 1930s, London formulated a quintessentially realist grand strategy that attempted to blend deterrence and diplomacy to contain Hitler's Germany (and Japan and Italy), and defend Britain's interests as a world power by avoiding what, for Britain, could only be a disastrous war.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and War
- Political Geography:
- Britain, United States, Japan, Europe, London, Germany, Italy, and Austria
639. Dangerous Ambitions: The Challenges of Iran and Hamas
- Author:
- Amjad Atallah, David Makovsky, Graham T. Allison, Richard Haass, R. Nicholas Burns, Moshe Yaalon, and Dan Meridor
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- I want to present some thoughts about the way we should look at modern Iran, the threat it poses to the United States, what we can do as Americans to confront that threat, and what your government is doing and should be doing along those lines.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Government, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iran, and Middle East
640. An International Architecture for the Post-Kyoto Era
- Author:
- Robert Stavins and Sheila Olmstead
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In February, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came into force, but without participation by the United States. Its impacts on emissions of greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide (CO) , the primary anthropogenic driver of climate change — will be trivial; but scientific (Robert T. Watson 2001) and economic analyses (Charles D. Kolstad and Michael A. Toman 2001) point to the need for a credible international approach.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Environment, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States