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5731. Dangerous Drift: An Interview with the Honorable Robert C. McFarlane

Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
A Robert C. “Bud” McFarlane is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of McFarlane Associates, an international consultancy focused on energy and political risk. In a public policy career spanning more than half a century, he served as a Marine lieutenant colonel, a State Department diplomat, and—most prominently—as National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985. In February 2012, he spoke with Journal editor Ilan Berman about the ongoing international stand-off with Iran, the state of our struggle against radical Islam, and the challenges facing the U.S. in the Greater Middle East.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, and Middle East

5732. Seeking a New Devil in Damascus

Author:
Oren Kessler
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
TEL AVIV–“Better the devil you know than the one you don't.” It's a 500-year old Irish proverb, but to Mideast policy wonks the phrase is instantly identifiable as Israel's decades-long policy toward its nettlesome neighbor Syria. Nearly four decades have passed since the Yom Kippur War, the last conventional conflict between the two states. During that time, Syrian Presidents Hafez and later Bashar Assad kept their frontier with Israel largely quiet, continuing the fight against it via their proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. In Israel's never-ending search for regional stability—and amid uncertainty over who might replace the Assads—that arrangement seemed good enough. When in 2005 President George W. Bush asked Ariel Sharon his thoughts about toppling Assad, the Israeli premier responded with a question of his own: “Are you crazy?” Likewise, when Syrians first rose up against their regime last spring, Israeli officials remained cagey. Asked last March for comment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replied laconically, “Any answer I'll give you wouldn't be a good one.” Shlomo Brom, a former head of IDF strategic planning and an Israeli negotiator with Syria in the 1990s, described Bashar Assad as a “known quantity,” while veteran diplomat Dore Gold urged caution given the volatility caused by anti-government dissent spreading “from the Turkish border down to the Suez Canal.”
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Israel, Lebanon, and Syria

5733. The Transformation of Southeast Asian Terrorism

Author:
Hamoon Khelghat-Doost and Govindran Jegatesen
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
PENANG—One of the major repercussions following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington was new interest in certain regions that were previously regarded as of relatively low importance with regard to terrorism hotspots. Southeast Asia is one such example. The extremely diverse ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic texture of Southeast Asia—coupled with an alarming number of legislative deficiencies—provides a safe haven for many different varieties of extremism. The prevalence of groups such as Abu Sayyaf (the Philippines) and Al-Ma'unah (Malaysia), as well as events such as the 2002 Bali bombing, clearly demonstrate the attractiveness of Southeast Asia as a terrorism hub—and the potential for terrorist activity there. The reasons are obvious. Southeast Asia is home to more than 20 percent of the world's Muslims, making Islamic radicalism a core security challenge for countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Indeed, after knowledge of al-Qaeda's extensive global terrorist network was made public, several extremist groups in Southeast Asia were identified as Al-Qaeda regional partners and terrorist cells. These include Jemmaah Islamiah (JI), Abu Sayyaf, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Islamist separatists of Patani and Laskar Jihad (LJ).
Topic:
Terrorism
Political Geography:
New York, Washington, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia

5734. An Islamo-Bolivarian Revolution

Author:
Joseph M. Humire
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
Jorge Verstrynge's blueprint for leftist-Islamist collaboration—and how it gained global currency.

5735. Mixed Record

Author:
Eric Rozenman
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
Milestones and missteps in the Bush administration's foreign policy record—and Condoleezza Rice's.
Topic:
Foreign Policy

5736. Death Spiral

Author:
Stanley Schrager
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
James Farwell demystifies the how, and why, of our worsening relationship with Pakistan.
Political Geography:
Pakistan

5737. Clumsy Assassins

Author:
Emanuele Ottolenghi
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
Roya Hakakian lays bare Iran's bloody record of state terror.
Political Geography:
Iran

5738. Joshua Cohen: Rousseau: a Free Community of Equals (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)

Author:
Valentin Stoian
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Joshua Cohen's book, Rousseau: a Free Community of Equals interprets Rousseauan political thought with the tools of analytical philosophy. It is part of a wider project of “translating” the works of early modern philosophers into contemporary academic speech. Moreover, together with Rawls's Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy, Cohen's book represents a radical turn in the interpretation of Rousseau's philosophy. Similarly to Rawls, Cohen's book seeks to challenge an older generation of Rousseau's exegetes. Cohen's central thesis is that Rousseau's philosophy does not represent the blueprint for a non-democratic oppressive society. For Cohen, Rousseau is the designer of a deliberative democracy composed of public-minded, free and equal citizens.
Political Geography:
New York

5739. Jeffrey Stout, Blessed Are the Organized. Grassroots Democracy in America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010)

Author:
Daniel Sandru
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Alongside theories of democracy and the evolution of its forms from the 5th century B.C. there is a rich tradition of political reflection. The latter aims to reveal the functioning of such a regime at the often ignored level of common citizens. In the political theory of democracy, researchers distinguish between normative and empirical approaches. However, the above mentioned tradition seems to be less characterised by a methodological approach (be it normative or empirical), theoretical-political in nature, and more anthropologically oriented. In this direction, the most meaningful example seems to be Alexis de Tocqueville's who, although seen as an outstanding theorist of democracy, may also be described as an “excursionist” in search of real, palpable democracy, of a democracy that is being built every day, and whose main promoters are not politicians and government decision-makers but common people.
Political Geography:
America

5740. John Fenwick and Janice McMillan (eds.), Public Management in the Postmodern Era: Challenges and Prospects (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Author:
Jiří J. Šebek
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Applying “postmodern” and “public management” in one sentence, albeit one book title, is a challenge that editors John Fenwick and Janice McMillan acknowledge in their introduction (pp. 3-11) and concluding remarks (pp. 192-212) to this neat book which groups nine essays on public management by subject in the theory, application and resolution sections. The anthology collects essays by Wayne Parsons, Paul H.A. Frissen, Mark Evans, Andrew Massey, David Farnham, B. Guy Peters and Henrik P. Bang. Each author takes a distinctly different approach to solving the puzzle set out by the two editors of the book which belongs to the New Horizons in Public Policy series.