Articles for Center for a New American Security

July 24, 2008 - Ivo Daalder and Anne-Marie Slaughter discuss the challenges the next President will face, "The challenge for the next president is to understand how much has changed and how America can best pursue its national interests in such a different international environment. It isn't just the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have changed the world, nor other aspects of the Bush legacy that have weakened America's power and position. The world itself has changed."

Today, the Center for a New American Security releases a report, "Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy," that sketches the broad outlines of a recommended U.S. national security strategy for the next president of the United States. The centrist but Democratic-leaning CNAS, founded by two former senior staffers of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has existed for a little more than a year. But the report grew out of a project known as the

July 22, 2008- Standing next to a screen illuminating a long list of tips, Maj. Anthony Nichols looked out at the classroom of neophyte military trainers and began a lecture about the ways that fellow soldiers will look down at them while they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other soldiers will call them "undesirables," sent in because they had no other place on the battlefield, the instructor said. Some units will kick military advisers out of security briefings. One recommendation: to "patch

July 23, 2008- An adviser to incoming U.S. Central Command boss Gen. David Petraeus predicts that the general will seek to re-create his Iraqi success in Afghanistan, using many of the same methods that appear to have turned the tide in Iraq over the last 18 months.

July 21, 2008- Can Iraqi troops fight and win on their own? That question has become even more urgent after President Bush, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki all spoke in recent days about setting either vague or specific time frames for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

July 23, 2008- That was the assessment of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in August 1978, at a time when Iran's ruler was America's closest ally in the Middle East. The Defense Intelligence Agency, a month later, predicted that the Shah of Iran, "is expected to remain actively involved in power over the next 10 years."

Derek Chollet writes about the capture of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, "Karadzic's capture is a major event for the Balkans--seeing him behind bars, and watching his upcoming trial unfold at The Hague, will be an important step in healing the wounds created by the Bosnia War. For the relatives and loved ones of the thousands who were massacred in Srebrenica in July 1995 (when Karadzic issued the stunning order to "kill all the men"), or for those living in Sarajevo besieged by S

Senator Barack Obama leaves war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan for stops in Jordan and Israel as he continues his high-profile trip abroad. Diane and her guests assess the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's trip and the McCain campaign's critique of Senator Obama's policy proposals.

After years spent studying counterinsurgency, Lt. Col. John Nagl recently put his knowledge of rebellion suppression into practice while serving in Iraq. Nagl was part of the team that drafted the latest edition of a U.S. Army field manual on counterinsurgency, and he was able to turn his own recommendations into action while in combat.

July 28, 2008- As we've already seen, much of the presidential campaign will be about how the candidates can distance themselves from the foreign and defense policies of the Bush administration. The underlying presumptions are that it is possible to move forward with a substantially new agenda, or return to the halcyon days of the 1990s. But these two new books reveal just how problematic, and probably unrealistic, those presumptions are.

July 21, 2008- Barack Obama's transatlantic trip should remind Europe that it must assume more responsibility for Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan One of the more unusual aspects of the 2008 US presidential campaign is that Europeans seem to be just as engaged and excited as Americans - and in some cases, even more so. Looking ahead to next year, Europeans believe there's one thing they can be certain about: things are going to get better. There's good reason to expect that whether it is Barack O

July 20, 2008- During George H.W. Bush’s last year in the White House, the Pentagon produced a new strategic framework for US foreign policy. Written in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the draft 1992 Defence Planning Guidance spoke with confident clarity. The US should entrench the global hegemony bestowed by the defeat of communism. Friends, as well as adversaries, should be discouraged from aspiring to larger regional or global roles. This was not the mome

Robert D. Kaplan discusses the U.S. role in leading efforts on climate change and sustainability. He argues, "Only by effectively handling Iraq and Afghanistan, the wider war on terrorism and the rising military power of China can a new president build up the political capital to lead the world on climate change and sustainability."

Nathaniel C. Fick, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, is interviewed about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He analyzes the counterinsurgency strategies in both countries.

WTPR talks with Derek Chollet, author of America Between the Wars, about how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9 and the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

Washington Post's Jackson Diehl writes, "Still, there's a better way for Obama to solve his Iraq problem -- one that is honest about the state and stakes of the war but still sharply differentiates him from McCain. What's more, it's a solution dreamed up by Democrats who are among the candidate's advisers on defense. As outlined by Michelle Flournoy, Colin Kahl and Shawn Brimley of the Center for a New American Security, the strategy would focus on the biggest difference between the preside

July 13, 2008 - Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier opine in Sunday's Outlook section. "During the Cold War, Americans grew accustomed to presidents having big, broad doctrines to organize their thinking. Sometimes these were tailored to particular places, such as Jimmy Carter's vow to protect U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf, by force if necessary, after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Other doctrines were more sweeping, such as Harry S. Truman's determination to support free peopl

Atlantic correspondent Robert D. Kaplan takes a fresh look at the legacy of the former secretary of defense.

Atlantic correspondent Robert D. Kaplan takes a fresh look at the legacy of the former secretary of defense.

As the most pro-Israel administration in Washington since Harry Truman enters its last six months in office, Israel faces a strategic choice. Will it use the possible indulgence of the Bush Administration to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or will it wait and face an uncertain future with a new American president?