January 2009 - After seven years and the deaths of more than a thousand American and coalition troops, there is still no consensus on whether the future of Afghanistan matters to the United States and Europe, or on what can realistically be achieved there. According to CNAS experts Nathaniel Fick, David Kilcullen, John Nagl, and Vikram Singh, "Afghanistan does matter."
An important new book titled Difficult Transitions by Kurt M. Campbell and James B. Steinberg. Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power is a bipartisan guide for incoming presidents and their foreign policy teams who seek to survive the landmines and booby traps that await them.
America’s military intervention in Iraq has catalyzed major changes in the Middle East, but the ramifications of its military campaigns around the world, particularly in Asia, remain understudied. This is most evident in China where strategists and policymakers are attempting to articulate how Chinese power and influence should be exerted in this strategic environment. Chinese officials, strategists, and academics have followed the Iraq war very carefully; however, their views have yet to be thoroughly explored.
America’s military intervention in Iraq has catalyzed major changes in the Middle East, but the ramifications of its military campaigns around the world, particularly in Asia, remain understudied. Throughout major capitals in Asia discussions relating to America’s staying power and influence are becoming more pronounced.
Many of these debates are playing out in India, where strategists and policymakers grapple with similar security challenges in Pakistan. As Pakistan teeters on the edge of disaster, India is faced with the blowback of Islamabad’s inability to control terrorist groups within its own borders and the prospects of outward proliferation of nuclear technologies to rogue regimes or non-state actors. Despite these grave security challenges, an adequate assessment of how America’s involvement in Iraq has shaped Indian strategic assessments and policies has not occurred.
America’s military intervention in Iraq has catalyzed major changes in the Middle East, but the ramifications of its military campaigns around the world, particularly in Asia, remain understudied. Throughout major capitals in Asia discussions relating to America’s staying power and influence are becoming more pronounced.
When the Berlin Wall collapsed on November 9, 1989—signaling the end of the Cold War—America and the West declared victory: Democracy and free markets had prevailed and the United States emerged as the world’s triumphant superpower. The finger-on-the-button tension that had defined a generation was over, and it seemed that peace was at hand.
While the concept of “peak oil” – the notion that the world is running out of oil – remains controversial, it is certainly realistic to think ahead about the national security and foreign policy consequences of a world in which there is not enough oil supply to meet demand. In a September 2008 CNAS working paper, Wall Street Journal reporter Neil King, Jr., addresses this issue.
