6 Items

Protesters shout slogans as they carry pictures of President Bashar Assad and national flags, during a demonstration to show their support for the Syrian President, in Beirut, Lebanon, June 11, 2011.

AP Photo

Journal Article - World Affairs

Fool Me Twice: How the United States Lost Lebanon—Again

| May/June 2011

"For the second time in three decades, a substantial American investment of time, money, and effort to strengthen the Lebanese government and support its fledgling democracy has come to very little. Hezbollah, Tehran, and Damascus now dominate the country’s intractable domestic politics. US diplomacy is left powerless, wondering how to make the best of an increasingly untenable situation in the Levant."

A view of Iran's unfinished heavy water nuclear facilities near Arak, Jan. 15, 2011. Several international envoys visited this nuclear site as part of a tour that Iran hopes will build support before a new round of talks on its nuclear activities.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Foreign Affairs

The Dangers of A Nuclear Iran: The Limits of Containment

| January/February 2011

Iran's acquisition of a nuclear bomb would upend the Middle East. It is unclear how a nuclear-armed Iran would weigh the costs, benefits, and risks of brinkmanship, meaning that it could be difficult to deter Tehran from attacking the United States' interests or partners in the region.

A U.S. dollar on a renminbi (RMB) banknote is seen through a magnifier in Fuyang, China, 14 Oct. 2010. The value of the RMB hit new high against U.S. dollar as the central parity rate of the RMB was set at 6.6582 per U.S. dollar.

AP Photo

Report - Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments

Understanding America's Contested Primacy

| 2010

"A rigorous assessment should consider the strengths and weaknesses of the United States' putative competitors on the global scene as well as the enduring strengths and sources of resilience that have enabled America to extend its primacy and maintain a stabilizing, global hegemonic role against all expectations. There is a need for a framework to inform how US policymakers might think about the problem of developing strategies and policies to extend that role yet again, since it is at least an arguable proposition that rather than a multipolar world, the global system, after the current Great Recession passes, will continue to be unipolar but with some additional challenges for US leadership."

Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, right talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, during their meeting in 10 Downing Street, central London on June 7, 2010.

AP Photo

Journal Article - American Interest

A Special Relationship in Jeopardy

| July/August 2010

"...[A]ll this shows is that a special relationship need not be an antiseptically harmonious and boring one to still be special. On the contrary: What is special, and atypical, is that the relationship has grown rather than suffered from its conflicts. The "long wait" in the nuclear domain was punctuated by a generous British offer of bases for U.S. B-29 bombers and culminated in unprecedented and intensified cooperation in the nuclear arena. Suez precipitated the "golden days" of the Anglo-American relationship under Macmillan, Eisenhower and Kennedy. The twin crises over the Falklands and Grenada did not prevent George Shultz from concluding that the Reagan-Thatcher relationship was "as close as any imaginable between two major leaders." The disputes over Bosnia presaged a deep cooperation in the Kosovo War. One need not look at the "special relationship" through a Panglossian lens to conclude that it has been real and durable, and has made an enormous contribution to the successful conclusion of the Cold War and the effort at maintaining international order in a disorderly post–Cold War world."

This photo provided by Iranian state news agency Fars purports to show an Iranian Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile launching from a site in Semnan, Iran, May 20, 2009. The new advanced missile has a range of about 1,200 miles.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

Defense For a Real Threat

| July 06, 2009

"The East-West Institute released a study in late May by U.S. and Russian "experts" on the Iranian missile threat that concluded the threat "is not imminent and that in any event the system currently proposed would not be effective against it." The next day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, Iran apparently tested a multistage, solid-propellant missile with a range of 1,200 to 1,500 miles, putting much of Europe within range."