Africa

Most policymakers and international relations scholars believe that prestige enhances states’ authority and that states therefore seek prestige. This belief is wrong. Policymakers rely on their feelings of pride and shame about their state to evaluate its prestige rather than analyzing other states’ views. Further, policymakers discount other states’ prestige. States should therefore avoid costly policies designed to enhance their prestige. Evidence from the South African (Boer) War supports these findings.

Dr. Eugene Kogan examines the West's approach to Iran and Syria through the lens of coercive diplomacy. Both cases, he argues, offer a chance to revitalize coercion as a tool of American diplomacy.

"When the new, and pro-American, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, returned France to the NATO integrated command in the spring of 2009, a number of prominent French figures stated their reservations, the most articulate of whom was the former French foreign minister under François Mitterrand, Hubert Védrine. Much later, and more recently, in a report submitted to President François Hollande on Nov. 12, 2012, Védrine stated that although de Gaulle had been right in 1966, the world had changed since. And the United States, especially with the reelection of Barack Obama, had changed. The Americans now want an increased military role for the Europeans."

"Is it really shocking to believe that one day, relatively soon, Morsi's government might be reaching out to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Is it that surprising to realize Arab leaders have the capacity to think as strategically as American ones?"

"Prudence does not mean that nothing can be done in Syria. Other governments can continue to try to convince Russia that its interests are better served by getting rid of the current regime than by permitting the continued radicalisation of his opponents. Tougher sanctions can continue to delegitimise the regime, and Turkey might be persuaded to take stronger steps against its neighbour."

"...[T]he biggest challenge the United States faces today is not a looming great-power rival; it is the triple whammy of accumulated debt, eroding infrastructure and a sluggish economy. The only way to have the world's most capable military forces both now and into the future is to have the world's most advanced economy, and that means having better schools, the best universities, a scientific establishment that is second to none, and a national infrastructure that enhances productivity and dazzles those who visit from abroad. These things all cost money, of course, but they would do far more to safeguard our long-term security than spending a lot of blood and treasure determining who should run Afghanistan, Kosovo, South Sudan, Libya, Yemen or any number of other strategic backwaters."