Asia & the Pacific

>The unspoken hope of many Germans is that their country can keep its head down and thereby escape the attention of Al Qaeda and its associates. Recent attacks by Islamic jihadi terrorists within Europe show why this strategy is destined to fail.

Thomas Wright argues that only America can give the world the leadership it needs.

Since the end of the Cold War, Turkey has moved from the periphery to occupy the very center of Eurasian security. It is a critical participant in NATO and aspires to become a member of the European Union. The pivotal role that Turkey plays in Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Caucasus has profound implications for the international arena and spawns vital debates over the directions of Turkish foreign policy.

A paper by the National Security Advisory Group

The author constructs a U.S. grand strategy based on encouraging the development of benign regional unipolarity in North America, Europe, and Asia to counter the fragmentation and rivalry likely to result as a consequence of America’s waning preponderance.

In this era of American predominance, alliances are more compelling than ever. The United States needs allies to generate capabilities that amplify its power, create a basis of legitimacy for the exercise of its power, avert impulses to counterbalance its power, and steer partners away from strategic apathy or excessive self-reliance.

Thanks to the collapse of European communism, it is possible to envisage a new community embracing most of the states of the Northern Hemisphere. Voters in most of the former Soviet bloc countries have affirmed their commitment to democracy in repeated elections. Because of these elections, especially those in Russia, it is possible to think realistically of creating a Commonwealth of Democracies from Vancouver to Vladivostok to Tokyo.

The authors look from different thematic and national perspectives at current problems of international security, grouped into four large "baskets”: Threats and challenges, new concepts, problems of security in the Euro-Atlantic zone and issues of arms control.