Foreign Affairs articles from July 2008

Foreign Affairs archives from July 2008

Rethinking the national interest: American realism for a new world.(The New American Realism)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... WHAT IS the national interest? This is a question that I took up in 2000 in these pages. That was a time that we as a nation revealingly called "the post-Cold War era." We knew better where we had been than where we were going. Yet monumental...

The new Israel and the old: why gentile Americans back the Jewish state.(Essays)
July 1, 2008... ON MAY 12, 1948, Clark Clifford, the White House chief counsel, presented the case for U.S. recognition of the state of Israel to the divided cabinet of President Harry Truman. While a glowering George Marshall, the secretary of state, and a...

China's Olympic nightmare: what the games mean for Beijing's future.(Essays)
July 1, 2008... ON THE night of July 13, 200l, tens of thousands of people poured into Tiananmen Square to celebrate the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing. Firecrackers exploded, flags flew high, and cars...

A partnership of equals: how Washington should respond to China's economic challenge.(Essaysandrea)
July 1, 2008... TO BE an economic superpower, a country must be sufficiently large, dynamic, and globally integrated to have a major impact on the world economy. Three political entities currently qualify: the United States, the European Union, and China....

In the tank: making the most of strategic oil reserves.(Essays)
July 1, 2008... SINCE THE Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s, the United States has spent nearly $50 billion (in today's dollars) to build and maintain a huge strategic stockpile of crude oil Stored in underground salt domes along the coasts of Louisiana and...

The future of North America: replacing a bad neighbor policy.(Essays)
July 1, 2008... ON JANUARY 20, 2009, Knot before, a new national security adviser will tell the incoming president of the United States that the first two international visitors should be the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico. Almost every...

Building a new Atlantic alliance: restoring America's partnership with Europe.(Essays)(Essay)
July 1, 2008... THIS SPRING's NATO summit in Bucharest marked the end of President George W. Bush's stewardship of the transatlantic alliance. This year, Germany, not the United States, played the role of NATO power broker. All the key NATO foreign ministers...

Democratization and its discontents: should America push political reform in the Middle East?(Freedom's Unsteady March: America's Role in Building Arab Democracy)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... Freedom's Unsteady March:America's Role in Building Arab Democracy. BY TAMARA COFMAN WITTES. Brookings Institution Press, 2008, 176 pp. $26.95. Beyond the Facade: Political Reform in the Arab World EDITED BY MARINA OTTAWAY AND JULIA...

Shortsighted statecraft: Washington's muddled Middle East policy.(A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East. BY LAWRENCE FREEDMAN. PublicAffairs, 2008, 569 pp. $29.95. There is a feature of my seminars on U.S. Middle East policy at Princeton that I call "deja vu all over again"--with...

Present at the re-creation: a neoconservative moves on.(The Return of History and the End of Dreams)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... The Return of History and the End of Dreams. BY ROBERT KAGAN. Knopf, 2008, 128 pp. $19.95. If a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality, as Irving Kristol once said, what is a neoconservative who gets mugged yet again?...

Terror and the law: the limits of judicial reasoning in the post-9/11 world.(Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror. BY BENJAMIN WITTES. Penguin Press, 2008, 277 pp. $25.95. Lawyers and courts have become a central part of the Bush administration's "war on terror." The Justice Department's...

Is ethnic conflict inevitable? Parting ways over nationalism and separatism.(Responses)
July 1, 2008... Better Institutions, Not Partition Jerry Muller ("Us and Them," March/April 2008) tells a disconcerting story about the potential for ethnic diversity to generate violent conflict. He argues that ethnic nationalism--which stems from a...

When to leave Iraq: today, tomorrow, or yesterday?(Responses)
July 1, 2008... Walk Before Running In "The Price of the Surge" (May/June 2008), Steven Simon correctly observes that the Sunni turn against al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), known as the Sunni Awakening, has been a key factor in security progress during the period...

Revolutionary Road? Debating Venezuela's progress.(Response)
July 1, 2008... How Chavez Has Helped The Poor When President Hugo Chavez was first elected, in 1998, his critics, many of whom have published in these pages, argued that he would slowly move Venezuela away from democracy. After 12 elections, including the...

Does Osama still call the shots? Debating the containment of al Qaeda's leadership.(Response)(Osama Bin Laden)
July 1, 2008... The Reality of Grass-Roots Terrorism I am compelled to respond to Bruce Hoffman's review essay, "The Myth of Grass-Roots Terrorism" (May/June 2008), in which he substantially misrepresents my new book, Leaderless Jihad, ignoring all of its...

Foreign affairs bestsellers: the top-selling hardcover books on American foreign policy and international affairs.(Bibliography)
July 1, 2008... 1. The Post-American World. FAREED ZAKARIA. Norton, $25.95. 2. The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century. STEVE COLL. Penguin Press, $35.00. 3. Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. BENAZIR BHUTTO. Harper,...

Emerging emirate takes center stage.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... When Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi was appointed Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler in 2003, Ras Al Khaimah entered a new chapter in its history, one that placed it firmly on the road to a bright future. Turning his visionary gaze, keen economic...

Shaping the Emirates' northern star.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... For many centuries, Ras Al Khaimah's strategic location at the northern tip of the United Arab Emirates, coasting the Strait of Hormuz and neighboring Oman, has made it a prime trading destination. Given this natural advantage, the Crown Prince...

The Gulf's new investment magnet.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... "The transparent and proactive business culture promoted by Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Oasimi has captured the attention of big-ticket global investors who are now queuing up to make RAK their manufacturing base," says Dr. Khater Massaad, CEO of...

Tantalizing projects set Rak apart.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)(RAK Properties real estate development projects)
July 1, 2008... If there is one image that the term 'emirate' evokes in people is that of luxurious skyscrapers and innovative land reclamation projects. For many of the UAE's burgeoning years, the ideology fostered by Dubai and Abu Dhabi within the...

Making a difference in tourism.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... "Ras Al Khaimah is a haven of peace where age-old traditions and modern life coexist in harmony." This accurate description by Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi connects well with tourism developers eyeing the Arabian Peninsula's potential. Both...

Charting the future of RAK's education.(Ras Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... A believer that the development of human capital is key to sustaining a competitive economy, Sheikh Saud has embedded education and professional training in the heart of the emirate's master plan. "We have been sponsoring education at all...

Banking on RAK's natural resources.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whereas most of the United Arab Emirates' riches stem from oil, Ras Al Khaimah has always been blessed with natural minerals from its mountains. Today, RAK's quality raw materials are feeding the Dubai and Abu Dhabi...

RAK: personalizing life sciences.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)(health care services)
July 1, 2008... In all the world's nations, irrespective of culture, class, or religion, life is undoubtedly a person's most important asset. Every benevolent ruler therefore makes his people's well-being a personal crusade, for without healthy citizens, a...

RAK to regain its status as the region's transport hub: reoccupying an age-old position.(Ras Al Khaimah: A Rising Star)
July 1, 2008... Throughout the ages, Ras AI Khaimah has always been a central junction for travelling traders. In recent years, the emirates rising international profile has also started to attract a wider base of business visitors and tourists. But by 2012,...

Cameroon: at the crossroads.(Sponsored Section)
July 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In two years, Cameroon will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence. Those with long memories will recall that Cameroon became an independent nation in January 1960 amid a great deal of uncertainty--new...

Barbados: a new approach to excellence.(Sponsored Section)(Prime Minister David Thompson underlined a pro-growth strategy )(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Sweeping into victory in last January's elections, David Thompson's Democratic Labor Party (DLP) won 20 of the 30 Parliamentary seats indicating a clear vote for change by the Barbados people. Nevertheless, the makeover is not drastic for those...

Making tourism everybody's business.(Barbados: A New Approach to Excellence)
July 1, 2008... Not so very long ago, Barbados' political leaders had a revelation, a true Eureka moment. Human resources, traditionally the country's most valued asset, could be enhanced in an exciting new approach to promoting the island. Minister of Tourism...

New opportunities on board.(Barbados: A New Approach to Excellence)
July 1, 2008... There are plenty of opportunities for the discerning investor who wants to be associated with a quality destination. One of the most recent is the government's call for an expansion and improvement of the island's marina infrastructure. As the...