Foreign Policy in Focus articles from March 2007

Foreign Policy in Focus archives from March 2007

Keeping all options on the table: a roadmap to negotiation or war?
March 6, 2007... In the light of the passing of the late February deadline imposed by the UN Security Council Resolution 1737 and Iran's refusal to comply, Washington is abuzz with wildly diverse plans regarding how to deal with Iran. Just days after the...

Moving the chains: Congress and the war in Iraq.
March 12, 2007... Throughout most of the past four years, Republicans imposed a moratorium on substantive debate that caused the vaulted chambers of Capitol Hill to function as little more than an echo chamber for the Administration's Iraq policy. Democrats,...

A perfect storm: PTSD.
March 13, 2007... "They fly the flag when you attack, when you come home they turn their back." (Iraq Veterans Against the War cadence) The sole aspect of the Iraq War upon which Americans are united is the need to provide post-deployment mental health...

The Iraqi refugee crisis.
March 14, 2007... With the violence in Iraq showing no sign of slowing down, civilians increasingly suffer. The UN estimates that 2.6 million Iraqis have fled violence in their country since 2003 and at least 40-50,000 more Iraqis are leaving their homes every...

Iraq: the failures of democratization.
March 15, 2007... The failures of Iraqi democratization as advocated by the Bush administration should not be blamed primarily on the Iraqis. Nor should they be used to reinforce racist notions that Arabs or Muslims are somehow incapable of building democratic...

Iraqi women--four years after the invasion.
March 16, 2007... The Humanitarian Crisis Every-day survival is a priority in a context where lack of security goes side by side with incredibly difficult living conditions. The Iraqi infrastructure which was already severety debilitated as a result of...

Another Africa is possible: the World Social Forum.
March 20, 2007... Tens of thousands of activists and advocates from around the globe gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the seventh World Social Forum (WSF) in January. The rallying cry, "Another world is possible," served as a catalyst for debate and mobilization:...

Iraq and the transatlantic alliance.
March 21, 2007... The Iraq War tore at the already frayed fabric of transatlantic security relations. Although European countries declared their solidarity with the United States after September 11, they were increasingly uncomfortable with Washington's emphasis...

Fixing Iraq.
March 26, 2007... Between revenue from oil exports and foreign aid, over $100 billion has been pledged to Iraq's "relief and reconstruction" in the last four years. Yet there is precious little to show for it. About half of this amount is Iraq's own money. The...

Regional implications of the Iraq war.
March 27, 2007... President George W. Bush's vision for the Iraq War was nothing if not expansive. Liberal democracy and popular sovereignty were to supplant tyranny not only in Baghdad, but in nearby capitals as well. And the force of U.S. arms would not be...

Unbalanced security: the divide between state and defense.
March 28, 2007... On February 7, 2007 Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice informed the House Foreign Relations Committee that she had requested 129 military employees to fill State Department positions in support of the President's new Iraq plan. Officials at the...

Budgeting for empire: ambitions outweigh strategy.
March 29, 2007... One might think that given all the stresses and strains on the U.S. military caused by fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the Defense Department would at least be doing its utmost to grasp the geostrategic realities of the day. But the...