The National Interest articles from November 2006

The National Interest archives from November 2006

Democrats, irrelevant.
November 1, 2006... CALL ME idealistic, but I thought the midterm elections could have been an opportunity for a serious debate about the aims and goals of U.S. foreign policy. Sure, the results matter for who gets to call hearings, fill staff positions, oversee...

The meaning of Victory: a conversation with General Franks.(Tommy Franks)(Interview)
November 1, 2006... How should victory be defined? What constitutes victory? I think that is a fundamental question, and it is good for each of us in this country to ask ourselves that from time to time. When we try to decide whether or not we've been...

Defining victory and defeat in Iraq.
November 1, 2006... WHAT WOULD victory in Iraq look like? Many now believe that victory means a friendly, prosperous, self-defending democracy, while defeat means civil war--and the metrics that matter most are thus measures of elections held, Iraqi security...

Forget failure, let's avoid catastrophe.
November 1, 2006... IF "SUCCESS" in Iraq means that the war's benefits outweigh the sacrifice of the American and Iraqi people, then it is no longer possible even to conceive of success in Iraq, let alone achieve it. More than 22,000 Americans have died or...

How bad would a partition be?
November 1, 2006... AN AMERICAN victory in Iraq would entail the establishment of a stable regime that does not develop Weapons of Mass Destruction, support terrorism, export radical Islamism, seek the destruction of Israel or tilt the balance of power toward...

Tempering ambitions.(Iraq war)
November 1, 2006... WHETHER THE Iraqi expedition is judged a success or failure depends almost exclusively on the views of Americans--not those of Iraqis, other coalition partners, or anyone else. So, fellow Americans, let's debate the topic. My take: It was...

Baghdad or bust.
November 1, 2006... THE DECLARED aim of American policy is an Iraq that can "govern itself, defend itself and sustain itself." That is a fine definition of long-term success, but in our present fix, it is too abstract and comprehensive, to say nothing of its...

Focus on the integrity of borders.
November 1, 2006... NEARLY FOUR years into the Iraq War, it has become increasingly clear that the notion of a "successful" outcome requires major revision. Obviously, it is not enough to state that Saddam was deposed and that success already has been achieved. To...

Escape from New York: capital flows overseas.
November 1, 2006... POLITICIANS IN Washington have a tendency to define "national security" in terms of external threats to the country, such as terrorism, and to think of U.S. power as primarily defined by military force. In so doing, they often neglect the...

In defense of primacy.
November 1, 2006... THE MIDTERM elections this November mark the unofficial commencement of the 2008 presidential campaign, and over the next two years, Americans will begin to contemplate and debate the legacy of George W. Bush. Among the more contentious...

The politics of Quagmire.
November 1, 2006... IN POLITICAL terms, the war in Iraq seems to have followed what is now a familiar pattern in American history. A war initially undertaken in a remote location with a majority of the population's support and justified in sweeping and idealistic...

Grasping the nettle: an ethical realist approach to the Middle East.
November 1, 2006... ONE CAN only look on at the ruination of the Bush Administration's Middle East policy with a sort of sick bemusement. In the past year the newly won gains of the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon have literally gone up in smoke. Israel has failed to...

Israel in NATO? A second look.
November 1, 2006... AT FIRST glance, the idea of NATO membership for Israel may sound inconceivable, a proposal hardly worthy of serious consideration. After all, NATO signifies the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Israel, in many ways, is far removed from...

The no-win zone: an after-action report from Lebanon.
November 1, 2006... LEBANON HELD the attention of the world for weeks after a successful Hizballah kidnapping operation on July 12, 2006, led Israel to pummel the country in a sustained air campaign and a limited ground offensive. Almost all observers agreed the...

Transatlantic troubles: are they America's loss?
November 1, 2006... TRANSATLANTICISM, CONCEIVED as a special security bond between the United States and Europe--framed by the NATO alliance, driven by shared threat perceptions and buttressed by common Western values--is in flux. The United States is losing...

The regime change we need.(democratization)
November 1, 2006... IT MAY be lonely at the top, but many presidents around the world wouldn't have it any other way. Western observers are accustomed to the autocratic tendencies of Arab strongmen and African dictators, but elsewhere a new breed of executive is...

"Special" forces: a corps deployed too broadly.
November 1, 2006... THE UNITED States' special operations forces (SOF) have come a long way since their post-Vietnam War decline in doctrinal prominence. During the 1980s, the U.S. defense establishment chose their "national wars of liberation" more carefully. The...

Ambivalent in Amsterdam.(Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), 288 pp., $24.95. THERE HAVE been three major ideological-political movements in the 20th and early 21st centuries which...

East meets East: the Sino-Indian rivalry.
November 1, 2006... I WAS GREETED in March 2006 by Manmohan Singh in a small sitting room in the quite modest prime minister's bungalow in New Delhi. The prime minister of India wore a broad smile, for he had just days before concluded a revolutionary nuclear deal...