The National Interest articles from September 2008

The National Interest archives from September 2008

Voting blind.(The Realist)(presidential elections)
September 1, 2008... WE MAY be facing one of the most important foreign-policy elections in recent history. America is not only at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but threatened by short-, medium- and long-term challenges ranging from terrorist attacks to energy...

A realist rally.
September 1, 2008... NOW IS the moment to forge a new, broader, politically potent coalition of realists to shape U.S. foreign policy, if the high priests of the realist camp would only grasp it. The two main alternatives to traditional realism for half a...

The Iranian fallout.(Iran's nuclear activities)
September 1, 2008... IT WOULD be both impossible and foolish to predict what lies immediately ahead for Iran. Will the United States or Israel drop bombs on the country? Will there be more sanctions? Air strikes? Negotiations? Threat assessment and war planning are...

The Neocons vs. The Realists.(The Great Debate)(neoconservatism versus realism)
September 1, 2008... THE FUTURE IS NEOCON TO COMPARE the records of realism and neoconservatism we must first define our terms. Realism consists of two mutually contradictory propositions. One holds that states are bound to behave according to their innate...

The shattered Kristol ball.(foreign policy )
September 1, 2008... TO WHOM should the next president turn for advice on foreign policy: realists or neoconservatives? Given the disastrous results that neoconservative policies have produced since 2001, the answer seems obvious. Yet despite their repeated...

Foreign policy, meet the people.
September 1, 2008... THE OLD adage that partisanship ended at the water's edge, no matter the degree of domestic division, is officially debunked. Especially striking now, this partisanship has penetrated to the level of mass public opinion not only on issues like...

The legend of a democracy promoter.(A First Draft of History)
September 1, 2008... IT'S LEGACY time. As the Bush administration winds down, the race is on to shape how future generations will view the past eight years. The president himself seems keenly aware of the clock, declaring his intention to grab that most elusive...

For God, King and Country.
September 1, 2008... Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight But Battling Bill (who slew him) thought it right. --Hilaire Belloc HILAIRE BELLOC penned this sardonic couplet in those halcyon days before 1914 when, in Europe and North America, "the Peace...

Russia goes ballistic.(Russia's ballistic forces)
September 1, 2008... OVER THE next ten to twenty years, the erosion of American nuclear superiority will have major ramifications for the global balance of power. It will place new constraints on our freedom of action and lead our friends and foes alike to doubt...

A Ticking Bomber.(The Amateur Spy)(The Attack)(The Reluctant Fundamentalist)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Dan Fesperman, The Amateur Spy (New York: Knopf, 2008), 384 pp., $24.95. Yasmina Khadra, The Attack (New York: Anchor, 2007), 272 pp., $13.95. Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (New York: Harcourt, 2007), 208 pp., $14.00. ...

League of demagoguery.(Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century)(The Return of History and the End of Dreams)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 688 pp., $35.00. Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 128 pp., $19.95. ...

Bridge on the river Euphrates.(The Forever War )(Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies)(Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Dexter Filkins, The Forever War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 384 pp., $25.00, Peter W. Galbraith, Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 224 pp., $23.00. Linda...