Recently added articles from The National Interest:
Looming stagnation.(The Color of China)(economy)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Forecasters of the fortunes of nations are no different from Wall Street analysts: hey all rely on the past to predict the future. So it is no surprise that Chinas rapid economic growth in the last thirty years has led many to believe that the country will be able to continue to grow at ...
Expediency of the angels.(on human rights)
Mar 01, 2009; ... The Obama administration will face human-rights issues at every turn in confronting terrorism, insurgency and ethnic cleansing along the arc of crisis from South Asia to Sudan. To tackle these strategic challenges as well as chronic rights abuses, the new administration and nongovernmental ...
Machiavelli revisited.(Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy)(Book review)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Leslie H. Gelb, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (New York: Harper, 2009), 352 pp., $27.99. Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, in their classic work on statecraft, Thinking in Time, tell a revealing anecdote about the early months of the Carter ...
A sit-down with Brent Scowcroft.(The Realist)(Interview)
Jan 01, 2009 ... TNI's editor Justine A. Rosenthal talks with the General about the tasks ahead and advice to be heeded by the incoming Obama admininstration. What are the acute foreign-policy problems Barack Obama will face as he takes office? The tasks ahead are enormous. The ...
Russian roulette.(The Realist)
Nov 01, 2008; ... American democracy is malfunctioning to the detriment of our foreign-policy decision making. The hysterical and one-sided U.S. media coverage of the August war between Russia and Georgia is just the most recent example. Watching the way the American political class sometimes discusses ...
Oil dependence as virtue.(Company overview)
Nov 01, 2008; ... As the strategic and economic value of oil skyrocketed during the first half of this year, many experts declared that the global distribution of power is rapidly shifting to oil exporters--specifically, Russia and the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ....
Afghan awakening.
Nov 01, 2008; ... In September of 2008, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a remarkable statement. He said, "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can. That is why I intend to commission and ... am looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy ...
Standoff at the 38th Parallel.
Nov 01, 2008 ... One Korea John Bolton North Korea is and will remain a threat to the United States and our friends and allies as long as it retains nuclear weapons, which likely means as long as it exists. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has an unequalled record of ...
Iranian Resurrection.
Nov 01, 2008; ... Holding sway over a third of the Middle East and blackmailing 55 percent of the world's oil reserves, Iran is looking more and more like a superpower. Tehran has not achieved this through classic imperialism--invasion and occupation--but rather through a three-pronged strategy of proxy ...
Xenophobia on the continent.
Nov 01, 2008; ... A disturbing new trend is emerging across Europe. Anti-Semitism and xenophobia are on the rise. A growing minority of citizens in several European countries holds unfavorable opinions of Jews. Negative views of Israel, sympathy with the Palestinian cause, rising anti-Americanism, and a ...
The art of Petraeus.
Nov 01, 2008; ... In a lively, ongoing debate, some authors have credited General Petraeus with transforming the United States military and wonder if his success will have long-term impacts. The most visible part of the debate over this legacy concerns whether the future of the United States Army lies in ...
Pakistan postscript.
Nov 01, 2008; ... On August 18, 2008, Pakistan entered the post-Musharraf era. Eventually this new chapter in Pakistan's history may go by another name, but for now what has been discarded is far more obvious than what has taken its place. Today's Pakistan, wracked by unprecedented levels of domestic ...
Israel's fight-or-flight response.(immigration)
Nov 01, 2008; ... Israel, obsessed with the prospect of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian leadership, may inadvertently destroy itself--that is, cease to exist as a coherent Jewish state--without a single shot being fired or bomb blowing up. In particular, overwrought and underexamined fears that ...
Terror in extremis.(Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?)(Book review)
Nov 01, 2008; ... Brian Michael Jenkins, Will Terrorists Go Nuclear? (New York: Prometheus Books, 2008), 457 pp., $26.95. Brian Jenkins does not think we, as a nation, should ignore the risks associated with a nuclear terrorist attack. He does not believe the consequences would be trivial. He ...
The Tao of the Arab center.
Nov 01, 2008; ... Marwan Muasher, The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 336 pp., $30.00. Kenneth M. Pollack, A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East (New York: Random House, 2008), 592 pp., $30.00. ...
Reflections from the Right.
Nov 01, 2008; ... Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War On Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), 688 pp., $27.95. Michael Gerson, Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't) (New ...
Voting blind.(The Realist)(presidential elections)
Sep 01, 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 security, Iranian nuclear weapons, Russia's ...
A realist rally.
Sep 01, 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 century have now discredited themselves. The ...
The Iranian fallout.(Iran's nuclear activities)
Sep 01, 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 (or at least should be) all about ...
The Neocons vs. The Realists.(The Great Debate)(neoconservatism versus realism)
Sep 01, 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 interests. Thus, Hans Morgenthau argued ...