Obama can take credit for several foreign-policy triumphs, but he has failed to revive the moribund Mideast peace process. Arguments for why it can’t be done crumble against the imperative of American presidential leadership.
“I do not need to prove anything to anyone,” declared Vladimir Putin. Convinced he is the steward of his country’s future, Putin masters Russia’s history—and seeks to manipulate it.
Obama has emerged as champion of securing vulnerable nuclear materials. Two years after his Washington summit on this arcane but important matter, national leaders will descend on South Korea to track progress and fashion goals for the future.
Mexico’s drug violence is spreading into Central American countries that lack the resources to cope with such dire challenges. The region is in danger of reverting back to turmoil.
No national interest was cited as a rationale for America's Libya campaign; the action was justified solely on humanitarian grounds. This marks a fundamental break with past U.S. policy prescriptions for such military interventions.
The English-language news channel of Al Jazeera consistently is first on the scene of Mideastern developments, and its journalists provide smart analysis of global events. It may be today’s most influential television-news operation.
George Kennan presents a study in paradox. With penetrating scholarship, John Lewis Gaddis explores Kennan’s complex psychology and provides an intellectual history of the Cold War in his comprehensive and wonderfully written biography.
Rockefeller, Lindsay, Scranton—just three of the “moderates” who failed to keep the GOP from the clutches of Goldwater and Nixon. Geoffrey Kabaservice laments their defeat with a wistfulness that obscures from him their true frustration.
America’s strategic response to a nuclear Iran must assume the worst, and prepare for prevention while envisioning a regime of containment and deterrence.
As the Non-Proliferation Treaty enters its fifth decade, President Obama has endorsed the crusade to rid the world of the bomb. But is nuclear zero the right choice? Sagan and Waltz update their landmark debate.
Should Kabul be the focus of Obama’s strategic agenda? Former NIO Pillar argues intervention has devolved into a worthless quagmire. Iraq War veteran Nagl believes we must vanquish al-Qaeda to the borderlands of AfPak.
Chaos and randomness abound. The increasing disorder of our world will lead to a sort of global ennui mixed with a disturbingly large dose of individual extremism and dogmatic posturing by states.
With America mired in two wars and our economy in shambles, the chorus of declinists has returned. But the United States will endure because it is an elastic power.
The National Interest stands for realism in U.S. international relations, a conviction that foreign policy should be based upon real-world considerations—forces, pressures and passions emanating from factors of culture and geography.
Obama’s foreign-policy decisions—from provoking Islamabad to two-timing Beijing to alienating Moscow—lack the strategic long-term thinking the U.S. needs. Hypocrisy and incoherence rule.
