Japanese military Commentary

Tokyo Rising

China’s growing strength is making its neighbors nervous—and less fearful of a fully rearmed Japan.

Tokyo Drift

Japan’s new government wants to transform the country’s foreign policy, including its alliance with America. Will Tokyo and Washington have a falling out?

Loose BRICs

Americans shouldn’t be alarmed by the BRIC summit. The body is just another toothless international grouping, not an attempt to exert hard power.

Disadvantage: Realism

Pragmatic foreign-policy voices are always being upstaged by grandiloquent pronouncements from those promising to stand up to dictators and spread democracy. Too bad that what realists have to say is usually more sensible.

Conservative Columnist: Welcoming an Asian Elephant in Africa

All eyes are on China and its growing involvement in Africa, but India’s expanding relations with African countries have gone largely unnoticed. China’s intentions create anxiety; India’s do not.

Revisiting Iran?

On Tuesday the United States’ agreed to join in talks with Iran and Syria on Iraq’s future. The following are excerpts from The Grammercy Round, titled “Revisiting Iran?”, in the forthcoming March/April issue of The National Interest

ISG: Cut and Hedge

The authors’ political hedging will allow the president to seize on just those elements of the report that would seemingly endorse his most ruinous policy innovation: a troop surge in Iraq.

Foreign Policy, Leverage and Charity

In their new edited volume, Swords and Sustenance, Robert Legvold and Celeste Wallander (1) conclude with an important reminder: "foreign policy is not an act of charity.

Realism: It's High-minded...and It Works

A morality of results trumps a morality of intentions every time.

A STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

When The National Interest was founded in 1985, its editors, Owen Harries and Robert W.

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May 26, 2012