Syndicate content

Ideology

Commentary

Understanding America's Fall

U.S. decline may be inevitable. But that doesn't mean there's nothing Washington can do about it.

Is Burma Turning On China?

How Burma's pivot away from its longtime economic partner debunks the myth of China's diplomatic prowess.

Hamas Out in the Cold?

The Arab Spring has deprived Hamas of its patrons. The organization must adapt quickly to survive.

Essays

Why We Exist

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.

Reviving the Peace Process

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.

Putin and the Uses of History

“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.

Triumph of the New Wilsonism

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.

Night Thoughts on Europe

Europe’s problems go far beyond deflating currency and rising debt. It suffers from a lack of will, a crisis of confidence—and a serious identity problem. The once-great superpower has already fallen. Centuries of predominance slip away.

Chinese Nationalism and Its Discontents

China must choose between kowtowing to domestic nationalism and submitting to a peaceful rise. Lately, nationalist belligerence has ruled the day. Washington is overreacting, encircling China. A latent rivalry ratchets up to dangerous levels.

Blogs

The Campaign and Feckless Foreign Policy Debate

The GOP hopefuls' peurile foreign-policy rhetoric is more than just sordid. It's downright dangerous. 

Taking the Foreigners' Perspective

What others think of America matters. To be a shining city on the hill, others must perceive you as shining.

Never Forget the Iraq War

Learning the many lessons of Operation Enduring Freedom—and making sure America does not repeat its mistakes.

Books & Reviews

Death by Irrelevance

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.

Schemes That Set the Desert on Fire

After WWI, Britain and France made the Arab world the object of history, not its subject. James Barr’s new book shows that the Middle East was born crazy. Later misunderstandings and manipulations were laid atop well-worn grooves.

Lest Ye Be Judged

Enraged bloggers and grandstanding politicians alike denounce the Koran as a glorified terrorist manifesto. Philip Jenkins’s new tome challenges this simplistic logic, analyzing the Bible’s equally—and often shockingly—bloodthirsty passages.

Follow The National Interest

February 12, 2012