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A Guest Post by Daniel Luban
The current U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is based, in large part, on bringing to bear on the Taliban the “Awakening” strategy used in Iraq. The Awakenings, of course, were the process by which former Sunni insurgents (beginning in Anbar province) turned against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and allied with the [...]
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Does Michael Rubin, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), editor of Middle East Quarterly (published by fellow-hawk Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum), and former consultant to Donald Rumsfeld, the Office of Special Plans (OSP), and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, have some explaining to do?
The prolific writer and oft-quoted “expert” on [...]
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A Guest Post by Daniel Luban
Is there a more frustrating journalist than Jeffrey Goldberg? From his various perches at the New Yorker, New Republic, and now the Atlantic, Goldberg has shown himself to be a talented writer and has done some good work in bringing issues like the settlements to mainstream attention. On the other [...]
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Unlike his friend and former New York Times columnist, Bill Kristol, David Brooks consistently writes very well, often chooses interesting issues to write about, and is sometimes very insightful in a pop-sociological sort of way. Like his television persona, his writings are engaging. He mostly writes about domestic political and social issues, generally stays clear [...]
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A Guest Post by Eli Clifton:
Far-right Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders continues to make regular appearances in the United States despite his—and a number of his American sponsors’—links to the controversial Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (VB) in Belgium.
We wrote about Wilders last month.
Wilders—whose Party For Freedom is the fifth largest in the Dutch parliament—gained notoriety [...]
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Harvard Professor and Realist thinker Stephen Walt looks at eight ways by which the Obama administration, if it wishes, could exert pressure on Israel for concessions on the Palestinian track and the many other “wedge” issues that are likely to separate it from Netanyahu and his new government.
It’s definitely worth the read on his blog [...]
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A Guest Post by Daniel Luban
The last few weeks have been frustrating ones for the foreign policy hawks at National Review and other right-wing strongholds. With President Obama coming off a European tour that garnered largely positive reviews, his administration planning to escalate the war effort in Afghanistan, and hints of reconciliation in the relationships [...]
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The White House formally announced the nomination of Jeffrey Feltman to serve as the next Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, an appointment that raises new questions about whether the Obama administration’s rhetoric of change in U.S. policy to the region will be matched by actions. As recently pointed out by ret. Col. [...]
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I had the opportunity to interview Amb. Charles “Chas” Freeman late last week, and below are excerpts that are somewhat longer than what IPS ran Wednesday.
Appointed two months ago by the Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the body charged with producing analyses on key issues on [...]
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