January 2012
4 posts
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The Iran Debate: To Strike or Not to Strike
The cases for, and against, a military attack against Iran to deter its nuclear program. Read the full collection.
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Best Foreign Affairs Print Stories of 2011
From the Arab Spring to the occupation of Wall Street (not to mention Oakland, Tel Aviv, and Homs), 2011 has been a historic year, and Foreign Affairs expert contributors have been providing indispensable context and insight every step of the way. A handful of gems from the past year.
December 2011
23 posts
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Best Foreign Affairs Web Stories of 2011
The year began with the Arab Spring and ended with a dent in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s armor. There were big budget talks in Washington, and Europe watched its fiscal union teeter on the brink of collapse. Of course, U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden. Read our 12 best online stories from 2011.
(c) Ib Ohlsson
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Time to Attack Iran?
Opponents of military action against Iran assume a U.S. strike would be far more dangerous than simply letting Tehran build a bomb. Not so, argues this former Pentagon defense planner. With a carefully designed attack, could Washington mitigate the costs and spare the region and the world from an unacceptable threat? Read the full article.
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The Tweets, Tics And Turns Of Twitter Politics →
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the presidential election. A good time to revisit Clay Shirky’s piece in Foreign Affairs. The Political Power of Social Media
npr:
Is public political discourse any different in the new age of social media? Survey says: Yes.
Also, How Twitter’s Trending Algorithm Picks Its Topics
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The Legacy of George F. Kennan: Tearing the Mask...
As Nicholas Thompson writes in his review of a new biography of the scholar-diplomat, “George F. Kennan had two really big ideas. The first was containment, which he presented in the ‘X’ article, published in Foreign Affairs in 1947, but which he had been refining for years in speeches. The idea was that there is a middle ground between diplomacy and war. If the former fails,...
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Talking Tough to Pakistan
By Stephen Krasner The United States gives Pakistan billions of dollars in aid each year. Pakistan returns the favor by harboring terrorists, spreading anti-Americanism, and selling nuclear technology abroad. The bribes and the begging aren’t working: only threats and the determination to act on them will do the job. Washington must tell Islamabad to start cooperating or lose its...
Foreign Affairs Fans Around the World
We asked our fans on Facebook to submit photos of themselves reading Foreign Affairs. We’ll post some of the gems here, but you can see the entire album on Facebook.
Future Foreign Affairs readers in Doba, Senegal
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The 2012 Election and the Republicans' Foreign...
The man who gave us “Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan” has dropped out of the Republican primary. But the remaining GOP candidates will still struggle to sound out a clear message on foreign policy that is different from Barack Obama’s. Read James Lindsay’s take.
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November 2011
7 posts
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To Save, or Not to Save? Why Rescuing the Euro...
Markets are reeling because Europe’s leaders have only offered up half-measures to resolve the crisis. Not until Berlin, Brussels, and Paris realize the fundamental flaw in their current approach — a lack of real political and economic integration across the eurozone — will there be confidence again. Read the full article.
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Germany Broke the Euro, Now It Has to Fix It
As the eurozone’s biggest economy, it was Germany’s job to stabilize the system when the first signs of financial trouble appeared. It did the opposite. The euro’s survival depends on Frankfurt finally assuming its role as leader. Read full article.
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Chocolate -- A True Guilty Pleasure?
Small farmers in West Africa produce most of the world’s cocoa and sell it at low prices to big companies such as Cadbury and Mars, who transform the beans into chocolate. In the new book Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocao in West Africa, Orla Ryan focuses on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the two countries that together produce half the world’s cocoa output. Large numbers of West...
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Will Cutting Pentagon Spending Fix U.S. Defense...
Benjamin Friedman of the Cato Institute thinks so. The Pentagon’s boosters are right that big budget cuts will limit military capabilities. What they fail to recognize is that would actually be a good thing for the United States, as reductions will dial back Washington’s overzealous foreign policy. Read the full article.
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October 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Foreign Affairs Coverage of Occupy Wall Street
How Occupy Wall Street Works
The power of protest comes from its capacity to disrupt business as usual. As long as protesters believe they are making progress through other means, they will not resort to violence.
The Fight for ‘Real Democracy’ at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street’s anger is mostly directed at the ruling economic class. But the...
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The Leadership Secrets of Bismarck
China is hardly the first great power to make authoritarian development look attractive. As Jonathan Steinberg’s new biography of Bismarck shows, Wilhelmine Germany did it with ease. But can even successful nondemocratic political systems thrive and evolve peacefully over the long run? The answer depends on whether authoritarian elites can tolerate sharing power.
Read the full review essay....
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The Rich and the Rest
Foreign Affairs coverage of economic inequality and its effect on the American social contract.
The Broken Contract
By George Packer (New Yorker staff writer)
Like an odorless gas, economic inequality pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of its democracy. Over the past three decades, Washington has consistently favored the rich — and the more wealth...
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What to Do in Somalia
Ismail Taxta / Courtesy Reuters
Embroiled in violence and famine, Somalia is a perennially failed state. The expert articles found here offer insight and open the discussion on what actions can be taken to address the multitude of challenges that Somalia faces.
In the Foreign Affairs Snapshot: “Engage the Players on the Ground,” Bronwyn Bruton and J. Peter Pham make the claim that the...
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Crisis Guide - Iran
Announcing the Latest Installment in The Emmy-Award Winning Series From the Council on Foreign Relations: Crisis Guide - Iran
This interactive presentation traces Iran’s history, its evolution as an Islamic republic, and the controversial nuclear program. It also offers an expert overview of the main policy options for dealing with Iran.
Iran’s ambitions as a regional power, its links...
September 2011
2 posts
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The Pentagon's Cyberstrategy, One Year Later
In the September/October 2010 issue William Lynn, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, announced that the Pentagon had officially recognized cyberspace as an operational domain. In his followup, Lynn describes the steps that the U.S. has taken to defend the country and its infrastructure against cyberattacks. He writes: “There will eventually be a marriage of capability and intent,...
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August 2011
11 posts
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America's Coming Retrenchment
How Budget Cuts Will Limit the United States’ Global Role
The recent deal over the debt ceiling guarantees that the U.S. government will reduce its spending on foreign policy, which will force America to scale down its ambitions abroad, says Michael Mandelbaum.
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Bearing the Cost of War
Why the U.S. Should Raise Taxes—Just As it Has in Previous Conflicts
Most Americans have made no sacrifices at all for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The burden should be shared. It’s long past time for Congress to enact a wartime tax, something it’s done in almost every war in the past, says James Wright. Read more here.
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Back to School: Arne Duncan
Enhancing U.S. Education and Competitiveness
U.S. students now compete throughout their careers with their peers in other countries. But thinking of the future as a contest among countries vying to get larger pieces of a finite economic pie is a recipe for protectionism and global strife. Instead, Americans must realize that expanding educational attainment everywhere is the best way to grow the...
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Tent Revolt in Tel Aviv
Will the Protests in Israel Bring Down Netanyahu?
Israel is experiencing its most powerful social unrest in decades. Protesters feel that they are working harder, earning less, and paying more. Should the government fail to meet their demands, Israelis may move their protest from the streets to the ballot box. Nadav Eyal, senior columnist for Ma’ariv Daily, explains.
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Turkey's General Dilemma
Democracy and the Reverse Coup
Turkey is not yet a liberal democracy but it is moving in the right direction. Those who lament the military chief of staff’s recent resignation, arguing that the armed forces were an essential check on civilian politics, should understand that Turkey is now becoming a normal democracy, where elected officials will matter more than the military. Read more...
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The Truth About al Qaeda
Bin Laden’s Files Revealed the Terrorists in Dramatic Decline
New information discovered in Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan suggests that the United States has been vastly overstating al Qaeda’s power for a full decade. The group appears to have spent more time dodging drone strikes and complaining about money than trying to get an atomic bomb. Read more here.