Provocations | Putin and Beyond | Five Years Later: Iraq's Strategic Legacy
Provocations
Examining Pakistan's record on terrorism, al Qaeda's Saudi offensive, U.S. progress on intelligence reform, and more...
Pakistan's Record on Terrorism: Conflicted Goals, Compromised Performance
Ashley
J. Tellis
Islamabad's inability to defeat the terrorist groups operating from its soil is rooted in many factors that go beyond its admittedly serious motivational deficiencies to combat terrorism.
[excerpt]
Al Qaeda's Third Front: Saudi Arabia
Bruce
Riedel
and Bilal
Y. Saab
After the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden launched a third front beyond Afghanistan and Iraq: his own homeland in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities have so far successfully countered al Qaeda's offensive, but the war inside the kingdom is far from over.
[excerpt]
The Cultural Revolution in Intelligence: Interim Report
Nancy
Bernkopf Tucker
A recent intelligence official argues that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran reflects initial intelligence reform, but warns that a fundamental and thorough transformation of the intelligence community culture, with seven steps to achieve it, is still needed ... and time is running out.
[excerpt]
The Future of Nuclear Weapons in an Interdependent World
Harald
Muller
Taking complete nuclear disarmament as a serious and achievable objective at a fixed date in the distant future and devising a sequence of carefully drafted interim steps toward that end would contribute to a cooperative world order.
[excerpt]
After Iraq: Future U.S. Military Posture in the Middle East
Bradley
L. Bowman
As forces are withdrawn from Iraq, the United States should resist the temptation to increase or redeploy troops to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. The United States can deter Iran and reassure its GCC allies by other means without expanding military bases.
[excerpt]
Putin and Beyond
Zbigniew Brzezinski and others analyze the roots of Vladimir Putin's plan and the effect of his choices on Russia’s present and future generations.
Putin's Choice
Zbigniew
Brzezinski
How will history judge Vladimir Putin? He had alternatives, but his decisions, despite their apparent short-term success, are likely to have negative long-term effects on the Russian political system, economy, and geopolitical prospects.
[excerpt]
Putin's Plan
Clifford
G. Gaddy
and Andrew
C. Kuchins
The roots of Putin's Plan lie not in Marxism-Leninism, but in Western business theory. True to these roots, Putin is orchestrating the election of someone to succeed him as strategic planner, the CEO of "Russia Inc.," who will continue to seek domestic and international stability.
[excerpt]
Us and Them: Anti-American Views of the Putin Generation
Sarah
E. Mendelson
and Theodore
P. Gerber
A narrow focus on Putin has overlooked an important political and social development inside Russia. A new, young generation now reflects his values, favoring restoring a hyper-sovereign Russia and resisting or rejecting international legal norms.
[excerpt]
Five Years Later: Iraq's Strategic Legacy
Fives years after the Iraq war began, what strategic lessons does it hold for the United States?
Real Leaders Do Soft Power: Learning the Lessons of Iraq
James
B. Steinberg
There is an urgent need to return to the bipartisan tradition of enlightened global leadership—the fundamental strategy pursued by the United States since World War II—which remains the most reliable path to U.S. security and prosperity.
[excerpt]
A Bad War Gone Worse
Simon
Serfaty
The lessons drawn from the Iraq war need to be understood not to mean that there might be no more wars, for there will be, but not to repeat the mistaken preconceptions, historical analogies, and mismanagement of the approach to war and its aftermath. The world is now a very different place.
[excerpt]
The Iraq War and Asia: Assessing the Legacy
Michael
J. Green
Surprisingly, the war has not changed any fundamental elements of Asia’s rising influence, nor has it significantly weakened the U.S. hand in the region in any enduring way. The reality is that the Iraq war has not been as fundamental to Asian geopolitics as it has in the Middle East or Europe.
[excerpt]
