Oliver Lough is a research intern at the New America Foundation. Seeing Barack Obama and Hu Jintao deliver their respective climate change spiels at New York yesterday was a bit like watching a couple of boxers circle each other warily at the beginning of a long bout.
(Riz Khan anchors the Riz Khan Show on Al Jazeera English. This “Note” is part of a series of posts that personalities from Al Jazeera covering the international events in New York and Pittsburgh will be sharing with readers of The Washington Note). My face saved me. For once I was grateful.
Parag Khanna is a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and author of The Second World: How Emerging Powers are Redefining Global Competition in the 21st Century. Many Americans will struggle this week to sort out all of the summits that have become the hallmark of the late September news landscape.
Jon Weinberg is a research intern at the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. The UN fact-finding mission investigating human rights and humanitarian law violations during Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 incursion into Gaza has finally published its long-awaited report.
Today, the New America Foundation is hosting an important event on America’s war in Afghanistan, featuring my New America Foundation colleagues Peter Bergen and Steve Coll, as well as Washington Post standout journalists Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Karen DeYoung.
Former CIA Counterterrorism official Paul Pillar has an important op-ed in today’s Washington Post that questions whether terrorists really need “safe havens” after all.
I just finished reading the Independent Committee on Turkey’s report on Turkey’s EU accession negotiations. The Committee consists of European elder statesman who support Turkey’s membership and are alarmed by the “vicious circle” of events that is jeopardizing Turkey’s EU prospects.
In today’s New York Times, Ronald Asmus provides a useful summary of the German Marshall Fund’s recently released Transatlantic Trends report. The report indicates that support for American foreign policy has risen dramatically in Western Europe, but not in Eastern Europe or Turkey.
The Economist has a helpful analysis of the troubled accession negotiations between Turkey and the European Union. One important point made in the article is that Europe requires Turkey to adopt all of the European Union reforms before it is granted membership.
Anatol Lieven has a provocative piece over at the National Interest Online on what he calls the “meaningless” Afghan elections and U.S. strategy going forward.
