Afghanistan Escalators Need to Provide Strategic Rationale

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(Photo credit: Army.mil’s photostream) Max Boot, Frederick Kagan, and Kimberly Kagan argue in today’s New York Times that we cannot afford to “lose” Afghanistan and suggest a number of tactical changes to our operations there. Their argument contains three major flaws.

Guest Post by Katherine Tiedemann: Admiral Mullen’s Priorities

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Katherine Tiedemann is a program associate at the New America Foundation. Last night I attended an event sponsored by Young Professionals in Foreign Policy featuring Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (apologies for the poor picture quality–the iPhone camera is still woefully lacking).

Guest Post by Amjad Atallah: The Fight for the Primacy of US National Security Interests Continues ……

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This is a guest post by Amjad Atallah, co-director of the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. Charles (Chas) Freeman withdrew his candidacy yesterday for the post of chairman of the National Intelligence Council. This development sets up a worrying trend that will need to be reversed at the highest levels of government.

Perspectives and Context on U.S.-Syria Negotations

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(Photo credit: Eric Molly’s photostream) President Obama’s decision to reopen negotiations with the Syrians is about much more than bilateral relations between the two countries. Syria’s cooperation is integral to initiating game-changing policies toward Iran and to achieving progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees in Afghanistan

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The Washington Post ran a feature yesterday that asked a number of foreign policy experts to offer their first impressions of President Obama’s speech at Camp Lejuene. I found many of the responses interesting, but was particularly struck by Andrew Bacevich’s comments.

Playing Ukrainian Dominoes

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Douglas Rediker is Director of the New America Foundation/Global Strategic Finance Initiative. Rediker is a capital markets expert who has been focused on the emergence of “state capitalism” as a key feature of the new international economic order. He has now become a regular contributor to The Washington Note.

Iraq’s Kurds Lose Again

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It appears increasingly likely that the Kurdish cause will be the latest American casualty in Iraq. Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Iraq’s northeast, is governed by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). Whether Kurdistan remains viable as an autonomous region depends on whether it can incorporate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as its capital.