I like a lot of movies, but my bar for “like” is probably pretty low.

My New America Foundation colleagues Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann have secured a full page in today’s Outlook Section of the Washington Post in a special graphic depiction full of useful data sets titled “Obama’s War.” For a full sized pdf, click here.

Though it sometimes frustrates friends, one of my core beliefs is to engage those who disagree with my views — and also to give credit when and where credit is due. When I saw that the right-anchored Jerusalem Post was running an interview of Elliott Abrams with Ruthie Blum Leibowitz, I expected the worst.

Former US Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO) who for many years has served as president of the United Nations Foundation hosted a very nice welcoming reception at the Metropolitan Club for incoming Colorado Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet.

The Department of Treasury has a whole lot on its hands — like keeping the financial sector from cratering further, keeping Citibank management from sneaking another private jet into their own stimulus plans, and convincing the rest of the world that Americans really do know how to run a capitalist economy (if in fact we…

Inter-Press’ Jim Lobe, who also writes the LobeLog blog, has a good piece of analysis out about the impact of the recent elections in Israel on the Middle East peace process. Lobe interviews Marc Ginsberg, Aaron David Miller, M.J. Rosenberg and me. Miller is the most pessimistic.

Patrick Doherty is Director of the New America Foundation/U.S.-Cuba 21st Century Policy Initiative. This post first appeared on The Havana Note. This fascinating story from U.S. News and World Report is the first public signal to the government in Havana that Washington is listening to the messages the Cuban government is sending. It’s good timing….

Embedded video from CNN Video This is a guest post for The Washington Note by al Qaeda and Islamist terrorism expert Paul Cruickshank. Cruickshank is a Fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security.

Last Friday, New America Foundation Whitehead Senior Fellow Michael Lind moderated a discussion featuring three international relations heavyweights: Princeton’s G. John Ikenberry, Johns Hopkins’ Daniel Deudney, and Nixon Center President Dimitri Simes. The four discussed Ikenberry and Deudney’s article in Foreign Affairs, “The Myth of the Autocratic Revival: Why Liberal Democracy Will Endure.

Former Palestinian presidential candidate (and likely future candidate) Mustafa Barghouti stopped by my office today for a short discussion on his impressions of what is possible and what is not in the aftermath of yesterday’s national elections in Israel. As usual, Barghouti paints a compelling picture of limited options and stark realities.