Yesterday, I met with some Americans who have just returned from traveling to Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and Libya. They met a number of high ranking state officials in these governments but also met with representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Michael Desch in an oped today suggests that during election season, everyone wants to be a true friend of Israel which they incorrectly think means tilting substantially one direction in Israel’s ongoing struggle for security and acceptance within a very tough neighborhood.
Rick Davis, John McCain’s campaign manager, sent out this link today to a McCain strategy briefing. It’s fascinating as Davis recognizes the terrible political environment (for Republicans) they have to operate in. He also recognizes that the economy and the war in Iraq are the two biggest issues in the campaign.
I’m about to host a debate and discussion between DANIEL DEUDNEY (Johns Hopkins University), G. JOHN IKENBERRY (Princeton University), CHARLES KUPCHAN (Georgetown University) and PETER TRUBOWITZ (University of Texas at Austin) on the subject ot whether liberal internationalism is on the ropes or not in the context of the presidential election.
Congressman Markey is known to be one of the leading policy wonks in the US House of Representatives. His reputation for employing one of the largest numbers of PhD’s per capita on staff speaks to his interest in plumbing the intellectual depths of US policymaking, particularly US national security and nuclear policy.
I was a bit surprised to read this morning’s Edward Markey authored oped in the Wall Street Journal titled “Why is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?” With all due respect to Congressman Markey who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, the article is laced with a hubris about American power…
Last September, I wrote a Salon.com article explaining the many reasons why despite neoconservative obsession with bombing Iran, President Bush would not do so. He had tacked a different direction.
Andrew Lebovich is a research intern with the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program. Is Liberal Internationalism dead? Professors Charles Kupchan and Peter Trubowitz certainly seem to suggest as much in a thoughtful paper published last year.
(photo credit: Patrick Andrade/New York Times) Jason Furman, Director of the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project, has just announced that he is joining University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee as part of Barack Obama’s (paid) economic policy team.
This has probably been reported elsewhere, but I was heartened somewhat over the weekend by some things I had heard about Obama’s approach to the beginning of his own campaign.
