Progress on North Korea: But at What Cost?

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This is a nice dose of good news for once. North Korea has agreed to begin permanently dismantling its main nuclear reactor in exchange for a pile of aid from the U.S., South Korea, China and Russia. I have written about Asst.

Rep. Jane Harman, David Kay, Bruno Pellaud, Flynt Leverett, Thomas Donnelly, Lawrence Wilkerson, Francis Fukuyama, Joe Cirincione Headline Conference on US Policy Options Toward Iran

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In my capacity as head of foreign policy programs at the New America Foundation, I along with Trita Parsi, who is President of the National Iranian American Council, have produced a conference together that will take place in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing Room, Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 628, on Wednesday next week,…

Iran Calls for “Grand Bargain” Dealmaking to Begin

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Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Javad Zarif far outclasses Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ambassador Zarif is a savvy, friendly, intellectually acute diplomat — considered by other diplomats as “one of the best” in the business, according to one former US Ambassador I spoke to earlier today.

On Protecting Sources

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(Anne Louise Bardach, author of The Prison Letters of Fidel Castro) Yesterday was a frustrating day for me. I had the opportunity, thanks to another of the significant think tanks in town, to pose a question to one of the more important international diplomats of the moment.

Saudi Arabia Poised to Play More Overt, Active Role in Middle East Affairs

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A friend just leaked to me the teaser for an important article on more robust Saudi national security activism in the Middle East that will appear tomorrow. Until now, Saudi Arabia has largely been quiet amidst the regional convulsions that are unfolding around it. Saudi “calm” has been a White House request. That is over….