I really like former Clinton administration National Security Council official and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan‘s new book, How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace.

Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel published last week in the Washington Post a no nonsense assessment of America’s situation in Afghanistan. Read the entire oped, but the zingers are that General Stanley McChrystal has acknowledged that there is a stalemate in Afghanistan now.

Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer will be speaking at the New America Foundation TODAY from 12:15 pm-1:45 pm, discussing his new book, The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? , with TWN publisher Steve Clemons.

It will be released officially later today by the White House. But here is the official pdf of the National Security Strategy report. More on this important report later.

From the BBC: West Bank rabbi bans women from local election Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Elon Moreh settlement, near Nablus, said women lacked the authority to stand for the post of local secretary. He wrote in a community newspaper that women must only be heard through their husbands.

This is a guest note by Dr. Christopher K. Tucker, founding Chief Strategic Officer of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s Venture Fund. Tucker is also a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation.

(Photo Credit: Deepwater Horizon Response photostream) This guest post, which originally appeared at The Havana Note, is a guest note by Tom Garofalo, a consultant for the New America Foundation/U.S-Cuba Policy Initiative.

Georgetown University Professor and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan has written an important book, How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace, that deals with the vital issue of how to effectively negotiate and make peace with international rivals and opponents.

Last week’s controversial uranium enrichment agreement among Iran, Turkey and Brazil, along with the subsequent decision from the P5+1 countries to push forward with sanctions, throws into stark relief the tendency for the U.S. and Iran to talk past each other, as the possibility for constructive dialogue slips further and further away.

This is an interesting short discussion between writer Mark Perry who broke the story on General Petraeus asking that the West Bank and Gaza be part of the Central Command’s territory.