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Following Ambassador Stephen Bosworth's December 8-10 visit to Pyongyang, he declared that the two sides had reached a "common understanding with the DPRK on the need to implement the six party joint statement and to resume the six party process." The North Korean foreign ministry...
Read all of "Can the North Korean "Peace Offensive" Drive a Wedge in the U.S.-ROK Alliance?" »
The world faces major challenges in the XXI Century: food, water and population crises and ongoing conflicts, heightened by radical Islamic movements and the still uncertain impacts of global warming raise the potential of a world in turmoil. The United States is the only nation...
President Obama's finally announced, long awaited strategy for Afghanistan rests on three premises: That victory in Afghanistan is fundamental to U.S. national security because we must deprive Al Qaeda of that operating base; that defeating the Taliban requires a significant ramp-up of the U.S....
If progress in closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was measured in prisoner numbers alone, December 15 could mark a watershed day for President Barack Obama. The president, who has called the offshore facility a stain on the country's international reputation, directed the government to...
When President Obama explained his decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan to support General Stanley McChrystal's new counterinsurgency campaign, he left a key question unanswered: Will this be enough to achieve U.S. strategic ends in Afghanistan? Most of the discussion about McChrystal's...
Read all of "Ends, Ways, and Means--the Debate We Still Need on Afghanistan" »
PYONGYANG--Every North Korean seems to have been mobilized for an all-out push to mark their country's arrival as a "strong and powerful nation" in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, Kim Jong Il's seventieth birthday, and the thirtieth birthday of...
Read all of "Dispatch from Pyongyang: An Offer You Can't Refuse!" »
The world is broken and the United States needs to fix it. Well, it's actually not quite broken yet, and there are a lot of other nations involved. But avoiding global turmoil is the major strategic challenge of the XXI Century and the United...
The UN's December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen is supposed to be the final negotiations on a new set of targetsfor international cooperation on climate change. Some countries view these negotiations as an update of the Kyoto Protocol's original emissions reductions, set to expire in 2012....
President Obama's strategy announcement for the war in Afghanistan raises more questions than it answers. But some answers are starting to come, and they're not good news. The first and most important question, of course, is the feasibility of the strategy. On this question,...
Read all of "President's Afghanistan Strategy - More Questions Than Answers" »
After nearly a year in office, President Obama announced his policy on Afghanistan, including that he will be sending 30,000 more to troops to the country. While his announcement is portrayed as a step forward in the war, the given timeline and exit plan carries...
Read all of "President Obama's Afghanistan Speech: An Uncertain Message" »
President Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan reflects a nation deeply divided on the war. There are compelling arguments on both sides. Sober-minded observers see al Qa'ida, the reason the U.S. came to Afghanistan in the first place, as a spent...
When President Barack Obama previewed his new Afghan strategy last week--details of which he will unveil at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this evening--his message of urgency had a familiar ring. Obama lamented eight years of U.S. military engagement that he said lacked...
