Foreign Press Review

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H1 Washington Quarterly Spring 2008

Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Armed Services Committee (PDF; 202 KB) Source: Office of the Director of National Intellitence (ODNI) Transcript - Annual Threat Assessment Hearing (PDF: 118 KB)

USIP Iraq: Are Politics Beginning to Move?

Slate Welcome to the Quagmire

The next president may be stuck with more problems in Iraq than Bush ever faced. Fred Kaplan

High-Trajectory Weapons and Guerilla Warfare: Adjusting Fundamental Security Concepts - Gabriel Siboni (Strategic Assessment/Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)

Pew Research Center:

Obama Has The Lead, But Potential Problems Too

Washington Post New High in U.S. Prison Numbers United States leads the world in both number and percentage of residents incarcerated, report shows. Growth Attributed To More Stringent Sentencing Laws

Despite Problems, Iraqi Leader Boasts of Success Rivals See Maliki's Confidence as Rash, but Publicly Deny a Move to Topple Him

China's Latest Frontier Power Barometer | The Middle East is becoming China's new playground

A Long Road From Kosovo to Kurdistan By: Pepe Escobar | Asia Times The embrace by Washington of Kosovo's declaration of independence has less to do with democracy than with hard-nosed pragmatism. The US's biggest foreign military base since the Vietnam War -- Camp Bondsteel -- is in Kosovo, and the region will be home to a US$1.1 billion pipeline that will get oil from the Caspian Sea ultimately to refineries in the US.

Wider Black Sea: Concept and Reality By: Haroutiun Khachatrian | ISN Security Watch As the US and EU promote the concept of a new 'Wider Black Sea' geopolitical region, economics may be the key to common identity and security.

Tom Barnett Same old in Iran

Safe at Home: A National Security Strategy to Protect the American Homeland, the Real Central Front
Source: Center for American Progress Executive Summary (PDF; 1.6 MB) + Full Report (PDF; 5.4 MB) + Chart: Our Top 10 National Security Priorities
+ Chart: Homeland Security Policy Priorities for the Next Administration and Congress + Timeline: Homeland Security Since 9/11 (.gif)

Guardian Afghanistan mission close to failing - USAfter six years of military support and billions of pounds in aid, security is 'deteriorating'

Kosovo: Coming soon to a theater near you Ha'aretz If Albanians in Kosovo deserve an independent state, then maybe so do Kurds, Turkish Cypriots, Druze, Romany, Basques - the list can be endless

Long War Journal Inside Iraqi politics – Part 5. A look at legislative progress: Sunnis’ and states’ rights

The Anticipated Regional War Will Not Take Place By: Huda al Husseini | Asharq Alawsat
In the wake of the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the threat of “open war” that accompanied it has surpassed the “battlefield” and we are now witnessing a race between the desire to bypass the acute embarrassment felt by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand and the attempt to slip away on the other, especially on the part of Hezbollah and Iran

AEI Iran's Parliamentary Elections and the Revolutionary Guards' Creeping Coup d'Etat
By Ali Alfoneh

The Economist Nuclear proliferation Why not just blow your whistle? Its latest Iran report highlights the problems of the UN's atomic watchdog

Ha’aretz – Editorial: Decision on Gaza operation should be daring and level-headed

Yedioth Ahronoth Barack Obama's plan for Iran

US senator articulates his ideas to contain Islamic state, keep close US-Israel relations

Wall Street Journal Cut and Run and Then Run Back
By James Taranto Barack Obama's strategy for Iraq

On Kosovo's Fields
By Fouad Ajami America has become the provider of order of last resort in Muslim lands.

Financial Times The quiet rise of Dmitry Medvedev Will the man set to be Russia’s next president surprise those who have called him studious but seldom inspiring?

Arab leaders press Syria over Beirut impasse Several Arab states are threatening to boycott an upcoming regional summit if Damascus fails to influence its allies in Beirut to resolve Lebanon’s presidential stand-off

Iranian official reports record oil revenues Iran’s oil revenues reached a record $62bn for the first 11 months of this Iranian year - an increase of 31 per cent over the same period the previous year, according to a senior Iranian oil official.

Christian Science Monitor

After Pakistan vote, US eyes options Some White House officials want to embrace victors in parliament; others don't want to abandon Musharraf.

Oil for nukes – mostly a bad idea Bartering nuclear technology for oil is a path to the spread of nuclear weapons

WSJ Dollar's Dive Deepens as Oil Soars Economic data showing a softening U.S. labor market, weak housing and slowing growth are driving the dollar's decline, which is posing a host of challenges world-wide.

CSIS The CSIS Global Strategy Institute has released a new website "mapping the future" for the the years 2008 through 2012 identifying major upcoming events in seven categories.
View the Map | GSI

USIP Negotiating with the Islamic Republic of Iran: Raising the Chances for Success

Kosovo, Russia, and the Last Grasps of American Unipolarity by Nikolas Gvosdev

Jacob Heilbrunn & Eli Lake: The Rise of the Neocons

WINEP Beyond Rhetoric: Hizballah Threats after the Mughniyeh Assassination

CFR Media Conference Call: Russia's Presidential Elections and Kosovo (Audio)

A Conversation with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Audio)

Rand Women and Nation-Building

CNAS Podcast: Discussion with Fred Kaplan and his new book: “Daydream Believers – How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power"

Bake Institute Video Briefing Transcript: Prospects for Peace in the Middle East

USIP Kosovo, Washington, and Moscow: What Next?

Event: A World Without Nuclear Weapons

Event: Democracy's Revenge? Pakistan's Elections and Beyond

Lowy Institute Food and the spectre of Malthus

Nixonian spirit is essential for US-China relations

H 2 Jamestown Foundation "U.S.-Turkish Relations: A Strategic Relationship Under Stress" (pdf) By John C.K. Daly

The Economist The Kurdish conundrum Avoid that quagmire Turkey's latest assault on Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq is understandable but unwise

The Kurds Turkey invades northern Iraq With scores of fighters on both sides killed, the latest battle between Turkey and its rebel Kurds with havens in Iraq may get out of hand

CSM Will an extended Turkish offensive further destabilize Iraq? President Bush wants a limit to the Turkish campaign against rebels, but Turkey says no to a timetable.

The Times A bad time for mixed messages to Turkey The US encouragement for Turkey in its pursuit of militants in northern Iraq has come at a fragile time for Iraq Bronwen Maddox

NYT Turkey Resists Gates’s Call to End Its Iraq Offensive

Turkey’s Operation Gunes Attempts to Eliminate the PKK Threat Jamestown Foundation

FT US raises pressure on Turks over Iraq incursion Bush says the Turks ‘need to move quickly, achieve their objective and get out,’ as they decline to assure a quick end to their military incursion in Iraq

PKK: 18 Turkish Troops Killed in Northern Iraq

Harekat öncesi özel anlaşma!

"Kürtler muhatap alınmalı"

07:45 Egemen Bağış ABD'de konuştu: Sizin için El Kaide ne ise bizim için PKK o

Iraq's Kurds deserve better neighbours
New Statesman There is obvious fellow feeling between Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, but the PKK's actions do the Kurds no favours

Bush's Call for Turks to Leave Northern Iraq 'Quickly' Falls on Deaf Ears in Ankara

Turkey: Iraq Invasion May Last a Year

PKK: Talabani Is the Trojan Horse in the Kurdish Movement