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H1 Washington Post Fallon's Resignation Is Not Seen as Step Toward Attack on Iran

Slate "Fox" Fallon Wasn't Hounded Out The Centcom commander brought about his own ouster. Fred Kaplan

New Republic The Iranian-Israeli War - Yossi Klein Halevi

The Balkans After the Independence of Kosovo and on the Eve of NATO Enlargement by Daniel Fried View Video

NATO: Enlargement and Effectiveness Daniel Fried

ORBIS The 'Israel Lobby': A Realistic Assessment by Ben Fishman Winter 2008Read the full text (PDF).

Stratfor Syria: Trouble in Damascus

Geopolitical Diary: The Gulf States and the Shiite Conundrum ...

McCain more hawkish than Bush on Russia, China and Iraq

Oil strikes new record above $110

Global Public Opinion Turns Against the US on Iran's Nuclear Program

Iran Still a Target?
by Stephen Kinzer

Washington Post A Centcom Chief Who Spoke His Mind By David Ignatius In the case of Adm. William Fallon, I see a lot of good that came from having a headstrong blowtorch of a man speaking truth to power

Fallon's Resignation Is Not Seen as Step Toward Attack on Iran

Closer to War By Dan Froomkin

William Arkin Commander's Resignation Shows a New Era of Micromanagement

Moscow's Missile Gambit By Robert Joseph and J.D. Crouch II, Missile defense must go forward -- with Russian cooperation or without

For Iranian Voters, It's the Economy Choices for Parliament Are Limited, but President Is Not Immune From Critics

Jerusalem Post Fallon's departure and Iran

"Bush's present to Cheney on the eve of his Mideast tour."

Daily Star Iran and America share responsibility for the bad blood between them

Time may play against Syria in Lebanon By Michael Young

Sanctions aren't working, so what's next with Iran? By Bennett Ramberg

Carnegie Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran's Most Powerful Leader ... Full Text (PDF) By Karim Sadjadpour

Beyond the Façade: Political Reform in the Arab World Introduction: Evaluating Middle East Reform By Marina Ottaway, Julia Choucair-Vizoso

IHT Sarkozy and Merkel draft agreement detailing role of nations on EU's southern border

Changing the Frame of the International Debate Over Iran's Nuclear Programme
BASIC A 7-page paper seeking to reframe the debate over Iran's nuclear programme as a means of breaking the existing deadlock

American living standards will decline as U.S. exploitation of China fades in an economically transformed world. Maybe... more»

What Can Europe Expect from the Next White House? By: Eric Follath and Cordula Meyer | Der Spiegel Who will be America's next president, Barack Obama or John McCain, or perhaps Hillary Clinton after all? What will he or she expect from allies? Europe is wondering which one of the three it should want in the White House.

The American Recession and the World's Emerging Economies By: Robert B. Reich | The American Prospect The world's developing nations are no longer nearly as dependent as they used to be on consumers in the United States and other rich nations to keep them going by buying their exports

Ethnic Dispute Tears al Qaeda, Hayden Says By: Bill Gertz | The Washington Times Internal divisions between Saudi and Egyptian leaders of al Qaeda are producing "fissures" within the terrorist group and a possible battle over who will succeed Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday

If Talks Fail, Palestinians Should Dissolve the PA By: Ali Jarbawi | The Daily Star Five years ago, I was the first to advocate dissolving the Palestinian Authority, and since then I have been stressing the need for Palestinians to take this suggestion seriously

Christian Science Monitor

For Clinton and Obama, next six weeks are critical By the next primary, April 22, the way to count Florida and Michigan may be settled.

Guardian No cant, please, we're British. But we do need a better sense of citizenship Timothy Garton Ash: For all the bunkum, the Goldsmith review is part of a crucial debate that has now gone on too long with too little action

Resigned to fate Stephen Kinzer

US Admiral William Fallon forcefully opposed the Bush administration on Iran, and his sudden departure makes war increasingly likely

Ha’aretz – An alternative intelligence view

Independent Bereaved Iraqi mother vows revenge on US

Um Saad, a middle-aged woman living in the Sunni district of Khadra in west Baghdad, blames the Americans for the death of her husband and two of her sons and threatens revenge.

Leading article: An admiral and a self-serving administration

Asia Times While China marches, the US guesses To the US, there's nothing new about China's continuing military development, it's the unsaid intentions behind the buildup that are worrying Washington. Without disclosing its own strategies, Washington wants to know what Beijing is up to. But obfuscation is an art of war, and the Chinese are masters at it. - Law Siu-lan

China puts its trust in Putinism
More than any other capital in the world, Beijing has closely observed the changing of the guard in the Kremlin. And the Chinese know that with or without Vladimir Putin, it is only natural for Russia to continue its current policies. There's therefore still work to be done on the Sino-Russian relationship. - Yu Bin

RFE/RL Friendly Fire

A public rift between Taliban leaders and Al-Qaeda supporters in the Arab world could hint at prospects for peace in Afghanistan. There are key differences over whether to negotiate and the limits of foreign influence

Serbia's Final Frontier By: Charles A. Kupchan | Foreign Affairs Although Kosovo acted without UN approval, the United States and Europe's major powers swiftly recognized the new statelet. Serbia and Russia, along with China and over a dozen other countries, moved equally swiftly to pronounce the secession null and void

Los Angeles Times Fallon vs. Petraeus The tension between the military brass reflects a broader national security dilemma

Interest in Iraq war declining, poll finds

Financial Times Med Union blueprint avoids key questions The Mediterranean Union will seek to strengthen co-operation among the European Union and non-EU, mainly Muslim, countries in north Africa and the Middle East

Sarkozy and Merkel lay out vision for Med Union

WORLD NEWS: Iran 'rift' at root of Fallon's departure

Musharraf seeks deal to remain in power Musharraf has offered to give up his powers to dissolve parliament if key opposition parties agree to drop their insistence on the re-instatement of Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the former supreme court chief justice

The Fed is delaying day of reckoning As the US economy faces a recession, a weak dollar is in the country’s interests. As inflation exceeds its own definition of price stability, a strong euro is in the interests of the eurozone. End of story? Not quite writes Charles Wyplosz

US support for Egypt hints at shift on Hamas The White House’s statement that it hopes Cairo could convince Hamas to cease attacks on Israel is an apparent change in Washington’s policy on isolating the Islamist group

IRG seeks influence by proxy Basij – meaning mobilisation – has a ready-made network that functions quickly and efficiently, a crucial asset in a country where effective political parties are absent

Iranians focus on inflation woes All Iranian politicians have pledged to improve the economy during their campaign ahead of Friday’s parliamentary poll as ordinary people struggle to pay for clothes and food in preparation for the New Year festivities

The Times Right man ... for the wrong job? William Fallon's lack of direct experience in Iraq and Afghanistan left him unable to challenge the Bush Administration Bronwen Maddox

Persian Gulf Iraq's fate is uneasily linked to what passes for politics in Iran

Tony Karon Behind the Fall of “Fox” Fallon

Foreign Policy Seven Questions: The Russian Connection What does Viktor Bout know? FP spoke with analyst and author Douglas Farah about the surprise arrest of the world’s most notorious arms dealer, his ties to everyone from Colombian narcoterrorists to the U.S. government, and how he might get off the hook—again

Salon Will American war crimes be revealed?

Realists Not Welcome in the Republican Party?

Realist Republican Relics
Outside the Beltway

'Islamophobia' global threat: Muslim states
World's Muslim countries warn against 'alarming' rise in insults, attacks.

H2 Le Monde 'TSK Tuzağa Düşmedi'

Cooperation negotiations between Al-Qaeda and Kurdish PKK

CSM Turkey offers reforms for Kurdish minority

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2007 | Turkey