Foreign Press Review

041208f - FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analyses for informed debate’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç U.S. / Britain / Turkey / Magazines / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports - Subscribe to FPR FPR Table - H4 NYT WP GU H7 ME Isr H10 CSM IHT Eur FSU Asia H13 Times WSJ FT LAT H16 USP DT Ind H19 Mil Int Ter Wonk H21 Misc

H1 Washington Post Iran Top Threat To Iraq, U.S. Says Focus on Al-Qaeda Now Diminishing

Robert Kagan on The End of the End of History: Why the twenty-first century will look like the nineteenth.

Stratfor Realignment in the ME

Winning Counterinsurgency War: The Israeli Experience - Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) (pdf)

NYRB Into the Lion's Den
By Hussein Agha and Robert Malley

NYRB What Have We Learned, If Anything? By Tony Judt
The twentieth century is hardly behind us but already its quarrels and its achievements, its ideals and its fears are slipping into the obscurity of mis-memory. In the West we have made haste to dispense whenever possible with the economic, intellectual, and institutional baggage of the twentieth century and encouraged others to do likewise. In the wake of 1989, with boundless confidence and insufficient reflection, we put the twentieth century behind us and strode boldly into its successor swaddled in self-serving half-truths: the triumph of the West, the end of History, the unipolar American moment, the ineluctable march of globalization and the free market.

When Choosing Not to Choose Becomes a Choice By: Amir Taheri | Asharq Alawsat
As always, the only thing that really mattered in the recent elections in the Islamic Republic in Iran was voter turnout. This is because, with all candidates approved by the authorities, the only choice that voters had was to go to the polls or not

New York TimesIran Fighting Proxy War in Iraq, U.S. Envoy Says

Bush Holds Out Hope for More Iraq Troop Cuts

Is this the beginning of water wars? New Scientist

Yedioth Ahronoth 'New Iran sanctions unlikely' US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterates concerns over Iranian nuclear program, says both US and UN must wait and see how Islamic republic responds to latest round of imposed sanctions

YaleGlobal How to Win in Iraq Without Losing to Iran Dilip Hiro

COMMENT: Good leaders must avoid 'emperor's trap' FOR the first time in decades, a United States senator will become the next American president as all three of the remaining candidates -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain -- are members of the Senate. While legislators have many leadership skills, their management ability is usually unproven. Senators manage a roughly 100-member staff, and a campaign staff of several hundreds. But can they manage an executive branch employing millions? By Joseph Nye

Ha’aretz – Guest: US-Israel defense pact would be a bad idea

Weekly Standard Progress, Actually Things are looking up in Iraq, which is why the Democrats have forgotten about benchmarks. by Frederick W. Kagan

Asia Times US edges closer to engaging Iran Iran has condemned attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad, distancing itself from provocative acts against the United States, while also downplaying Israel's massive military exercises. This comes as Tehran acknowledges the receipt of an official Washington suggestion for a next round of talks on Iraq. With the US position eroding fast in Iraq, there is a strong sense the George W Bush administration is taking the plunge for unconditional talks with Iran. - M K Bhadrakumar

Tehran keeps its options open
Iran's reluctance to jump into another round of dialogue with the United States over Iraq stems from its belief that no tangible results can be gained as long as Washington constantly demonizes Iran and fails to appreciate its true role in Iraq. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Mixed Muslim message in 'war on terror'
The majority of the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference lend territorial or military assistance of different shades to the United States' "war on terror". This appears to belie any imminent "clash of civilizations". Yet while the governments side with the US, their citizens have vehemently anti-American positions. - Sreeram Chaulia

The U.S. Election: Grounds for Optimism By: Tom Plate | The Japan Times With the U.S. elections revealing candidate's increased interest in China, India, Japan and South Korea, Asia finds it can afford to be optimistic about its future U.S. relations.

Can China and India Save the U.S.? By: Bill Emmott | The Guardian Economies in crisis: The new economic powerhouses are less reliant on American consumption, but to conquer rampant inflation they must work together

Iran’s election signals , Rasool Nafisi

Cheney on the Warpath Again? By Dan Froomkin

Reidar Visser Iraqi Shiite Factionalism and Iran’s Role in the Basra Fighting

Independent The other global crisisThe other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food

The credit crunch will dominate this weekend's G7 meeting. But the world's poorest countries face a more urgent problem: the spiralling cost of basic foods which has provoked riots and threatens millions with starvation.

Leading article: The challenge ahead... how to feed the world over the coming century

RFE/RL Commentary: Did Ukraine And Georgia Lose A NATO Battle, Or The War?

NATO: Kyiv, Tbilisi Face More Obstacles Than Simply Russian Resistance

World: CIS Countries Among Hardest Hit In Global Financial Crisis

The Times British accused of appeasement in Basra

As Basra slowly comes back to life, the hands-off role of the British is blamed for the previous success of fanatics

Nicolas Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union Patrick Seale - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France believes passionately in a Mediterranean Union, and is putting a great deal of energy - and urgency -- into bringing it to birth

Financial Times Opec cuts output despite west’s pleas

The 13-member cartel has quietly begun to reduce production despite calls from the US and Europe for the group to pump more so that prices fall

Obama opposes Hamas meeting

Barack Obama has distanced himself from Jimmy Carter, the former US president, who plans to meet Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, the radical Palestinian party, in Syria next week

‘Reagan Democrats’ switch allegiance Fuelled by disaffection with the Iraq war, the Bush administration’s alleged mismanagement of the US economy and its departure from fiscal conservatism, Pennsylvania as a whole has shifted from being a swing state into a Democratic state over the past few years

US consumer confidence hits 26-year low The soaring cost of basic foodstuffs and a weakening labour market sent US consumer confidence spiralling to a 26-year low this month compounding the gloomy outlook for the US economy

Soaring Shia ambitions in Iraq threatened Plans for a $10bn rebuilding project drawn up by the Shia community in Iraq are being undermined by clashes between government forces and Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army

The lazy, crazy middle class The percentage of average Americans who say their life is better than it was five years ago is the lowest in almost half a century, writes Christopher Caldwell

• 'Slippery Polls: Uses and Abuses of Opinion Surveys from Arab States' by David Pollock, The Washington Institute

Newsmax/Zogby Poll: Clinton Holds Slight Edge Over Obama in PA —

Bush Job Approval at 28%, Lowest of His Administration

H 2 Redefining Turkishness - Washington Times editorial

Washington Institute Divergent European Approaches to Combating PKK Terrorism By Abdulkadir Onay

ABD’nin İncirlik endişesi

Washington Times FORUM: Kurds and the future

By Qubad Talabani Iraq's Kurds have every right to pursue their national self interests and to defend their hard earned gains

Vote of confidence to Turkey from ATC president

Amitai Etzioni Let Them Wear Scarves

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Give Keynote Address to ...

The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem ...

OxAn The World Next Week - Turkey: curiouser and curiouser Cyprus: three-way split Turkey: headscarf wrangle

Friends of convenience The Australian FOR the past 12 months, Turkish envoys have been shuttling between Jerusalem and Damascus, carrying missives aimed at peace, not war, in the Middle East

Turkish Iranian gas deal takes shape

FT WORLD NEWS: Barroso urges Turkey to speed up pace of reform

Turkish Dam Controversy Continues: Berlin Threatens Project Pullout - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

PARTY CALLS FOR A COMMITTEE ON SOUTHEAST TURKEY - Eurasia Daily Monitor

Lawfare and Wearfare in Turkey - Greece / Turkey / Cyprus Religion - Anarkismo

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