CIAO DATE: 01/2009
Volume: 87, Issue: 6
November/December 2008
The Five-Day War
Charles King
The August war over South Ossetia has rekindled a superpower rivalry and showed the West that Moscow no longer heeds multilateral institutions.
Stephen Sestanovich
The next president will have to reassess the U.S.-Russian relationship and find the right balance between pushing back and cooperating.
From Great Game to Grand Bargain
Barnett R. Rubin, Ahmed Rashid
The crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistan is beyond the point where more troops will help. U.S. strategy must be to seek compromise with insurgents while addressing regional rivalries and insecurities.
Akbar Ganji
The real decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Khamenei not President Ahmadinejad. Blaming Iran's problems on President Ahmadinejad inaccurately suggests that Iran's problems will go away when Ahmadinejad does.
Paul Collier
Politicians have it in their power to solve the food crisis, but they must be willing to end the biases against big commercial farms and genetically modified crops and do away with farm subsidies.
Jan Lodal, Ivo Daalder
Washington must lead the way to a world without nuclear weapons. The first step will be dramatically limiting the U.S. nuclear arsenal's declared size and purpose.
Charles A. Kupchan
A league of democracies would not secure cooperation among democracies and would expose the limits of the West's power and legitimacy. The next president should not embrace this misguided idea.
Brazil's Big Moment
Juan de Onis
Brazil is on the cusp of fulfilling its potential as a global player. The next U.S. president should rethink relations with this important country.
J. Brian Atwood, M. Peter McPherson, Andrew Natsios
USAID has become ineffective because it is underfunded, understaffed, and losing influence. The next president should revive it by either making it autonomous or elevating it to a cabinet-level department.
Freight Pain
Marc Levinson
The golden age of globalization is over due to slower, costlier, and less certain transportation. In retrospect, Americans may lament too little globalization, not too much.
James Grant
The next president must bring back a sound dollar, rein in Wall Street, and resist the urge to manipulate prices.
Sherwin B. Nuland
Pathological hubris is a disease that can plague leaders and threaten international security. Doctors must put transparency ahead of confidentiality and disclose leaders' sicknesses to the public.
Marc Lynch
U.S. troops in Iraq may guarantee security, but they will not bring about political reconciliation, the key to stability.
Steven L. Hull
Rens Lee