Columbia International Affairs Online

CIAO DATE: 09/07

The National Interest

 

Number 85, Sept./Oct. 2006

* - Denotes full text.

 

The Realist

• Churchill, Not Quite*
  Graham Allison and Dimitri K. Simes

  With America facing grave threats, the Bush Administration has failed to demonstrate a willingness to establish a hierarchy of priorities.

Comments and Responses

• Security Vortex, Warlords and Nation Building*
  Greg Mills, Terrence McNamee and Denny Lane

Articles

• Symposium: 9/11/06, Five Years On

  Provocative analysis and predictions from some of the world's leading experts-and why we shouldn't sleep too soundly.

  • Courting Catastrophe: America Five Years After 9/11* by Michael Scheuer
  • Could It Happen Again?* by Peter Bergen
  • America the Vulnerable* by Alexis Debat and Nikolas K. Gvosdev
  • How Well Should You Be Sleeping?* by Antony T. Sullivan

   

• Breathing Room*
  Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

  With even the president backing away from a stay-the-course strategy on Iraq, Biden's call for federalism is gaining increasing attention. He amplifies here on the idea, how he arrived at it and what its philosophical foundation is.

• Impotent Power
  Christopher Layne

  If America is the world's only superpower, why can't it seem to get anything done?

• A Test of Power*
  David C. Hendrickson and Robert W. Tucker

  The Bush Administration has vastly exaggerated the dangers associated with the development of an Iranian nuclear weapons program and underestimated the deterrent capacity of U.S. military power.

• The Gramercy Round: China Goes Global: Implications for the United States

  What will China's growing international economic clout mean for the United States? A roundtable discussion with Harry Harding, Ian Bremmer, Thomas Stewart, David Lipton, Robert D. Hormats, Robert Friedman, Joel Rosenthal, Nader Mousavizadeh, Ruchir Sharma, Fareed Zakaria and Nikolas K. Gvosdev.

• Angel or Dragon?
  Michael Fullilove

  Despite the focus on Beijing, few have taken notice of a key forum for its evolving excellence: diplomacy at the United Nations.

• A Plea for Normalcy*
  Christopher Preble

  Given its competing commitments, Washington must reduce its military patronage. Japan, with its economic strength, must fortify capabilities.

• The Fourth Age
  Charles Kupchan

  Don't bother trying to recreate the Cold War-era transatlantic relationship-it is long gone.

• Oil Price Warfare
  Roger Howard

  War with Iran does not appear imminent and the prospect has not been a hot electoral issue. But Howard explains why war with oil-producing nations will likely be wholly unanticipated.

• Beijing's Bolivarian Venture*
  Gabe Collins and Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky

  China's growing involvement in Venezuela is a direct threat to U.S. security. Why trouble is brewing in our own backyard.

Essays

• The Yalta Myth
  Conrad Black

  Bush claims that the Yalta Agreement represented a betrayal of freedom. But despite the postwar posturing of some, partitioning Eastern Europe reflected unavoidable exigencies-not to mention Allied consensus.

• Revolt of the Maccabees
  Robert Doran

  The Biblical account tells a cautionary tale for Mid-East policy today-to those reading between the lines.

• Vive le Neóconservatisme?*
  Yannick Mireur

  Strange as it sounds, a version of this ideology just might become resurgent in France.

Books and Reviews

• Books: New Old World Order
  William Anthony Hay

  A review of The Peace of Illusions by Christopher Layne and The Roman Predicament by Harold James. Realist thinkers accurately diagram the natural unraveling of a hegemon's power and economic global order. They overlook the potential for fashioning a new multilateralism-adapted, strengthened.

• Books: Some Unconventional Wisdom*
  J. Peter Pham

  A review of The J Curve by Ian Bremmer and Winning the Un-War by Charles Peña. Two authors turn their critical, discerning eye on the foibles of U.S. counter-terror and nation-building strategy. Just one offers a constructive course of action.

Reporter-at-Large

• Image Wars: How China is winning the soft power battle across East Asia.*
  Tyler Marshall