Strategic decision-makers in the Middle East, Europe and Asia who stayed up late to catch President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday may have initially wondered why they had bothered. In sharp contrast to the Bush era when three quarters of a typical SOTU address covered matters of national security and the projection …
Afghanistan
Sarkozy Considers Withdrawal from Afghanistan After Death of French Soldiers
Is the outraged French response to the shooting death of four of its forces in Afghanistan by a suspected Afghan soldier Friday a sign that Paris may speed the pull out of its troops from the NATO-led operation? Or is the …
From Darkness to Light: How One Afghan Girl Struggled for a Better Future
Meet Nilab Nusrat, a courageous and talented teenager from Afghanistan with a powerful story to tell
Faces of Guantanamo: Detainees Who Were Unjustly Imprisoned
Jan. 11 marks ten years since the first detainees arrived at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Of the 779 imprisoned there since January 2002, only a small minority had any real ties to al-Qaeda. Many were arrested …
Despite Downed U.S. Drone Claims, Iran War Talk May Be Overblown
Anyone cut off from all news media for the six months before December 2011 could be forgiven for imagining we’re in the opening stages of a war between the West and Iran. Sunday’s headline was Iran’s claim to have captured a …
Will Britain’s Defense Secretary Lose His Shirt in Gamble on a Close Friend?
Say what you like about Britain’s beleaguered Defense Secretary Dr Liam Fox—and substantial sections of Westminster’s press corps have been doing just that as questions mount up about the proprieties of one of Fox’s closest friendships—he’s well connected. The compact Scot and former medical doctor was once linked by the tabloid …
Reflecting on 9/11, Britain’s Former Spy Chief Criticizes Iraq War and Proposes Talks with Al Qaeda
“We are not women; we will keep fighting,” vowed Libya’s elusive despot Muammar Gaddafi in a message broadcast on Syrian TV on Sept. 1. A lecture delivered in London the same evening, for broadcast on Sept. 6 as part of the BBC’s 2011 Reith Lecture series Securing Freedom, illuminated the unintended kernel of truth to the Colonel’s …
Could French Doubts On Afghanistan Influence Future Foreign Policy?
It may wind up proving to be nothing more than mere politics, but if the re-thinking now being expressed by French Socialists about the country’s engagement in Afghanistan is in earnest, it could have some serious consequences for the military operations Paris is already involved in—and any more than might be looming.
On …
The Afghanistan Drawdown: The Limits of American Power
Swampland’s Michael Crowley examines the politics and regional implications of President Obama’s announcement last night that the U.S. will withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer. While the decision might have been inevitable, many Republicans have already begun to call the president a ‘declinist.’ Crowley contends, …
Following U.S. Lead, France Announces Afghan Troop Withdrawal
Just hours after U.S. President Barack Obama announced his timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, his French opposite Nicolas Sarkozy followed suit by revealing Paris’ plan to also gradually bring soldiers in its Afghan contingent home. The swiftness of Sarkozy’s decision—which clearly followed consultation with …
World Refugee Day: Three Things You Must Know
Today marks 60 years since the founding of the UN refugee agency. Initially tasked with assisting 2.1 million Europeans displaced by World War II, it now works in 120 countries and is charged with helping millions more. In a cover story for TIME last year, Krista Mahr reported that the system is over-stretched and under-funded. The …
NATO Hopes to Pass the Buck in Libya, But May Not Be Able to Hand Off Responsibility
“We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over,” the organization’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday. “We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gaddafi, post-conflict scenario.” He urged the international body to begin planning to take charge of a transition in …
Gone And Forgotten: But Obama’s U.K. Visit Has Boosted Key Players
Here are a few telling symptoms of Obamamania: shiny eyes; raised pulse rate; terminal hyperbole; an urge to trample others to gain physical proximity to the President of the United States, and to do so despite phalanxes of sharp-shooters braced to liquidate anyone who might pose a threat to him. During the Obamas’ state visit to the U.K., …