American Strategy Program

Archives: American Strategy Program Articles and Op-Eds

An Increasingly Isolated Iran Seems Just As Divided Within

  • By
  • Afshin Molavi,
  • New America Foundation
October 3, 2011 |

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not much of a student of American history. It might be useful, however, if he heeds the words of the late American Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who once said: "Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true."

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Obama's Cold War with Cuba: The Fuel Fidel Needed

  • By
  • Anya Landau French,
  • New America Foundation
September 30, 2011 |

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he's looking for a transformation on the island before "fully engaging" Cuba. His remarks actually complete something of a transformation for Mr. Obama, who went from saying this on one campaign trail, to saying this on the next campaign trail, to now saying stuff like this:

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September 23, 2011: A historic day for Israel-Palestine?

  • By
  • Daniel Levy,
  • New America Foundation
September 23, 2011 |

Cynicism and skepticism always have their place, but today might just go down as an historic day on the Israeli-Palestinian front. No, there is no direct or quick fix move from the Palestinian application for U.N. membership to the actual realization of a Palestinian state (and certainly not when one factors in the Israeli response) but the Palestinian U.N. move does represent the most definitive break yet with the failed and structurally flawed strategies for advancing peace of many a year.

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You Call This Populism? The New Obama Is the Same as the Old Obama

  • By
  • Mark Schmitt,
  • New America Foundation
September 22, 2011 |

In his deficit-reduction proposal, unveiled in his Rose Garden speech on Monday, President Obama once again found himself adopting the other party’s frame, embracing budget austerity instead of the fiscal stimulus that the economy needs. He still talks about finding bipartisan consensus and describes his ideas as common-sense solutions that every well-intentioned person should support, even though Republicans have shown they’ll block anything with his name on it.

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Is the White House Ready for a Cuban Deep Water Drilling Disaster?

  • By
  • Anya Landau French,
  • New America Foundation
September 21, 2011 |

The good news? Cuban energy officials are taking the lessons of the BP oil spill disaster very seriously, according to a group of oil drilling and environmental experts just back from Cuba, including the co-chairman of the Bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (also former EPA administrator), the head of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, a former senior executive for Royal Dutch Shell, and a longtime Cuba expert with the Environmental Defense Fund.

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Obama and Israel: Why 'Leading From Behind' Won't Work

  • By
  • Daniel Levy,
  • New America Foundation
September 20, 2011 |

Last week, Susan Rice, America's ambassador to the UN, met with Jewish pro-Israel groups to update them on the extensive range of initiatives this Democratic administration is undertaking to block Palestinian aspirations at the United Nations.

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Debating the UN Bid for Palestinian Statehood

  • By
  • Daniel Levy,
  • New America Foundation
September 19, 2011 |

This action undertaken by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation at the UN is not taken in the context of strategy, but because it has stumbled into it and is trying to reclaim some political ground. I think the bid is taking place in a strategic vacuum, and therefore my analysis of what might happen at the UN is based on this being a consequence of political frustration and anxiety, rather than intentionality.
 

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UN Vote Adds Little to 20 Years of Failure in Middle East Peace

  • By
  • Afshin Molavi,
  • New America Foundation
September 19, 2011 |

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's momentous decision to seek statehood at the United Nations has been interpreted in many ways: a bold, decisive move to force Israel's hand and level the playing field in future negotiations; a risky diplomatic gambit that will achieve little in the face of a certain US veto and will fuel tensions in an already volatile environment; a watershed moment in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Mostly, however, the move is an acknowledgement of failure.

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A Palestinian Autumn in New York — What to Expect at the U.N.

  • By
  • Daniel Levy,
  • New America Foundation
September 14, 2011 |

While the relentless pace of developments in the Middle East shows little sign of flagging, the region will briefly cast its gaze to New York next week -- with the backdrop for the next installment on Israel-Palestine being provided by Manhattan's East side digs of the United Nations. Any thoughts of the Arab awakening "proving" that Palestine was in fact a marginal concern in the region were unequivocally banished in recent weeks.

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Why China Wants a G-3 World

  • By
  • Parag Khanna,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Mark Leonard
September 7, 2011 |

Of all the formulations deployed in recent years to describe the emerging world order, G-2 is probably the worst and most dangerous.

Americans don’t like the idea of another rival so quickly achieving strategic parity and influence, and the Chinese are uncomfortable with such a high-level responsibility commensurate with their weight.

The U.S.-China relationship can hardly be described as agreeable, progressive, or even productive. And yet people keep coming back to the idea of a G-2 because the alternatives can seem so inefficient.

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