Skip navigation.

SHAFR Opinion

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

The State Department Wants You! (or does it?)

by Molly Wood

In October 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama promised a new approach to American foreign policy.  “It’s time to make diplomacy a top priority,” he announced.  “Instead of shuttering consulates, we need to open them in the tough and hopeless corners of the world. Instead of having more Americans serving in military bands than the diplomatic [...]

Afghanistan and the Chinese Civil War

by William Stueck

Any political historian will tell you that government decisionmakers frequently use historical analogies in making up their minds and that, more often than not, they do so badly.   And Kimber Quinney reminded us in her thoughtful November 9 commentary that historians are not immune to employing such analogies either, or in doing so badly.
Yet as [...]

Twenty Years On: Merkel in Washington

by William Glenn Gray

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the idea of creating new structures for a post-Cold War world is still quite radical. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approach represents a familiar way of doing business, one that continues to bank on the essential unity of “the West.” But is it effective?

« View Older Posts

Weekly Digest – 9/28/09

September 28th, 2009

The new “must-read book” for President Obama’s war team is “Lessons in Disaster” by Gordon M. Goldstein.  This book’s intimate account of White House decision-making is almost literally being replayed in Washington (with Holbrooke himself as a principal actor) as the new president sets a course for the war in Afghanistan. [more]

President Barack Obama’s week of summitry indicates that, increasingly, the most vexing global problems are unlikely to be solved by treaties, says CFR President Richard N. Haass. An informal approach in which nations coordinate strategies could be more productive, he says. [more]

The United States blasted ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya for his “irresponsible and foolish” return from exile before a settlement was reached in the Central American country’s political crisis. [more]

Afghans haven’t been the main engine of global Islamist terrorism. That may be about to change. [more]

Sanctions against Iran are possible, Russia’s President Medvedev said Wednesday.  The statement is a coup for President Obama, and could be the result of his recent decision to kill a missile shield in Eastern Europe. [more]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/opinion/27rich.html?emc=eta1[

Tags: , , , , , , ,

About Nick Ducote
Nick is an undergraduate at Louisiana Tech University studying political science and history.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.