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March 22, 2006
Rights and Wrongs
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Last week, the UN General Assembly voted to replace the controversial Human Rights Commission with a smaller Human Rights Council. Among the myriad criticisms of the now-defunct commission was that many member states, such as Libya and Sudan, served on the panel only in order to stifle debate about their own atrocious human-rights records. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued in Foreign Affairs last summer that the new council, whose members are subject to greater scrutiny, would be an essential part of reforms that taken together would fulfill Franklin Roosevelt's hopes for the UN.
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The Iraq Timeline
Iraq is the central problem in contemporary American foreign policy, and Foreign Affairs has been the central forum for serious discussion on what to do about it. From the exchange between Edward Luttwak and James Dobbins over whether to withdraw; to the documentation of politicized intelligence by Paul Pillar; to the essays on the relevance of the Vietnam analogy by Andrew Krepinevich, Melvin Laird, and Stephen Biddle; to the first publication of the Pentagon's secret study of Saddam's regime, Foreign Affairs has set the terms of debate for policymakers and the public alike. Join the conversation and subscribe now!
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Saddam's Delusions: The View from the Inside
by Kevin Woods, James Lacey, and Williamson Murray
Posted March 12, 2006 -- The fall of Baghdad in April 2003 opened one of the most secretive and brutal governments in history to outside scrutiny for the first time. Seizing a unique opportunity, the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) commissioned a secret comprehensive study of the inner workings and behavior of Saddam Hussein’s regime based on previously inaccessible primary sources.
Two years in the making, the report of the "Iraqi Perspectives Project" draws on interviews with dozens of captured senior Iraqi military and political leaders and hundreds of thousands of official Iraqi documents from all levels of the regime, and is destined to rewrite the history of the war from the ground up. Excerpts from the report itself are presented exclusively in a special double-length article from the upcoming May/June issue of Foreign Affairs.
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Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon
by Stephen Biddle
(March/April 2006)
Most discussions of U.S. policy in Iraq assume that it should be informed by the lessons of Vietnam. But the conflict in Iraq today is a communal civil war, not a Maoist "people's war," and so those lessons are not valid. "Iraqization," in particular, is likely to make matters worse, not better.
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Intelligence, Policy and the War in Iraq
by Paul R. Pillar
(January/February 2006)
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.
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Iraq: Learning the Lessons of Vietnam
by Melvin R. Laird
(November/December 2005)
During Richard Nixon's first term, when I served as secretary of defense, we withdrew most U.S. forces from Vietnam while building up the South's ability to defend itself. The result was a success -- until Congress snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting off funding for our ally in 1975. Washington should follow a similar strategy now, but this time finish the job properly.
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How to Win in Iraq
by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.
(September/October 2005)
Because they lack a coherent strategy, U.S. forces in Iraq have failed to defeat the insurgency or improve security. Winning will require a new approach to counterinsurgency, one that focuses on providing security to Iraqis rather than hunting down insurgents. And it will take at least a decade.
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Iraq: The Logic of Disengagement
by Edward N. Luttwak
(January/February 2005)
The best strategy for the United States now in Iraq is disengagement. In a reversal of the usual sequence, the U.S. hand will be strengthened by withdrawal, and Washington might actually be able to lay the groundwork for a reasonably stable Iraq. Why? Because geography ensures that all other parties are far more exposed to the dangers of an anarchical Iraq than is the United States itself.
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Iraq: Winning the Unwinnable War
by James Dobbins
(January/February 2005)
By losing the trust of the Iraqi people, the Bush administration has already lost the war. Moderate Iraqis can still win it, but only if they wean themselves from Washington and get support from elsewhere. To help them, the United States should reduce and ultimately eliminate its military presence, train Iraqis to beat the insurgency on their own, and rally Iran and European allies to the cause.
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In the Current Issue of Foreign Affairs
The complete text of selected essays and of all the book reviews from the March/April issue can be found on the Foreign Affairs Web site. Currently the following essays are available in their full text:
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Intelligence, Policy, and the War in Iraq
by Paul R. Pillar
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.
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Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon
Stephen Biddle
Most discussions of U.S. policy in Iraq assume that it should be informed by the lessons of Vietnam. But the conflict in Iraq today is a communal civil war, not a Maoist "people's war," and so those lessons are not valid. "Iraqization," in particular, is likely to make matters worse, not better.
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The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy
Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press
For four decades, relations among the major nuclear powers have been shaped by their common vulnerability, a condition known as mutual assured destruction. But with the U.S. arsenal growing rapidly while Russia's decays and China's stays small, the era of MAD is ending — and the era of U.S. nuclear primacy has begun.
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The Man Without a Plan
Amartya Sen
In The White Man's Burden, William Easterly offers important insights about the pitfalls of foreign aid. Unfortunately, his overblown attack on global "do-gooders" obscures the real point: that aid can work, but only if done right.
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Previously in Background on the News
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Indian Spring
March 8, 2006
President George W. Bush's announcement last week that Washington will tolerate India's nuclear status has drawn fire from analysts who fear the move could undermine nonproliferation efforts everywhere. . . . Read more
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To Be or Not To Be
February 22, 2006
Seven years after the end of the war in Kosovo, the terrority's final status is still up in the air. Formal negotiations about independence for the semi-autonomous province of the federation known as Serbia and Montenegro resume this week, but it is unclear where the talks (among representatives of Serbia, Kosovo, the United States, NATO, and the UN) will lead. . . . Read more
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Beware of What You Wish For
February 8, 2006
Although in his State of the Union address President Bush reiterated his commitment to spreading democracy in the Middle East, recent elections in the region have benefited Islamist radicals most of all. . . . Read more
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