American Interest – Robert D. Kaplan writes “Some truths are so obvious that to mention them in polite company seems either pointless or rude. What is left unstated, however, can with time be forgotten. Both of these observations apply today to the American way of war. It is obvious that a military can only fight well on behalf of a society in which it believes, and that a society which believes little is worth fighting for cannot, in the end, field an effective military. Obvious as this is, we seem to have forgotten it.”
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Foreign Affairs – Pundits, academics, and Bush bashers insist that the United States is losing ground in Asia, but they are wrong. The Bush administration’s Asia policy has been an unheralded success. Improved relations with China, stronger U.S.-Japanese cooperation, North Korea’s gradual nuclear disarmament, and expanding regional alliances have made Asia more prosperous and secure than it has been in decades.
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Foreign Affairs – After 60 years of U.S. domination, the balance of power in Northeast Asia is shifting. The United States is in relative decline, China is on the rise, and Japan and South Korea are in flux. To maintain U.S. power in the region, Washington must identify the trends shaping this transition and embrace new tools and regimes that broaden the United States’ power base.
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Foreign Affairs – The United States now spends almost as much on defense in real dollars as it ever has before — even though it has no plausible rationale for using most of its impressive military forces. Why? Because without political incentives for restraint, policymakers have lost the ability to think clearly about defense policy. Washington’s new mantra should be “Half a trillion dollars is more than enough.”
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says that quelling anarchy in Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere, will require building on tribal loyalties-not imposing democracy from the top down
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says the creation of AFRICOM, the U.S. military’s new Africa Command, offers the hope of steady, low-key progress in the war on terror.
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Foreign Affairs – The rise of a democratic and increasingly powerful India is a positive development for U.S. interests. Rarely has the United States shared so many interests and values with a growing power as we do today with India. By reaching out to India, we have made the bet that the future lies in pluralism, democracy, and market economics.
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Foreign Affairs – It can, but only if U.S. officials start to think clearly about what success in the war on terror would actually look like. Victory will come only when Washington succeeds in discrediting the terrorists’ ideology and undermining their support. These achievements, in turn, will require accepting that the terrorist threat can never be eradicated completely and that acting as though it can will only make it worse.
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Foreign Affairs – Over the past decade, Burma has gone from being an antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster to being a serious threat to its neighbors’ security. The international community must change its approach to the country’s junta.
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Washington Post – Ahmed Rashid comments that President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule this weekend will only encourage further civil strife, nationwide protests and greater territorial gains by the extremist Pakistani Taliban.
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New Yorker – A very interesting look at one eco-warrior’s wild crusade to save the oceans.
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Esquire – Thomas P.M. Barnett asks: In the lives of men and nations, either you are growing or you’re dying. In our time, the Soviet Union imploded, China is adding back lost colonies, and Europe is now the European Union. So why did the United States stop growing? And what will our next five states be?
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New Scientist – A futuristic scheme to collect solar energy on satellites and beam it to Earth has gained a large supporter in the US military. A report released yesterday by the National Security Space Office recommends that the US government sponsor projects to demonstrate solar-power-generating satellites and provide financial incentives for further private development of the technology.

National Security Space Office – Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
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Foreign Affairs – Did the Bush administration disregard military expertise before the Iraq war? Should military leaders have done more to protest in response?
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Foreign Affairs – Since the Democrats regained control of Congress, the Hill has been alive with the sound of hearings. Congress’ earlier slumber and recent awakening should come as no surprise: for the last six decades, the partisan composition of Congress has defined the politics of war. Now facing a Democratic majority, President George W. Bush will find it far more difficult to stay in Iraq.
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Foreign Affairs – Paul Collier offers strong recommendations for helping “the bottom billion” — those living in poor countries caught in growth traps. But he cannot overcome a basic problem: how to create growth where no functioning economy exists.
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New Yorker – Garry Kasparov takes aim at the power of Vladimir Putin.
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Foreign Affairs – China’s environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.
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Foreign Affairs – Deep divisions at home about the nature of the United States’ engagement with the world threaten to produce failed leadership abroad — and possibly isolationism. To steady U.S. global leadership and restore consensus to U.S. foreign policy, U.S. commitments overseas must be scaled back to a more politically sustainable level.
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Foreign Affairs – Washington has abandoned diplomacy in favor of military power. In Statecraft, Dennis Ross urges U.S. officials to resurrect the United States’ peacemaking tradition and restore its international reputation.
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The Economist – Political power in Russia now lies with the FSB, the KGB’s successor
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New Yorker – Niall Ferguson reviews how much did the Marshall Plan really matter?
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Foreign Affairs – Two new books discuss how Washington should fight the wars of tomorrow — and pay for them. But to balance the conflicting demands of strategy and finance, the next president ought to take a page from Eisenhower’s playbook.
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New York Times Magazine – After centuries of strife, the West has learned to separate religion and politics – to establish the legitimacy of its leaders without referring to divine command. There is little reason to expect that the rest of the world – the Islamic world in particular – will follow.
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Foreign Affairs – Robert Service’s Comrades! tells the story of world communism — but leaves the reader still hungry for explanations of why the movement lasted so long and what, if anything, it accomplished.
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