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Restoring America's Leadership Legitimacy

Tags: geopolitics, us_culture, us_law, us_politics on 2007-07-18 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.brookings.edu

The United States has come to be seen as the other by the rest. There is now a gap between US power and US legitimacy. The argument could be made that the overarching security threat to the US today is the US itself and the resentment, resistance and reproach it has generated in the rest of the world, especially the non-western world.
The great challenge is how to absorb the additional 3 billion in population into the global economy in a socially and politically sustainable way.
The problem in meeting this challenge for the United States is that the global economy is seen as based on an American model, and thus globalisation is often viewed as Americanisation. Giving globalisation a human face and forging an economic model with social inclusion, greater equality and massive reductions in extreme poverty are now security issues for the United States, since it is identified in the rest of the world with exclusion, inequality and polarisation.
Another vital global challenge is energy.
America is no longer secure behind its nuclear weapons shield and its economic prowess. International security now depends on making persons secure in addition to making states secure; it is a matter of soft power, health and environmental stewardship rather than military and technological superiority alone.

AlterNet: A Preview of Bush\'s \'Attack Iran\' Speech

Tags: geopolitics, iran, us_military, us_politics, war_on_terra on 2007-04-28 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.alternet.org

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Why Can\'t We Talk about Peace in Public?

Tags: geopolitics, iraq, us_military, us_politics, war_on_terra on 2007-04-28 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.alternet.org

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Will Iran Be Next?

Tags: geopolitics, iran, us_military, us_politics, war_on_terra on 2007-04-28 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.theatlantic.com

Over the years Gardiner has concluded that role-playing exercises usually work best if the participants feel they are onstage, being observed; this makes them take everything more seriously and try harder to perform.
So in order to force discussion about what, exactly, a military "solution" would mean, Gardiner structured the game to determine how the panel assessed evidence of the threat from Iran; whether it was willing to recommend steps that would keep the option of military action open, and what that action might look like; and how it would make the case for a potential military strike to an audience in the United States and around the world.
One response to imperfect data about an adversary is to assume the worst and prepare for it, so that any other outcome is a happy surprise.
Iran will cross one of the red lines when it produces enough enriched uranium for a bomb, and another when it has weapons in enough places that it would be impossible to remove them in one strike. "Here's the intelligence dilemma," Gardiner said. "We are facing a future in which this is probably Iran's primary national priority. And we have these red lines in front of us, and we"—meaning the intelligence agencies—"won't be able to tell you when they cross them."
Hazy knowledge about Iran's nuclear progress doesn't dictate assuming the worst, Gardiner said. But it does mean that time is not on America's side. At some point, relatively soon, Iran will have an arsenal that no outsiders can destroy, and America will not know in advance when that point has arrived.
two wild-card factors: Iran's current involvement in Iraq, and Israel's potential involvement with Iran. Both complicate and constrain the options open to the United States