Posted by: zanshin, 2009-01-06 02:34

Story

Obama May Use Chavez as First Test for Talking With Adversaries

Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, 2009-01-06 (Tuesday), Bloomberg
In a mirrored office tower overlooking Caracas, a top Venezuelan official says his government is ready to accept Barack Obama’s offer to talk with U.S. adversaries -- if the president-elect scraps George W. Bush’s division of the world into friends and foes.

Such categories are “simplistic,” says Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s former envoy to Washington. “Why do nations have to be friends? What we have to do is sit down and discuss issues.”

Venezuela may provide a useful first test for Obama’s pledge to engage rather than isolate antagonists. While Chavez is one of Washington’s noisiest critics, frayed relations would likely be easier to mend than those with nations such as Iran and Cuba, whose leaders are even more hostile toward the U.S.

Still, “Obama needs to be cautious” given Chavez’s inconsistent record on democracy, says Elsa Cardozo, an international-relations scholar at the Metropolitan University of Caracas. The 54-year-old former lieutenant colonel has allowed open elections and an opposition press while consolidating power over the government and selectively persecuting political rivals.

“Expect an indirect and gradual approach” that might serve as a template for normalizing relations with other countries run by long-serving charismatic leaders who’ve consolidated power, she says.

Mutual Interest

Some Obama advisers privately suggest the president-elect might reach out to Chavez, proposing cooperation on a few issues of mutual interest -- drug enforcement, energy, poverty -- while asking Brazil and other neighbors to encourage the Venezuelan leader to negotiate in good faith in the interest of regional harmony.

Mending fences with Chavez might have a positive ripple effect, helping U.S. ties with Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba, where Chavez has doled out subsidized oil and generous financial aid.

“The Republican agenda was based just on trade, terrorism and drug trafficking,” says Leopoldo Lopez, a popular opposition politician who was among hundreds of Chavez critics banned from participating in recent elections. “If the U.S. agenda changes and the focus shifts toward justice, democracy and prosperity, it would improve relations between North and South America.”

Plummeting crude-oil prices may give Obama, 47, a window of opportunity. Venezuela’s benchmark price fell below $30 a barrel in December, according to the country’s central bank -- a quarter of last summer’s record $126.46 and just half of what Chavez’s government projected for the 2009 budget.

Devalue Currency

This could force him to devalue his currency, seek conventional loans and cut spending for the domestic social programs and foreign aid that have made him popular at home and with poor nations.

Venezuela holds the Western Hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, so high prices “allowed Chavez to talk tough,” says Milos Alcalay, former ambassador to the United Nations under Chavez before resigning in 2004 in protest over what he called abuses of democracy. As prices fall, “the softer his rhetoric will be.”

Chavez also faces an opposition emboldened by wins in several large cities and states during the Nov. 23 elections. Those opponents are working hard to derail his efforts to amend Venezuela’s constitution and end term limits, which might extend his rule beyond 2013 when he would otherwise have to step down.

‘Much Uncertainty’

Obama is taking office “at a moment of much uncertainty” for Chavez, says Margarita Lopez Maya, a historian at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.

For now, the countries have almost no relationship beyond trade, which hit $75 billion last year, according to the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. is the leading consumer of Venezuelan crude oil -- buying about 1 million barrels a day -- and Venezuelans are avid consumers of American cars, food and machinery.

Both sides blame the other for not cooperating on terrorism, drugs and airport security. Chavez routinely accuses the U.S. of spying and “scheming.” Veteran diplomats say communication is smoother with Syria and Belarus than with Venezuela, where no one dares reach out to Washington without his explicit directions.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, has relished his role as a thorn in Washington’s side, calling Bush “the devil” at the United Nations, purchasing weapons and borrowing money from Russia and China, and exchanging state visits with Cuba, Libya, Belarus and Iran.

Harsh Reality

Alberto Muller, vice president of Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, says the president’s mistrust is based on harsh reality. In April 2002, the Bush administration applauded an attempted coup against him, which failed. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once compared him to Adolf Hitler.

The night of Obama’s election victory, Chavez sent a warm congratulatory letter. He has suggested what he would like, aside from respect: extradition of an anti-Castro Venezuelan terrorist whom a U.S. judge refused to hand over in 2005, elimination of the half-century embargo on his ally Cuba and renewed cooperation against drug trafficking.

In an interview televised Dec. 14 on a government channel, Chavez said Obama is still the “president of the Empire, an Empire intact in all its machinery and mechanisms.” Still, “we have to watch with patience and good will and with faith that relations will improve.”

Patch Up Ties

Surveys show that most Venezuelans -- including those who support Chavez -- want to patch up ties with the U.S.

“If Obama treats our president as an equal, everything will work better,” says Carlos Julio Altuve, 39, a community councilor in 23 de Enero, a sprawling Caracas slum of makeshift homes and garbage-strewn alleys.

Antonio Ledezma, the new opposition mayor of Caracas, believes Chavez’s motives are cynical: Better ties with Washington might win him votes from a pro-U.S. middle class in the constitutional referendum, which could allow him to be re- elected indefinitely.

Other Chavez critics say his eagerness to befriend Obama is a facade. His image as David to Washington’s Goliath crumbles if he befriends a government he has decried as bent on undermining him.

“Becoming friends with the U.S. could weaken Chavez” with revolutionary supporters at home and abroad, says Lopez, the opposition politician, who fears Chavez will scuttle any real progress with Washington. “We will have to wait and see.”

Comments


No comments yet.

Please login to post your comment.












All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Stories, Arguments and Comments are owned by the Poster.
The Rest copyright © 2007 Argumentations.com. All rights reserved. Argumentations.com provides material for research or educational purposes only. We do not warrant the correctness of its contents. The risk from using it lies entirely with the user. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Argumentations.com is far from perfect so if you have any critiques, questions, comments or problems about this site please tell us. Click here to send your feedback. And if you like Argumentations.com please link to this site. It will really help a lot.
   

Tags

Belarus,   Bolivia,   Brazil,   Bush,   Chavez,   China,   Class,   Cuba,   democracy,   Drugs,   Ecuador,   empire,   Energy,   Hitler,   Iran,   Libya,   Nicaragua,   Obama,   Oil,   poverty,   Russia,   Syria,   Terrorism,   USA,   Venezuela,  

Related statements

No results

View other suggested stories

Date added 
2008-10-24The World Around Russia: 2017 -- An Outlook for the Midterm Future
2008-01-19A Political-Risk Outlook for 2008
2008-04-24Revamping American Grand Strategy
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 5 -- Terrorist Safe Havens (7120 Report)
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Organizations
2007-07-12House Armed Services Committee Global Security Assessment Statement For The Record
2008-11-09Blueprint for Change -- Obama and Biden’s Plan for America
2009-01-16The Joint Operating Environment (JOE)
2007-08-08The Global War on Terrorism -- The First 100 Days
2008-06-11The History of the House of Rothschild
2008-09-18US Genocide in Iraq
2007-10-24CNN Larry King Live -- Interview with Vicente Fox
2009-02-11Renewing American Leadership
2007-01-14Natural Resources are Fuelling a New Cold War
2007-01-24President Bush’s State of the Union Address
2007-02-20Misplaying North Korea and Losing Friends and Influence in Northeast Asia
2006-05-01THE SO-CALLED EVIDENCE IS A FARCE: FORMER GREEN BERET SAYS BUSH IS LYING
2008-04-28Latin America: the attack on democracy
2008-09-13TERRORISM, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY: SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE LEGAL AND JUSTICE PROFESSIONALS OF THE ‘COALITION OF THE WILLING’
2008-08-11Rethinking the National Interest -- American Realism for a New World
2008-11-14Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World -- Renewing Transatlantic Partnership
2009-05-10Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 --
2008-12-23Obama and the new Latin America
2006-11-19Bolivia's Leader Solidifies Region's Leftward Tilt
2006-12-06Transcript - The Nomination Hearing for Robert M. Gates
2007-02-18After Neoconservatism
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Western Hemisphere Overview
2007-08-06The Global Drug Meta-Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11
2007-07-31The American Empire is Failing – A Good Thing for America and the World -- An Interview with Terry Paupp
2007-07-04Renewing American Leadership
2007-06-13Resource Wars - Can We Survive Them?
2008-06-24Chomsky Speaks -- On Iraq, Iran and Norman Finkelstein
2008-04-29The Pentagon's New Map
2008-03-24Globalization And The Development Of Underdevelopment Of The Third World
2007-11-11In the Wake of War: Geo-strategy, Terrorism, Oil Markets, and Domestic Politics
2009-05-10Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 -- Chapter 2. Country Reports: Europe and Eurasia Overview
2007-06-17More Smoke on the Horizon in the Middle East War Theater
2007-06-07The Global Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat: A Counter- Argument to the Western Interdisciplinary Viewpoint
2007-05-11Waning Chances for Stability -- Least Bad Options in a Failed, War-Torn State
2007-06-05President Bush Visits Prague, Czech Republic, Discusses Freedom
2007-07-04Grand Strategy for a Divided America
2007-02-19Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
2007-03-14The Geopolitics of Energy: Speech given at the IP Week, 2007
2006-12-18“Bush’s Dream”
2006-10-03Transcript of a Press Conference on the World Economic Outlook Report
2006-10-09The Anglo-American War of Terror: An Overview
2006-04-20The Next Iraqi War? Sectarianism and Civil Conflict
2007-11-20The Neoconservative Moment
2007-12-22Iran - Nuclear Chronology - 2005
2007-10-20The Coming Civil War In Mexico
2008-03-23Future Human Evolution -- Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century
2008-02-26Fitzgerald: Islam for Infidels, Part Two
2008-06-18The Age of Nonpolarity -- What Will Follow U.S. Dominance
2008-06-10Impeach George W. Bush Resolution
2008-05-17The world health report 2007 : a safer future : global public health security in the 21st century.
2008-09-02Stoking Tensions, Risking Confrontation: A High Stakes US Gamble with Russia
2008-11-10The US's geopolitical nightmare
2009-05-10Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 -- Chapter 2. Country Reports: Western Hemisphere Overview
2009-03-15Squaring the Pentagon
2008-11-20Russia And The New World Order -- The Geopolitical Project Of Pax Eurasiatica
2008-11-20The Cold Peace
2008-11-21A Conversation with Vicente Fox Quesada
2008-11-24Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World -- Executive Summary
2009-01-18Venezuela's Chavez says Obama has "stench" of Bush
2009-02-02Freedom Beats A Global Retreat
2009-02-08One on One: 'With no likelihood of US use of force, that leaves Israel'
2006-10-18Hugo Chávez
2006-11-24Snubs and opportunities
2007-02-28Speech at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: East Asia and Pacific Overview
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Europe and Eurasia Overview
2007-04-25Capitalism is Savagery
2007-04-12The Eurabia Code
2007-07-04Rising to a New Generation of Global Challenges
2007-07-12Republic or empire: A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States
2007-06-05'i Am A True Democrat' -- G-8 Interview With Vladimir Putin
2007-06-22Rice Talks With Journal's Editorial Board
2008-11-01The End Of Arrogance -- America Loses Its Dominant Economic Role
2008-11-03Venezuela's Chavez sees America as a 'sinking ship'
2008-11-07Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Europe and Eurasia Overview
2008-10-29Sarkozy, France, and Nato -- Will Sarkozy’s Rapprochement To Nato Be Sustainable?
2008-09-13The Brazilian Military Is Back, As It Fleshes Out Its Weaponry And Strategies
2008-08-07Brzezinski’s bunker
2008-08-01The Democrats & National Security
2008-05-17Planned US Israeli Attack on Iran: Will there be a War against Iran?
2008-06-18The Future of American Power -- How America Can Survive the Rise of the Rest
2008-07-16Nations with vast oil wealth gaining clout
2008-03-24Global Migration Patterns and Job Creation
2008-04-22A Warning to Africa: The New U.S. Imperial Grand Strategy
2008-04-07Famine, food and fertilizer
2008-01-29Hugo Chávez Eyes Colombia
2008-02-02A Statesman Without Borders
2008-01-04Why Iraq? Oil and U.S. Foreign Policy
2007-10-22The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know
2007-10-23Torture in the Name of Freedom
2007-10-10India's Tough Choice on Iran
2007-12-13Bilderberg 2007 - Towards a One World Empire?
2007-11-28Does the Future Belong to China?
2007-11-20Whose War?
2007-11-11The Next Act -- Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?
2009-01-21Iran: Breaking the Nuclear Deadlock -- A Chatham House Report
2009-01-10The New New World Order
2008-11-30EU2020 essay Willing and able? -- EU defence in 2020
2008-12-07Timeline: Venezuela -- A chronology of key events
2009-03-15Flushing the Parasites -- Reforming the Global Financial System
2009-05-22The Revenge of Geography
2009-07-22Street Fighting Man
2007-06-18A PACKAGE DEAL FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
2007-06-19CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER
2007-06-07US missiles hit Russia where it hurts
2007-06-08Remarks at the Centennial Dinner for the Economic Club of New York
2007-06-13John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption"
2007-05-17Rehabilitating US Imperialism
2007-05-22Statements made by Democratic leaders about Saddam Hussein's acquisition or possession of WMD
2007-05-22We're Number One! America Leads the World in War Profits
2007-07-13The New York Times Surrenders -- A monument to defeatism on the editorial page
2007-07-16Will Iran Be Next?
2007-07-01Democratic Realism -- An American Foreign Policy for a Unipolar World
2007-07-02Zionist Plan for the Middle East
2007-08-15President Delivers State of the Union Address
2007-08-24The Challenge of Islam
2007-09-02Remarks By The President At 2002 Graduation Exercise Of The United States Military Academy
2007-04-25Gravy Train: Feeding The Pentagon By Feeding Somalia
2007-05-02President Bush Meets with EU Leaders -- 2007 U.S.-EU Summit
2007-05-03National Security Briefing == Presented to then-Governor Bush
2007-04-04Breaking Ranks -- What turned Brent Scowcroft against the Bush Administration?
2007-04-10Six Crises in Search of an Author
2007-02-19Hating America
2007-03-14Timeline of events in the Cold War
2007-01-24In Venezuela, Chavismo Is Dissected by Fans and Foes
2007-01-09Despite their shoddy track record on Iraq analysis, O'Reilly trusts only "my military analysts
2006-11-07MAGHREB REGIME SCENARIOS
2006-10-18The Clash of Cultures and American Hegemony
2006-10-26Blaming the lobby
2006-09-29China -- PART 2: Tequila trap beckons China
2006-09-09Chávez gives US headache on a world scale
2006-09-12The Nation That Fell to Earth
2006-09-23How Oil Lubricates Our Enemies
2007-11-19The Economic Tsunami -- Coming Sooner Than You Think
2007-12-13Crisis of Faith in the Muslim World
2007-12-18Turkey's EU Membership's Possible Impacts on the Middle East
2007-09-20Saudi Arabia joins UN atomic agency board
2007-09-21Why Capitalism Needs Terror: An Interview with Naomi Klein
2007-09-24Betrayed -- The Iraqis who trusted America the most
2007-10-03Why the United States Invaded Iraq and is Now Thinking About Invading Iran
2008-01-06Press Conference by the President
2008-01-08Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer Announces Top Risks and Red Herrings for 2008
2008-01-24The Three Rs: Rivalry, Russia, ’Ran
2008-01-24A Moral Core for U.S. Foreign Policy
2008-04-04Interview: Lee Kuan Yew -- Part 1
2008-05-05Global Neo-Liberalism, the Deformation of Education and Resistance
2008-05-14Resisting the Empire
2008-03-24Chalmers Johnson: “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic”
2008-03-03President Addresses Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' Luncheon
2008-03-06"Victory Would be a Fata Morgana"
2008-07-07Wrestling for influence
2008-07-12Iran: The Threat
2008-06-23Chavez may stop oil to Europe over immigrant law -- UPDATE 4
2008-06-16Not an island -- Europe and the Middle East
2008-05-23Iran's surprise package tests waters
2008-05-26The Failed States Index 2007
2008-06-06Between the Rule of Power and the Power of Rule: In Search of an Effective World Order
2008-08-04How The United States Reversed Its Policy On Bombing Civilians
2008-09-26Is a U.S.-Approved Coup Under Way in Bolivia?
2008-09-26Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Challenge Paper Terrorism
2008-08-25Securitarism, reproduction of disorder and erosion of democratic rule of law
2008-08-27The new geopolitics of crude oil
2008-11-07Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Middle East and North Africa Overview
2008-11-03Redefining U.S. Interests in the Middle East
2008-11-11The Case for Restraint -- Foreign policy after George W. Bush
2008-11-11'What's Looming in Ukraine Is more Threatening than Georgia'
2009-06-20The Secret Wars of the CIA -- Part 1
2009-06-20The Secret Wars Of The Cia -- Part 2
2009-06-07The Wages of Hubris and Vengeance -- The Future of Israel and the Decline of the American Empire
2009-05-08The Trilateral Commission -- Membership 2008
2009-05-08A Leadership Review of the Barack Obama Administration
2009-04-15"We can be a benevolent superpower", interview with Jimmy Carter
2008-12-06Obama's War Cabinet
2008-12-14Use of the Veto on United Nations Resolutions by the USA
2008-11-27A brave new world awaits
2008-11-23The American Mission?
2008-11-21The New Geopolitics
2008-11-20Defining the “Post-Soviet Space”
2009-02-01Preventing and Resolving Deadly Conflict: What Have We Learned?,
2006-09-23Europe Learns the Wrong Lessons
2006-09-03The Next Space Race - Interview - Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH)
2006-09-03Transcript - President Bush's Speech
2006-08-21Ask the expert: Bush’s foreign policy
2006-08-23The Party of Davos
2006-10-09The Emerging Russian Giant Plays its Cards Strategically
2006-10-25Venezuelan’s Diatribe at U.N. May Have Backfired
2006-10-31''Venezuela Moves to Nationalize its Oil Industry''
2006-12-16Revamping Us Foreign Policy, Part 1 - Full speed ahead, with menace
2007-03-14Sweden: Restrictive Immigration Policy and Multiculturalism
2007-03-14The new Seven Sisters: oil and gas giants dwarf western rivals
2007-03-02Australia: the new 51st state
2007-02-10Q&A: Neocon power examined
2007-04-05"Promoting Democracy: A Progressive Foreign Policy Agenda".
2007-03-19Made in USA
2007-03-24Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?
2007-05-04Five events that changed the world in 2006
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 2 -- Country Reports: Middle East and North Africa Overview
2007-04-25Empire’s Workshop -- Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism
2007-04-24Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
2007-04-17Commission Adopts Resolutions On Combating Defamation Of Religions; Right To Development
2007-08-27Sarkozy calls for troop exit from Iraq
2007-08-27Iran risks attack over atomic push, French president says
2007-08-29President Bush Addresses the 89th Annual National Convention of the American Legion
2007-08-17Weapons of Mass Preservation -- Op-Ed Contributor
2007-09-09No Refuge Here: Iraqis Flee, but Where?
2007-07-10It’s Time for a Declaration of Independence From Israel
2007-07-31Franco – Arab Ties Could Yet Survive Sarkozy’s U-Turn
2007-07-24Highlights in the History of U.S. Relations With Russia, 1780-June 2006
2007-08-07Transcript: Bush news conference
2007-05-17300: Proto-Fascism and Manufacturing of Complicity
2007-05-10Six Nightmares: Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How America Can Meet Them
2007-05-31The Case for Bombing Iran
2007-06-08Political Islam
2007-06-06Nato’s Islamists
2008-11-05Post cold war Indian foreign policy
2008-11-17Clinton Is The WorId's Leading Active War Criminal
2008-11-19World Energy Outlook, 2008 Edition -- Executive summary
2008-09-29The Roaring Nineties
2008-10-11Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
2008-08-27Hezbollah presence in Venezuela feared
2008-08-25The Worldwide Threat 2004: Challenges in a Changing Global Context
2008-08-27How to Manage Moscow
2008-09-17Le Feyt Declaration - Peace in Iraq is an option
2008-09-12The Worsening Debt Crisis: Who Got Us into This Mess and What are the Real Political Options?
2008-09-15Georgia and the Balance of Power
2008-09-10That Kosovo, Goldberg, Bolivia Thing
2008-07-29Does the Constitution Require the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney?
2008-07-31Strong Economy Propels Brazil to World Stage
2008-07-28Why the Dollar Bubble is about to Burst
2008-07-28The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
2008-06-11Wrestling With History -- Sometimes you have to fight the war you have, not the war you wish you had
2008-05-21The Real World: OPEC, Master of Universe
2008-06-27MESSAGE MACHINE; Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
2008-06-27President Delivers "State of the Union"
2008-07-05Symposium: Israel's Test
2008-02-23The Two Faces of Saudi Arabia
2008-02-18The Next Christianity
2008-05-04Downsized Discourse: Classroom Management, Neoliberalism, and the Shaping of Correct Workplace Attitude
2008-04-29The Man Between War and Peace
2008-04-24A Dissenter’s Guide to Foreign Policy
2008-04-13Holistic Integrative Analysis of International Change: A Commentary on Teaching Emergent Futures
2008-01-28APPEAL TO ALLIES
2008-01-31The North American Union and the Larger Plan
2008-02-08Assessing the Islamist Threat, Circa 1946
2008-01-14Belgo-British Conference 2005 -- 2020 – a new horizon for Europe
2008-01-11After Iraq
2007-12-27Into Africa
2008-01-02Turkish accession to the European union: challenges and opportunities
2007-10-16The global Oil grab of 2007
2007-10-17Iran: Nuclear programme
2007-11-01Noam Chomsky - Controlled Asset Of The New World Order
2007-11-02Vice President's Remarks to the Heritage Foundation
2007-12-22Clinton on Foreign Policy at University of Nebraska
2007-12-03Sudan: Humanitarian Crisis, Peace Talks, Terrorism, and U.S. Policy
2007-12-07A new Chinese red line over Iran
2007-11-16The Crisis Of Pakistan: A Dangerously Weak State
2007-11-16The Threat of Maritime Terrorism to Israel
2007-11-10The rising tide: assessing the risks of climate change and human settlements in low elevation coastal zones
2007-11-09HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE?
2007-11-12NATO Expands into Arab South
2007-11-05Is Peru becoming involved in Plan Colombia?
2009-02-11The Great Crash, 2008 -- A Geopolitical Setback for the West
2008-12-27Barack Obama: The Naked Emperor
2008-12-29Washington bears guilt for Gaza war crimes
2008-12-30Watching the Rouble Go Down -- Diary
2009-01-19This war on terrorism is bogus
2009-01-11Globaloney
2008-11-19The New Kleptocracy: Biggest "Giveaway" in American History
2008-11-25A Secure Europe in a Better World -- European Security Strategy
2008-11-26Understanding the Beijing Consensus
2008-12-03Symposium: Iran: The Countdown
2008-12-13Getting Away with Torture?
2009-05-10Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 -- Chapter 2. Country Reports: East Asia and Pacific Overview
2009-05-10Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 -- Chapter 2. Country Reports: Middle East and North Africa Overview
2009-06-01Obama's Cairo Speech
2009-02-11The Myth of Grand Strategy
2009-02-17Shock Wave (Anti) Warrior
2009-02-20Trouble Trickles From Steep Drop in Oil Prices --
2009-08-10Codex And Health Freedom – Be Wary Of The ‘instant Experts’
2007-06-06Russia Redux?
2007-06-06G8: Issues and controversies
2007-06-13Nuclear Posture Review [Excerpts]
2007-06-13Press Conference by the President
2007-06-17General Tommy Franks -- An exclusive interview with America's top general in the war on terrorism
2007-06-18Israel-Lebanon conflict - timeline of events
2007-06-22Al Qaeda Strikes Back
2007-05-30The great escape
2007-06-05CIA running black propaganda operation against Iran, Syria and Lebanon, officials say
2007-05-10Hezbollah, Illegal Immigration, and the Next 9/11
2007-05-15The New Demographic Balance in Europe and its Consequences
2007-08-05The End of Cowboy Diplomacy
2007-07-22Interview with Israel Shahak
2007-07-15Viewpoint: Russia's missile fears
2007-07-16Iran: A Bridge too Far?
2007-07-01Why the Future May Not Belong to Islam
2007-07-05The Secret Way to War
2007-07-08The Road Home - Editorial
2007-09-09It's the Demography, Stupid
2007-09-11Lessons from the Bloc
2007-09-07Understanding the U.S.-Israel Alliance: An Israeli Response to the Walt-Mearsheimer Claim
2007-09-15Bush's tangled arms deal
2007-08-26The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy
2007-04-15Eye on Iran, Rivals Pursuing Nuclear Power
2007-04-12A Conversation With Vladimir Bukovsky
2007-04-13India, China and the Asian axis of oil
2007-04-14War? You must be joking
2007-04-23Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s First Post-Soviet Leader, Is Dead
2007-04-25Economic Hit Men -- An interview with John Perkins
2007-05-01Iran’s Nuclear Calculations
2007-05-02Country Reports on Terrorism -- Chapter 4 -- The Global Challenge of WMD Terrorism
2007-03-27Our World: Condi's embrace of jihadist 'peace'
2007-04-04The Next World Order
2007-03-30China vs Japan: FTAs, oil and Taiwan
2007-04-02From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq
2007-04-02Reaction From Around the World
2007-04-03Mbeki seeks ways to limit chaos to the north and within
2007-02-12How the Baby Boomers Almost Saved the World ...and why they failed
2007-02-18Venezuela’s Military Build-up: Who’s Watching the Guns?
2007-02-28RUSSIA AND THE NEW COLD WAR -- When cowboys don't shoot straight
2007-03-04The Leadership of George W. Bush: Con & Pro
2007-03-15Mohammedanism
2007-03-06Did North Korea Cheat?
2007-03-13Bush and Chávez Spar at Distance Over Latin Visit
2006-12-18“Osama’s Dream”
2006-12-26The Great Game on a razor's edge
2007-01-11Transcript of President Bush’s Address to Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq
2007-01-23Stop the Next War `- Before it starts. Support H. J. Resolution 14
2007-01-23The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq: PR Spinning the Bush Doctrine
2007-01-25Make War Your Friend, Part I
2007-01-27My Worst Moment As a Lawyer
2006-11-04Optimism Turns to Anxiety On Curbing Nuclear Arms
2006-10-25The new Great Game
2006-10-26President Bush on Iraq
2006-10-27Dick Cheney’s Song of America
2006-10-10World Conquest : The Heartland Theory of Halford J. Mackinder
2006-09-29An alternative way forward for the US
2006-10-07When the devil dislikes the stink of brimstone
2006-11-07TURKEY AND THE AZERBAIJANI OIL CONTROVERSIES: LOOKING FOR A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE PIPELINE
2006-11-19PREPARING FOR A NEW COLD WAR, Part 1 - A war the West can't win
2006-11-19PREPARING FOR A NEW COLD WAR, Part 2 - Asymmetric challenge to the US colossus
2006-11-28THE NEW WORLD OIL ORDER, Part 2 - Russia tips the balance
2006-12-03Baghdad Year Zero - Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
2006-12-04Afghanistan: No blood for oil - this time
2006-11-29Islamic Revolution
2006-08-24The United States of America will cease to exist on February 5th, 2006
2006-05-01How to Win in Iraq
2006-09-19THE AGITATOR
2006-09-12The Bubble of American Supremacy
2006-09-17Triple-pronged Jihad -- Military, Economic and Cultural
2006-09-09United States Secretary of State Colin Powell discusses recent concerns
2007-11-05Renewed attempts to militarize the Andean borders
2007-11-07Blood borders -- How a better Middle East would look
2007-11-12IRAN AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
2007-11-13The Deadly Embrace
2007-11-12Text of Bush-Sarkozy Press Conference
2007-11-20Breaking Away -- Francis Fukuyama and the neoconservatives
2007-11-22The United States’ new backyard
2007-12-10I’ll have the Bilderberger, well done!
2007-12-20Press Conference by the President
2007-11-01The Breaking Point
2007-10-29Putin Denounces U.S. Missile Shield
2007-10-18'Many in the US Military Think Bush and Cheney Are Out of Control'
2007-10-20The War on Afghanistan Was Wrong, Too
2007-10-12The Iconoclast
2007-09-25VENEZUELA: Chavez springs nationalisation surprise
2007-09-28The Mega-Lie Called the "War on Terror": A Masterpiece of Propaganda
2007-09-18The Shock Doctrine: Naomi Klein on the Rise of Disaster Capitalism
2008-01-01Sarkozy Seeks More Qaddafis in Quest to Win Business Contracts
2008-01-02How to Defuse Iran
2007-12-22Bush/Gore Second Presidential Debate October 11
2007-12-28How Pakistan Works
2007-12-28The Kurdish Policy Imperative
2007-12-29Russia, Iran tighten the energy noose
2008-02-04Arming the Middle East
2008-02-02Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks
2008-01-29THE WAR ON TERROR: FOUR YEARS ON; Taking Stock Of the Forever War
2008-01-29Challenging a Unipolar World
2008-01-30FOUAD AJAMI: THE POWERS OF PETROCRACY
2008-01-28U.S.-Israel Defense Relations on Mend But New American Veto Policy Crimps Israeli Arms Sales
2008-01-27Time to Secede? -- Breaking Away From a Bankrupt State
2008-01-25Dhimmi Shelter
2008-03-29Why the US is collapsing
2008-04-02Some Things Just Won't Change
2008-04-22The March to War: Israel Prepares for War against Lebanon and Syria
2008-04-16A Review of the Seminar ‘the Security of Energy Supplies: the Role of NATO and Other International Organisations’
2008-05-15Yankees Head Home
2008-02-22Conversations in International Relations: Interview with John J. Mearsheimer (Part I)