Ainslie T. Embree of Columbia University discusses the history and complexity of U.S.-India relations and of India's efforts to define itself as a nation and a world power.
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Foreign Policy Research Institute President Harvey Sicherman delivers an impromptu briefing on the Middle East crisis. A former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state, Sicherman examines the Israel-Lebanon-Gaza war as Round Three in the struggle between the U.S. and Iran over the future direction of the Middle East, or, to put it another way, between the forces for democracy and the forces for theocracy.
According to the FPRI sites, "In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush announced that henceforth those states that harbored or fostered terrorism would be held as accountable as the terrorists. The translation of the war on terrorism from groups to state meant either to change a government's behavior, or, failing that, to change the government itself. Military force might overthrow a regime such as the Taliban or Saddam's Iraq but what would be put in its place? And how could the United States and its allies assure the success of the new political order? In 2005, the Foreign Policy Research Institute initiated a pair of studies that would analyze the lessons learned thus far from what the military calls Phase IV, or stabilization and reconstruction following the end of major conflict. Andrew Garfield led a British and American research team that interviewed British officers and officials for their perspectives on the efforts of their U.S. Coalition partner in Iraq. Frank G. Hoffman surveyed U.S. Marine efforts in Iraq. In this presentation, Andrew Garfield and Frank G. Hoffman present the newly completed studies, designed to aid U.S. military and civilian planners to refine a set of best practices, including a set of principles that can become a consensus, as the U.S. confronts a long and difficult struggle."
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Charles Krauthammer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and writer of a nationally syndicated column for The Washington Post, traces the path of the United States from its rise as a world power following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to its current entanglement in the Middle East. He argues that the apparent failure of democracy in Iraq is not the fault of U.S. policy but the result of the unique history and culture of Iraq.
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Harvey Sicherman, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, discusses Benjamin Franklin's work as a diplomat in France, securing French support of the colonists in the American Revolution.
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In this panel, Harvey Sicherman, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; Andrew Garfield, deputy director of the International Policy Institute (IPI) at King's College London and senior director of Influence and Insight for the Lincoln Group; and Edward A. Turzanski, security analyst at La Salle University, discuss the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, which was released the day before.
Robert D. Kaplan, a Foreign Policy Research Institute Senior Fellow, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, discusses his latest book Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground. He examines the actions of the American military worldwide, arguing that the U.S.'s preoccupation with the Middle East may lead to the rise of military power, meanwhile, in Asia.
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Don Snider of the U.S. Army War College; Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold of the U.S. Marine Corps; Peter Hegseth of Vets for Freedom; and Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, Executive Director of the Reserve Officers Association, discuss several questions related to military-civilian relations: "What is the line on offering advice?," "How much can/should the military speak out?," "What are the ethical dimensions of serving both branches of government?," "What is the obligation that senior officers owe to their seniors, and to their juniors?," and "How much should officers be involved in the media?"
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Frank Hoffman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; Peter Feaver of Duke University; Richard H. Kohn of the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill; and Michael Noonan, Director of the FPRI Program on National Security, discuss the question, "What impact has Operations OEF or OIF had on civil-military relations?"
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Bernard Carreau of the National Defense University, Nadia Schadlow of the Smith Richardson Foundation, Heather A. Coyne of the United States Institute for Peace, and Frank Offman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute discuss several questions related to international interagency policy: "Who has the lead on the ground overseas?," "Is the military the supporting or supported actor?," "What are the implications?," "How can the interagency process contribute to complex operations?," "Should the military prepare to take on more state-building functions?," and "What are the possible problems?"