The RAND Blog

2009

  • Security Cooperation

    commentary

    Obama's Turkish Dilemma

    F. Stephen Larrabee

    Apr 6, 2009

    CNN

    President Obama's visit to Ankara this week highlights Turkey's growing strategic importance to the United States - and a high stakes dilemma for the President and for U.S. strategic interests, writes F. Stephen Larrabee.

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  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization

    commentary

    Afghanistan Is NATO's Most Important Challenge

    Robert E. Hunter

    Apr 3, 2009

    RFERL.org, the website of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

    This week's NATO summit is not the most important moment on this year's trans-Atlantic calendar. That honor belonged to the Group of 20 (G20) summit that was just concluded in London, writes Robert E. Hunter.

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  • Maritime Piracy

    commentary

    Piracy Still Threatens the Freedom of the Seas

    Peter Chalk, Laurence Smallman

    Apr 3, 2009

    RFERL.org, the website of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

    As recent events off the Horn of Africa have demonstrated, armed violence at sea is emerging as a growing threat.... Piracy, in particular, threatens the freedom of the seas, increases the cost of international business, endangers political security through corruption, and could trigger a major environmental disaster, write Peter Chalk, Laurence Smallman.

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  • Outer Space

    commentary

    Space: The Final Junkyard?

    Caroline R. Milne, Peter D. Zimmerman

    Apr 2, 2009

    CNN

    Celestial real estate is increasingly popular. Now that Iran has joined the space club, 10 countries have demonstrated the ability to launch a probe into orbit.... All in all more than 900 satellites, along with tens of thousands of bits of man-made space detritus, jockey for elbow room overhead, write Caroline S. Reilly and Peter D. Zimmerman.

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  • commentary

    Virginity Pledges Work for Some Teens

    Steven C. Martino

    Apr 1, 2009

    Providence Journal

    Essentially, the available research suggests that teaching abstinence alone to teenagers does not work — they are no more likely to delay the start of sexual activity than other teenagers. But research has not been so clear regarding virginity pledges specifically, writes Steven Martino.

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  • Counterterrorism

    commentary

    The Torture Debate, Redux

    Brian Michael Jenkins

    Apr 1, 2009

    GlobalSecurity.org

    Former Vice President Cheney has been insisting again that the coercive interrogation techniques used against terrorism detainees after 9/11 prevented attacks on the United States.... His assertions merit more careful examination, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.

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  • commentary

    Quality, Transparency, and the US Government

    Robert H. Brook

    Apr 1, 2009

    The Journal of the American Medical Association

    If the government is demanding transparency of physicians and hospitals, the very least the physicians and hospitals should do is demand transparency of the government, writes Robert Brook.

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  • Afghanistan

    commentary

    Ultimate Exit Strategy

    Karl F. Inderfurth, James Dobbins

    Mar 26, 2009

    International Herald Tribune

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described the upcoming high-level conference on Afghanistan at The Hague as a "big-tent meeting, with all the parties who have a stake and an interest in Afghanistan." With the situation in that country growing more precarious by the day, those attending this meeting must also think big, write Karl F. Inderfurth and James Dobbins.

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  • France

    commentary

    France's Creeping Reintegration

    F. Stephen Larrabee

    Mar 24, 2009

    GlobalSecurity.org

    At the upcoming NATO summit in Strasbourg-Kehl, French President Sarkozy is expected to formally announce France's return to NATO's integrated military command, from which President de Gaulle withdrew France in 1966. The full reintegration of France into NATO, if confirmed, will remove an important irritant in U.S.-French relations and open up new possibilities for strengthening U.S.-European cooperation more broadly, writes Stephen Larrabee.

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  • Iran

    commentary

    Iran's New Contender

    Alireza Nader

    Mar 24, 2009

    Project Syndicate

    Iran's presidential race just got more interesting, with former Prime Minister Mousavi throwing his hat in the ring and former President Khatami withdrawing his. This development poses the most significant challenge yet to current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - and a potential opportunity to alter the relationship between Iran and the West, writes Alireza Nader.

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  • International Diplomacy

    commentary

    U.S.-NATO Immersion Course

    Robert E. Hunter

    Mar 10, 2009

    The Washington Times

    At a major conference in Munich last month, Vice President Joseph Biden underscored the U.S. determination to rebuild strong and productive relations with its European allies. No issue matters more than Afghanistan, writes Robert Hunter.

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  • Iraq

    commentary

    Is Iraq Safe Yet?

    Lowell H. Schwartz

    Mar 5, 2009

    Project Syndicate

    The Obama administration's decision to withdraw the bulk of United Sates troops from Iraq over the next 19 months has sparked fears that Iraq will once again plunge into the wide-scale and debilitating violence that it endured from 2004 to 2007. Those fears are, for the most part, overblown, writes Lowell Schwartz.

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  • commentary

    Afghanistan: The Regional Solution

    F. Stephen Larrabee

    Mar 4, 2009

    CNN.com

    The Obama Administration's decision to commit another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan is unlikely to have an important effect unless it is part of a broader shift in U.S. and coalition strategy, write F. Stephen Larrabee and Julian Lindley-French.

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  • Military Strategy

    commentary

    Wanted Dead or Alive? When We Don't Get Our Man

    Benjamin Runkle

    Mar 3, 2009

    International Herald Tribune

    On his first day in office, President Barack Obama issued a dramatic series of executive orders intended to symbolize a change of direction in America's "war" on terrorism. Despite the headlines these orders generated, a more significant policy shift may have been the one signaled the week before his inauguration, writes Benjamin Runkle.

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  • Iran

    commentary

    To Talk with Iran, Stop Not Talking

    James Dobbins

    Mar 3, 2009

    The Washington Post

    If the dominant imperative is to stop Iran from getting the bomb, every month counts. Perhaps the simplest -- and certainly the quickest -- way to launch a dialogue with Iran, and the one least likely to play unhelpfully into the upcoming Iranian election, would be to simply stop not talking to Tehran, writes James Dobbins.

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