This time last year, I was celebrating Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. What most impressed me with this speech was his emphasis on the ambivalence of world politics; we must strive to make the world better, but also realize that we will never completely succeed. For me...

The world seems a threatening place. The pre-election terror plot revealed al-Qaeda (AQ) continues its attempts to strike US and Western targets. A series of horrendous attacks occurred in the past week, including the massacre of Iraqi Christians and two suicide bombings of Muslim...

A few days ago, I returned from a trip to Turkey, sponsored by the Rumi Forum. The trip included visits to four cities in Turkey and meetings with community, business and political groups. As someone who studies Turkey, the trip was an incredible opportunity to learn first-hand about...

Observers and participants in the recent Park51 debate likely noticed some parallels to the 2005 Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy. Potent religious issues mixed with a clash between freedom of speech and the protection of communal values. But, as Lawrence Wright has discussed, the real parallel is in the...

Last week, a commission began investigating the final phase of a horrendous decades-long civil war. This war, which ended last year, caused tens of thousands of deaths, prompted military interventions from a regional power, drew in a transnational diaspora, and spawned numerous refugees. The war's aftermath presents significant...

Despite being an aspiring foreign policy wonk, I at first failed to realize the significance of August 31st, 2010. That is the date the US combat mission in Iraq will end. It is not that I was unaware of this date, or forgot. Instead, it was the near-absence of Iraq...

The recent terrorist attacks in Uganda, during a World Cup celebration, quickly redirected the world's attention from the soccer tournament to the continuing threat of terrorism in Eastern Africa. The claim of responsibility by al-Shabaab (AS), a Somali Islamist group, added to the anxiety surrounding the attacks, as...

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan looming, concrete steps that would facilitate stabilization of the country are in high demand. Two possibilities that have gained some traction are power-sharing with the Taliban and a strategy that breaks off moderate elements of the group. Pressure to speed up disengagement from Afghanistan...

The recent arrest of two men in New Jersey--who hoped to fight with al-Shabaab (AS), a Somali militant group with ties to al-Qaeda (AQ)--has highlighted the continuing unrest in this East African country. This follows reports of hundreds of foreign fighters in that country. But what...

Reports are beginning to emerge about increasing sectarian tension in Iraq, as trust degrades between Sunnis and Shia and fears of returning to the full-blown insurgency of a few years ago spread. This possibly deteriorating situation is connected to two concurrent developments in that country. Iraqi politicians are...

The recent news that Ayad Allawi won a slim majority of parliamentary seats in the recent Iraqi elections was, to say the least, surprising: a secular Shiite formerly derided as a U.S. puppet won with the support of Sunni Arabs. Yet, it would be a stretch to say...

When teachers lecture on international relations, they often draw on real-world examples to illustrate complex theories. To explain how bureaucratic and domestic politics affect foreign policy, they usually bring up historical cases of states seemingly acting irrationally due to bureaucratic or domestic considerations. Why did Kaiser Wilhelm prolong World War...

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama reiterated his support for the increasingly contentious US presence in Afghanistan, even in the face of simmering domestic issues like health care and the economy. Beneath this official show of support, though, recent news articles indicate a potential behind-the-scenes...

President Obama's rhetoric in his Nobel acceptance speech was as powerful as ever. Obama pointed to the importance of striving for peace, and attempted to justify US involvement in Afghanistan. But the most significant aspect of Obama's speech may be a precarious balance struck between acknowledging the sad reality...

As casualties mount in Afghanistan, pundits and bloggers eagerly await Obama's decision on US policy toward that conflict. The American public is growing wary of the war, with Democratic lawmakers and activists calling for reduced troop levels. Yet, many commentators emphasize the risks of a withdrawal, while Republicans are preparing...

On Tuesday, November 03, 2009, Virginia Democrats (including myself) voting in the gubernatorial election shouldered the heavy burden of insuring President Obama's agenda against a persistent conservative onslaught. And, with Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds' landslide loss, we awoke the next day feeling like we had let our fellow Democrats down....

After the simplistic crusading of Bush and the cautiously incoherent foreign policies of Clinton, President Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday was everything a good progressive could want. An American leader has laid out a worldview that is dedicated to liberal internationalism while also appreciating the...

The morning of September 11th, 2001 still weighs heavily on my mind. It was my second week of college, and I -- two hours outside of New York City -- was slowly adjusting to leaving my family in Pennsylvania when news of the attack reached my college. As the days...

Last Friday, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge revealed the obvious--that the George W. Bush Administration had pressured him to raise the terror alert level in advance of the 2004 elections. This is significant for many reasons, but what struck me was its relation to one of the most significant...

In the silence following Dick Cheney's last grumbled words in response to President Obama's speech on counterterrorism strategy last week, I could almost hear the clicking of thousands of keyboards as they erupted in a cacophony of punditry. Some masterfully dissected Cheney's statements to reveal their mind-blowing inanity, while...