Democracy, really?

AHMAD MUSTAFA -- Democracy does not necessarily lead to constitutional liberalism, but constitutional liberalism many a time has led to some degree of democracy. Republished with permission from the Daily Times. July last year, Prime Minister Gilani echoed the oft-heard dictum upheld in many political quarters (especially among the Pakistan People’s Party) that democracy is the...

The Ongoing Importance of the West

G.P. CREAN IV - A Review of Kishore Mahbubani's "The Case against the West: American and Europe in the Asian Century" from Foreign Affairs 87, no. 3 (2008). When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and the Cold War ended, the new international political order that emerged was unclear. The sole superpower remaining after decades of a bipolar...

Making the US a True Partner

MATTHEW SCHWEITZER -- The complexity of the Arab-Israeli environment demands that the US accepts a role as a cooperative member of an international community seeking equitable peace, not as the sole leader. Originally published at The Risky Shift, where Mr. Schweitzer is a contributing author.  The United States’ role in the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the...

French Minority Groups and US Foreign Policy

WALTER QUINTANILLA --  Though France is the U.S.’s oldest mission, the diplomatic relationship with the new French social composition will be one more complicated than before. Introduction: Europe has undergone a massive change in racial make-up. Rapid immigration has changed a predominantly white population with one that is more mixed and based around North African, Middle...

The American Aversion to Treaties

AIDAN MILLIFF --  Examining the Legal Opposition to the UNCRC republished from the University of Chicago Undergraduate Law Review Critics of the United States’ failure to ratify a host of UN treaties in the late 20thand early 21st century commonly point to two distinct objections. First, the US was instrumental in drafting each of these documents, which...

Iranian History Lesson

ABBAS MILANI – Iranian leaders today are learning all the wrong lessons from the Shah’s demise.  Reprinted with permission from the Post-War Watch You believe that the fall of the Shah in 1979 was a crucial event in the region. How exactly did the Shah’s collapse change and affect the Middle East, from the wars...

Syria and the Obama Doctrine

JONATHAN GODOY -- The Syrian civil war has also put the Middle East and its geo-politics in something of a precarious position. For over a year and a half, Syria has been engaged in a bloody and unceasingly violent civil war. Beginning on the onset of the Arab Spring, the civil war has brought an...