1222-2006f - FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analyses from all around the world’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç U.S. / Britain / Turkey / Magazines / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports - FPR Table - Subscribe to FPR

H1 Guardian UN poised to pass Iran sanctions despite threat President Ahmadinejad warns of immediate retaliation.

IHT Bush's illusions ANDREW BACEVICH In Washington, crisis management has now supplanted principled policy.

New York Times nytcolumns What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran By FLYNT LEVERETT and HILLARY MANN To classify information for reasons other than the safety and security of the United States and its interests is a violation of democratic principles. Redacted Version of Original Op-Ed by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann

CSIS Iraq’s Sectarian and Ethnic Violence and the Evolving Insurgency (repeat)

COMMENT: A route to riches on the new Silk Road Economic links between Gulf oil exporters and Asia are reminiscent of the old Silk Road trade routes – but this time, they are based on hydrocarbons and petrodollars,

Riyadh revels in new-found confidence

Editorial Better times for east Asia's two big powers

CSM Death of Turkmenistan's longtime leader creates power vacuum

The Times The Great Dictator Saparmurat Niyazov’s monstrous ego held back an entire region

Bickering Saudis Struggle for an Answer to Iran’s Rising Influence in the Middle East

International Crisis Group Lebanon at a Tripwire

Wounded but Alive: Could Ahmadinejad Become More Dangerous? : Amir Taheri

Asia Times Syria Flirts With the West A Syrian realignment away from Iran toward Washington's vision for the Middle East - as appears to be happening - would disrupt the land-bridge of Iranian influence from Tehran across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Damascus, though, might not have as much to offer as it believes. - Iason Athanasiadis

Christian Science Monitor Mideast leaders seek own regional solutions Over the past week, power brokers in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have engaged in talks to resolve conflicts.

Ha’aretz – Rosner and Benn Sidestepping Syria

Schiff Putting Assad to the test It may be that the chances of productive talks with Syria are not great, but Bashar Assad should be put to the test. Why shouldn't Olmert invite him to Jerusalem, or offer to travel to Damascus? A test of that kind would not harm Israel.

CFR Tehran on the Hot Seat

Kenneth Pollack - The Seven Deadly Sins of Failure in Iraq: A Retrospective Analysis of the Reconstruction

CFR Lopez: Targeted UN Sanctions against Iran Can Improve the West's Leverage

Reidar Visser A Strategy for Dealing with the Sadrists? A US “surge” campaign to marginalise the Sadrists has obvious weaknesses, and could prove futile unless there is serious attention to political reform.

The New Age of Oil - Leonardo Maugeri, Newsweek

The Alliance Between Iran, Syria and Hizbollah and its implications for the Political Development in Lebanon and the Middle East DIIS

The Iraq Malaise By: Michael Young | Reason The Iraq war has sucked much air out of the triumphalists' breasts. America has started its descent into another deep trough of national self-confidence. By applying a hard eye to American shortcomings in Iraq, but also by affirming the limits of American clout there, the Iraq Study Group report released earlier this month was probably the first formal, if unintentional, expression of this latest American decline.

H2 WSJ In Spite of the Genocide...
Armenia seeks diplomatic relations with Turkey. By SERGE SARKISIAN

IHT Kurdish Militant Group 'Turkish Hezbollah' Issuing Terror Threats

Faik Bulut The Baker-Hamilton report and the Kurds

İlnur Çevik More confrontation with Iraqis in offing

Evren Değer Army refuses, tender postponed

Barışı konuşalım!
324 aydın, Kürt sorununa barışçıl çözüm bulunması için ortak bildiri yayımladı

Güler Kömürcü ‘İç savaş oyunu’

Bilinçli Türkmen Düşmanlığı

PKK ile Sünni direnişçiler pazarlıkta

Google News Kurdish Kurdish Media

Turkey criticized over compensation for displaced Kurds

Was the Saudi lobby behind some of the recommendations of the ISG? KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Hikmat Fikrat

Kürt konferansını Yaşar Kemal açacak

ABD ve İngiltere'ye ilginç teklif: Türkiye'ye karşı Kürtleri korumak için K. Irak'ta kalın

The 'self-Turkification' of some Kurds
New Anatolian Onder Aytac & Emre Uslu

When I was an islamist A former member of a Kurdish Islamist party reflects on his ‘defection’.

Google News Greece - Cyprus

Rauf DENKTAŞ Tebrikler

Yusuf KANLI
Two anniversaries

TSK, Avrupa'nın en büyük ordusu

İsrafil K. Kumbasar
Paşaların görevi savaş sanatı’ mı yoksa ticaret mi?

BBC 22 Aralık 2006 Basın Özeti

'Soğuk Savaş' hazırlığı
Türkmenistan lideri Türkmenbaşı'nın ölümü trilyonlarca metreküplük doğalgaz rezervi konusunda devlerin kapışmasına neden olacak. Bu savaşta ABD 'bölgesel gücünü ve ekonomisini', Rusya 'eski ilişkileri ve Gazprom tekeli'ni kullanacak

[Yorum - Doç. Dr. Melih Can] Türkmenbaşı sonrası ne olacak?

Ferai Tınç Türkmenistan’ı zor günler bekliyor

[HABER PORTRE] Türk dostuydu; geride, kalkınan bir Türkmenistan bıraktı

Ankara üzgün: İstikrar bozulmasın

ERDAL ŞAFAK Türkmenbaşı

Orta Asya'ya yeniden bakmak
Haluk Şahin

Bush'un son şansı Şam ve Tahran
ŞLOMO BEN-AMİ

İhale operasyonu Sağlık ve Bayındırlık bakanlıkları ile Ankara Büyükşehir Belediye Başkanlığı’nın bazı ihalelerinde yolsuzluk yapıldığı gerekçesiyle geniş çaplı operasyon başlatıldı. Büyükşehir Belediye Başkanı Melih Gökçek’in talimatıyla yapılan ihbarı değerlendiren polis, 2 bürokratın da aralarında bulunduğu çoğu müteahhit 59 kişiyi gözaltına aldı.

Ekşi Sözlük’te sanal darbe mi

Abdurrahman Dilipak Özbekler Tekkesi'nin sırrı!

H3 [Yorum - Özden Sanberk] AB, Türkiye ile yollarını ayırıyor mu? [1]

Neo-milliyetçiler ve sine-i millet hayalleri Murat Yetkin

'Türkiye'ye Enfal suçlaması'

Çuval olayında yeni safha
M.Ali Kışlalı

Alçak iftira

MUHARREM SARIKAYA Seçim için 'mart-temmuz' savaşı

Seçim kurmaylarını topluyor

AKP'de Köşk sondajı

Tamer Korkmaz Çıkmayacak

Bilal Çetin Baykal’ın erken seçim umudu

Emin Pazarcı Erdoğan Köşk’e aday

Demirel 1966'da neden cumhurbaşkanı olmadı?
İsmet Berkan

Mustafa Ünal Çankaya yolunda değişmeyen taktikler

Serdar Turgut Kriz tedirginliği

Gül: 'Lanet olsun' dedirtmeye çalıştılar

Enfal davasında Türkiye suçlandı

'Müslüman-Sol' kendini tanıttı

'Kürt sorunu' için yeni öneri 100'ü akademisyen 320 aydın, yayımladığı ortak bildiride siyasi iradenin sorumluluk üstlenmesi gerektiğini belirterek, 'Sivil çözümde buluşalım' dedi

Aydınlardan "Kürt sorunu için barış bildirisi"

Erdoğan: Kuzey Irak'ta sabrımızın bir sınırı var

Cengiz Çandar “Veda Yazısı”... Tüm yazıları

Erdoğan ‘Cumhurbaşkanlığı için planlarımız var’

İç Basında Türk Dış Politikası

Dış Basında Türkiye-AB İlişkileri - Dış Basında Güncel Türkiye Bülteni Dış Basında Irak BBC Turkish 0700 Dış Basında Türkiye Turkish Press Review Google News Turkey Turquie Türkei TurcoPundit

AB'ye destek yüzde 54'e çıktı

If this is the 'visionary' one, imagine what 'blind Europe' might be Semih İdiz

AB, Avrupa'nın felsefi temellerinin farkında mı? BETÜL ÇOTUKSÖKEN

Taha Kıvanç

Fehmi Koru

Ali Bayramoğlu Darbe söylentileri ve şizofreni

NAZLI ILICAK Cumhurbaşkanlığı ve mutabakat

Ömer Lütfi Mete CHP hala aynı: 'Halk da kim oluyor?'

Yiğit Bulut 'Altın golcüler' futbolu bıraktı mı

Taha AKYOL / 'Devlet iktidarı' ve Çankaya

Birand Ucuz milliyetçilik tuzağına düşüyoruz…

SAVAŞ SÜZAL ÇUVAL ÜZERİNE PALAVRALAR DEVAM

Özdemir İnce ’Şeriat Türkiye’de ancak darbeyle iktidara gelebilir’

Ahmet Hakan Türban üstü peruk

Ercan Kumcu Çıkış zorsa giriş de zor olur girenler de çıkar

Güngör URAS / Sosyal güvenlik kurumları açığına 23.3 milyar YTL yatırımlara 10.2 milyar YTL

Faik ÖZTRAK / Hükümet enflasyon ve büyüme arasında sıkışıyor

Hurşit GÜNEŞ / Sıcak parayı nasıl engelleyeceğiz?

Merril Lynch expert predicts economic outlook for Turkey

Deniz Gökçe Anlamıyoruz, saptırıyoruz!

ABDURRAHMAN YILDIRIM Ülker'in gizli kalmış şehzadesi ve yeni patronun misyonu

Ülker'in değişimi? Uğur Gürses

Dünya lideri olmamız için devletin desteği gerek

Önünüzü görebiliyor musunuz?
Uğur Civelek

H4 New York Times nytcolumns What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran By FLYNT LEVERETT and HILLARY MANN To classify information for reasons other than the safety and security of the United States and its interests is a violation of democratic principles. Redacted Version of Original Op-Ed by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann

PAUL KRUGMAN Democrats and the Deficit Given a choice between cutting the deficit and spending more on good things like health care reform, Democrats in Congress should choose the spending.

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN And the Color of the Year Is ... I think that the most important thing to happen this past year was that living and thinking “green” hit Main Street.

Marines Charge 4 With Murder of Iraq Civilians

H5 Washington Post Globalization's Unequal Discontents By: William H. Overholt The most serious critique of globalization is the charge that it promotes inequality, driving down U.S. wages while enriching millionaire corporate executives. This charge is partly true, but mostly false.

Iraqi Prime Minister Tells Gates He'll Let U.S. Decide on Troop 'Surge'

U.S. Readies Security Aid Package To Help Lebanon Counter Hezbollah

After a Tyrant, What Next? By Masha Lipman Niyazov was a tyrant par excellence.

Dictator's Death Spurs Tensions In Turkmenistan Likely Struggle for Power Could Interrupt Gas Flow to Russia and West, Experts Say

No Dancing in the End Zone By Charles Krauthammer, The biggest problem with American arrogance lies in its gratutitous celebration of meaningless victories.

Their Christmas At War By David Ignatius If you read soldiers' blogs you see a recurring anger that the media aren't telling their story. So I'll let a few of the military bloggers speak for themselves.

Editorial A Bigot in Congress One Muslim congressman is one too many for Virgil Goode.

4 Marines Charged In Haditha Killings

In China, Aging in the Care of Strangers One-Child Policy Changes Tradition

H6 Guardian Leader Rhetoric of confrontation The problem with blaming Iran for all the ills of the Middle East is the same problem as blaming the Soviet Union and its satellites for every cold war conflict.

UN poised to pass Iran sanctions despite threat President Ahmadinejad warns of immediate retaliation.

Delusions of Victory By: Sidney Blumenthal Having rejected the ISG, Bush is now embracing the manifesto of a rump group of neocons for the escalation of the Iraq war.

Time's up for Turkmenistan's dictator
President who craved adulation dies at 66 whilst country's uncertain future could hinge on huge gas reserves.

Marines face Iraq murder trial
Eight US marines charged over the killings of 24 civilians in Haditha.

Global flu pandemic would probably kill 62m
Around 62 million people are likely to die if there is a flu pandemic, according to a statistical analysis.

H7 Reidar Visser A Strategy for Dealing with the Sadrists? A US “surge” campaign to marginalise the Sadrists has obvious weaknesses, and could prove futile unless there is serious attention to political reform.

Bush's Determination is Wise, Not Stubborn - Frederick Kagan, USA Today

Send More Troops to Iraq... NOT! - Rep. Jane Harman, Huffington Post

The New Age of Oil - Leonardo Maugeri, Newsweek

The Alliance Between Iran, Syria and Hizbollah and its implications for the Political Development in Lebanon and the Middle East DIIS

The Iraq Malaise By: Michael Young | Reason The Iraq war has sucked much air out of the triumphalists' breasts. America has started its descent into another deep trough of national self-confidence. By applying a hard eye to American shortcomings in Iraq, but also by affirming the limits of American clout there, the Iraq Study Group report released earlier this month was probably the first formal, if unintentional, expression of this latest American decline.

Washington Institute Iran’s Doctrine of Asymmetric Naval Warfare Current Iranian naval deployments are aimed at deterring U.S. attack and, in the event of hostilities, using asymmetric force to entrap and destroy American naval forces in the Persian Gulf and then strike regional U.S. bases

Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: Time for a Plan B?

H8 Middle East Google News Iraq Iran Syria Mideastwire.com - NPR Iraq

Wounded but Alive: Could Ahmadinejad Become More Dangerous? : Amir Taheri

Asia Times Syria Flirts With the West A Syrian realignment away from Iran toward Washington's vision for the Middle East - as appears to be happening - would disrupt the land-bridge of Iranian influence from Tehran across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Damascus, though, might not have as much to offer as it believes. - Iason Athanasiadis

OpenDemocracy Target Iran: White House Plans Regime Change

Russia Wants Delay in UN Iran Sanctions Vote

Anti-Sadr Iraqi Politicians Try to Forge Coalition

Iraq officials reach tentative oil law deal-sources

Debka US Middle East Commander Gen. John Abizaid puts in request for another carrier in Gulf region as warning to Syria and Iran More...

Washington Times Editoria Iraq's embattled religious minorities

Islamofascism on the march in Beirut

NRO MICHAEL LEDEEN: The Iranian electoral ritual doesn’t tell us what the people want; it tells us what the tyrants have decided. “Iran ‘Votes’”

Der Spiegel Berlin Mulls Deploying Reconnaissance Jets to Southern Afghanistan

H9 Ha’aretz – Rosner and Benn Sidestepping Syria

Schiff Putting Assad to the test It may be that the chances of productive talks with Syria are not great, but Bashar Assad should be put to the test. Why shouldn't Olmert invite him to Jerusalem, or offer to travel to Damascus? A test of that kind would not harm Israel.

Rosner Raising the bar The Americans' phased plan for dealing with Iran is progressing slowly, but it remains on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's agenda.

Shmuel Rosner: Is Jimmy Carter an anti-Semite?

End the policy of isolation With Palestinians on the brink of civil war, it has become impossible to separate this crisis from the overall situation in a region polarized by the United States into "moderate" Arab regimes versus the "axis of evil," which includes Iran and Syria.

US Confirms It's Trying to Undermine Assad

Bush Signs Bill Denying Aid to Palestinian Authority

Daily Alert.org - EJC Israeli Press Review – Google News Israel –

Jerusalem Post Promoting freedom
Isolating Iran externally, encouraging reformers internally may be only real option to defang Teheran

Daily Star Assad will abandon Iran if Israel talks peace with him
By Yossi Beilin

Wasington Institute Ambassador’s Inaugural Presentation: Israel’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Middle East

H10 Christian Science Monitor Mideast leaders seek own regional solutions Over the past week, power brokers in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have engaged in talks to resolve conflicts.

Death of Turkmenistan's longtime leader creates power vacuum

Asia's longest-ruling leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, left no successor – and no script for a transfer of power in the energy-rich nation.

THE UNITED NATIONS: MEND IT OR END IT? Saving lives, the UN is a blessing

The UN is not just dysfunctional - it's criminal

'Atrocity' cases will test American military justice New charges focus attention on how the military handles abuse, killing of prisoners, civilians.

NIKE'S DILEMMA

Is doing the right thing wrong?

Nike's decision to end contracts in Pakistan over child-labor disputes highlights the moral issues of first-world corporations using third-world labor.

State Department Report Signals Importance of Religious Freedom

ASIA Kremlin Fears for its Far East By: David Wall | The Japan Times Russians, especially those in the Kremlin, are terrified that China intends to invade Russia to take back Outer Manchuria -- i.e., Khaboroski krai, Amur province and the Jewish Autonomous province as well as Primorski krai. Many actually believe that the invasion has already begun. They also believe that it is sponsored and supported by the Chinese government; maybe it is.

H11 IHT Bush's illusions
ANDREW BACEVICH In Washington, crisis management has now supplanted principled policy.

The problem with secularism PHILLIP BLOND AND ADRIAN PABST In the new, post-secular world, religion cannot be eliminated and is in fact our best hope for a genuine alternative to the prevailing fundamentalist extremes.

Faith that refuses questions MARK C. TAYLOR The task of thinking and teaching, especially in an age of emergent fundamentalisms, is to cultivate a faith in doubt that calls into question every certainty.

German-Polish relations sink to new low

Germany asks Moscow to resolve deaths of journalist and ex-KGB agent

Risk of Attack Rising, Officials In Europe Say By: Craig Whitlock | The Washington Post The threat of a terrorist attack on European soil by Islamic radicals has increased substantially in recent months, reaching its highest levels since the London transit attacks of July 2005, according to European counterterrorism officials. Adding to the anxiety: fresh threats against Britain and France delivered Wednesday by al-Qaeda's deputy leader.

EU Raises Tariffs on Belarus in Protest Over Rights Violations European Union governments approved trade sanctions on Belarus because of labor-rights violations, denying tariff benefits for 400 million euros ($529 million) of Belarusian exports including chemicals and textiles.

EUROPERomania's legacy
The impact of former leader Ceausescu's forced breeding policy

Protecting Europe: Policies for Enhancing Security in the EU
SDA A 68-page report of an international conference held to discuss policies that could enhance security within Europe

The Future of Europe: Renewing the Project
IPPR A 38-page analysis of the EU's progress and contemporary challenges, and proposals for renewing the project in four domains

H12 RFE/RL Turkmenistan: Could Niyazov's Death Lead To Political Struggle, Instability?

Turkmenistan: What's Next After Niyazov?

Gazprom Gains Control Of Sakhalin Project

Der Spiegel From Turkmenistan, President Saparmurat Niyazov dies suddenly. Now the rest of the world is waiting to see what happens next, and more more on a tough season for tyrants

Turkmenistan: The Battle to Follow 'Turkmenbashi's' Death
Stratfor

BBC Putin ready for visit to Ukraine Russia's President Putin will visit Ukraine for the first time since pro-Russian PM Viktor Yanukovych took over.

Grim legacy
Turkmen leader leaves behind dire poverty and pervasive fear

EurasiaNet Turkmenbashi Dies, But Impact for Turkmenistan Unclear

Georgia Considers Both Constitutional Amendments and a New Constitution

McClatchy Death of Turkmen leader may trigger battle over gas reserves

United States Pledges To Work with Turkmen Interim Government

Google News Azerbaijan

H13 The Times The Great Dictator Saparmurat Niyazov’s monstrous ego held back an entire region

Eccentric father of a nation dies with legacy of iron rule and dazzling vanity

UN gets set to impose sanctions on Iran Ignoring Iranian threats, the 15-nation council is expected to approve a package of sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear missile programmes

Shia leadership agrees deal over sectarian killers Two of the senior Shia political leaders in Iraq agreed in principle to crack down on death squads within their own ranks

Abandoned and terrified, refugees are targets of the death squad Families who fled to Iraq after the wars with Israel in 1948 and 1967 are victimised by Shia militias because Saddam favoured them

The Prince of Wales The humanitarian values of the British Red Cross are, mercifully, making the world a smaller place

Wall Street Journal 'Hungry for Asian Islam' By: Joseph Braude |
"Asian Islam is pluralistic, tolerant and antiextremist," says Jordanian cleric Mustafa Abu Rumman. "Arabs are tired of militant ideologies and hungry for an alternative . . ."

H14 Financial Times UN poised to agree sanctions on Iran

Tentative comeback for reformists in Tehran Final results of municipal elections in Tehran have provided evidence that Iran’s reformist politicians - heavily defeated in parliamentary elections in 2004 and presidential elections in 2005 - are making a tentative comeback.

US Marines charged with Haditha murders

COMMENT: Iraq stops Bush from staging a Reagan-stylerevival Can President George W. Bush resuscitate his administration in his final two years in office, in the way that Ronald Reagan did, asks James Mann, author of Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabine

COMMENT: A route to riches on the new Silk Road Economic links between Gulf oil exporters and Asia are reminiscent of the old Silk Road trade routes – but this time, they are based on hydrocarbons and petrodollars, write George Magnus and Peter Burnett both of UBS Investment Bank.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Riyadh revels in new-found confidence

Editorial Better times for east Asia's two big powers Among the wars and disasters that count as the big political events of 2006, it is easy to forget that there was a significant piece of good news: the rapprochement...

INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Turkmenbashi aura casts a dark shadow

'New Russian' with court of medieval potentate

Fear of instability after deathof eccentric Turkmen leader

ASIA-PACIFIC: Father of the Turkmens who failed to lead his people to a golden age

H15 Los Angeles Times Editorial Uncle Sam needs more

Bush's call for a larger military is the right thing to do, even if the president's reasons miss the mark.

Sudden death of Turkmenistan's president sets off scramble

New resolution on Iran introduced

Sens. Kerry, Dodd meet with Syria's Assad to discuss Iraq

8 Marines charged in Haditha killings

FT COMMENT: We need a long-term strategy for high quality agriculture

Private equity should beware of its successThis has been a golden year for private equity. Not only have acquisitions by buy-out firms such as Carlyle, Blackstone and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts come thick and..

Housing downturn slows US growth The US housing downturn dented consumer spending more than previously thought and dragged down economic growth in the third quarter, government figures showed.

COMMENT: Restraint, not force, will bring changeto Cuba

MIDDLE EAST AND THE AMERICAS: Germany to launch joint initiative for Mideast peace

COMMENT: Why immigration policy must be a compromiseAs the World Bank’s latest Economic Prospects report makes clear, the pressure for migration from poor to rich countries is a permanent feature of our integrating world, writes Martin Wolf.

ASIA-PACIFIC: Pakistan to defy US on Iran gas

Gazprom strikes $7.45bn Sakhalin-2 deal Gazprom, Russia’s state-backed gas giant, agreed to pay $7.45bn for majority control in Sakhalin 2, the $20bn oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell, cementing the Kremlin’s grip on the country’s energy resources.

H16 American Politics From The New Federalist, an essay on the rise of American nationalism. A review of George Soros' The Age of Fallibility

Two for a Breakthrough By Eugene Robinson Who has the better chance of becoming president, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? Is "white" the qualification that people are less willing to forgo, or is it "male"?

realclearpolitics – ABC’s The Note - Early Bird GovExec

Congressional Research Service presents a comprehensive 80-page survey of foreign policy and national security issues that will face the next Congress. See "Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade: Key Issues for the 110th Congress" (pdf), December 20, 2006.

Obama the Anti-Bush - Michael Tomasky, Los Angeles Times

America's tough guy Jonah Goldberg: To woo conservatives in '08, Giuliani will have to burnish his law-and-order years as New York mayor

Read My Lips: Raising Taxes Will Destroy Bush - Jim Pinkerton, Newsday

H17 Daily Telegraph War on two fronts in Afghanistan

Just when matters could not get any worse, writes Con Coughlin, along comes an altogether more alarming threat to Nato's attempts to restore order to Afghanistan - in the form of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

-> American Politics

Bush Has Seldom Seemed More Aimless - Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg

Midterms & Iraq Chaos Have Left Bush Stunned - John Podhoretz, NY Post

Explaining Obama to Israelis

As he eyes the White House, Newt Gingrich tries to distance himself from the Bush administration, but he helped the president make his biggest mistake

The audacity of Hope, Arkansas Hillary Clinton actually thought she could win the presidency. Then along came Barack Obama. by Martin Peretz

Can't secularists and sectarians just
get along? by Charles Krauthammer

H18 Independent

Farewell to the Turkmenbashi

OpenDemocracy Blair's foreign-policy legacy | Felix Blake

Germany and Russia, Poland and Europe: December 1981's echo | Ivan Krastev

Afghanistan: the choice | Paul Rogers

H19Military Intelligence Terrorism

Foreign Affairs The Real Meaning of Military Transformation: Rethinking the Revolution
Thomas L. McNaugher

Protecting Europe: Policies for Enhancing Security in the EU SDA A 68-page report of an international conference held to discuss policies that could enhance security within Europe

Transforming NATO: Risks, Challenges and Opportunties
DIIS

A Military of the Willing Works Best By: Berl Brechner | The Washington Post If the purpose of the armed services is to be an effective force for defending and protecting the nation, and winning wars when engaged, I have to say this: The draft wasn't great when I got caught up in it 37 years ago, and it would be even worse today.

Pentagon Plans New Command to Cover Africa By: Brian Bender | The Boston Globe … an independent operations headquarters that will focus on anti terrorist operations and humanitarian aid, according to administration officials.

Salon Inside the Jihad Full Text of Document

CRS "Bioterrorism Countermeasure Development: Issues in Patents and Homeland Security" (pdf), updated November 27, 2006.

Recent NATO Commander Sees Politically Healthy Organization

Human Security Brief 2006 Human Security Centre A 46-page report on recent trends in global conflicts and organized violence against civilians

H20 Slate

Covert Action Against the Soviet Union, 1969-1970 (FRUS) Secrecy News

In a December 21 news release (pdf), the Office of Director of National Intelligence announced the declassification of "four decades of U.S. intelligence on Yugoslavia" including 34 recently declassified National Intelligence Estimates. The records are available through the National Intelligence Council.

The Best and Worst State Economies for Women (PDF; 1.05 MB)
Source: Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Can America Still Compete or Does it Need a New Trade Paradigm?
Peterson Institute for International Economics

International Energy
GAO A 76-page US study on the value of international energy forums

H21 Charles Baudelaire’s mordant yet exquisite poems are dark jewels – magical, capable of changing your life... more»

The technology of ink on paper has over centuries built up an editorial culture that screens for originality, expertise, and seriousness. Compare this to the blogs... more»

Iraqi bloggers
Accounts of living with escalating violence and insecurity Amid the countless cop shows, legal dramas and medical series that clutter the US television airwaves, the runaway ratings success this year was, of all things, a ballroom-dancing programme.

Grant funds open-source challenge to Google library

Credible Threat Of Shame For Weight Loss?

Google News / Slate Today's Papers / memeorandum / antiwar.com - political theory Arts & Letters Daily / Media Roundup / University Channel / DocuTicker / Arts & Letters Daily/ PolicyPointers / cursor / realclearpolitics / Drudge Report| raw story | truthout / Dayan Current Contents / Blogometer - Wikipedia technorati / Slate's Today's Blogs Stratfor

Juan Cole - Kevin Drum - Belgravia Dispatch - washington realist - Tom Barnett - democracy arsenal - - Josh Marshall - Daniel Drezner - Laura Rozen - the washington note - David Corn - SyriaComment - William Arkin - Phil Carter - Helena Cobban - MatthewYglesias - Oxblog - Brad DeLong - coming anarchy / Wonkette William Arkin Tom Hayden - IraqSlogger

PostGlobal - AmericaAbroad -The Corner - Passport - huffingtonpost / Pajamas Media / Open University / nytcolumns CounterterrorismBlog Today in Iraq / OutSide the Beltway - InstaPundit - winds of change Kausfiles - Becker Posner-andrewsullivan.com - Registan - armscontrolwonk - IsraPundit Regime Change Iran