2012-09-02 By Richard Weitz Since Saddam was ousted in 2003 until recently, two issues have dominated the Iraqi-Syrian relationship. Syria’s initial decision to host the remnants of the Iraqi Baath Party who fled Baghdad aroused fear and resentment with the new government in Baghdad. Iraqi authorities suspected that Syria was allowing…
2012-09-02 by Robbin Laird and Harald Malmgren The Euro-Crisis European sovereign debt crisis is not simply a bump in historical progress; it is the end of a period of history and a critical point in European and global transition in the 21st century. The confluence of several trend lines: — the…
2012-09-02 By Richard Weitz Japan and Russia are on a collision course and can be resolved only if both sides have the wil to do so. History has a long reach in the Pacific and managing history is a constant of any Pacific strategy. Japanese and Russian historians can cite competing…
2012-08-31 by Robbin Laird This September, the Osprey will reach a 5-year mark in its operational deployment history. In September 2007, the Osprey was deployed for the first time to Iraq. The USMC Commandant Conway and Deputy Commandant of Aviation Castellaw announced and made the decision to deploy the Osprey into…
2012-08-30 by Richard Weitz The key sentence in the today’s IAEA report on Iran is that the agency is "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." And…
2012-08-30 By Richard Weitz Relations between Russia and Japan have remained strained throughout the post-Soviet period. Despite the end of the Cold War, Moscow and Tokyo have been unable to resolve their territorial dispute over what the Russians call the Southern Kurils and the Japanese label their Northern Territories. The 1875…
2012-08-28 by Richard Weitz Iraq’s relations with other Arab countries are complex and often troubled. Arabs and others consider Iraq a core Arab state despite its peripheral location on the eastern flank of the Arab world, where it borders two large non-Arab countries, Iran and Turkey. Yet, Iraq’s diverse population…
2012-08-28 By Richard Weitz In explaining their government’s December 2003 decision to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, Japanese officials cited the imperative of supporting their country’s bilateral military alliance with the United States. They considered the deployment of ground troops to the Iraqi theater as especially important in demonstrating Japan’s reliability to…
