Last week, I found myself at yet another think tank-type meeting about Afghan policy choices. Toward the end, one of the participants, who had long experience in government, asked a deceptively simple question: What would happen if we failed?...

Even if President Obama weren't getting to China just now, it would be worth checking out the illustrated feature "Nine Nations of China," by Patrick Chovanec, which has just gone up on our site. Given the visit, it's all the more timely...

Nearly thirty years after he left office, the most important achievement of Jimmy Carter's time as president was his cementing the relationship with China that had begun under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. (Second-most important: Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt. Third: showing that it was possible, at least for a while, to increase the energy efficiency of cars, buildings, power generation, and industry within the US.)...

UPDATE: Stan Collender thinks we might be making ice mountains out of snow hills.

According to a number of news reports, President Obama has begun asking agencies to plan for a discretionary spending freeze next year -- or perhaps a 5 percent cut. The President may propose such as initiative as part of a deficit-cutting themed State of the Union address in January...

In his current Asian trip, President Obama visits Japan, then addresses a forum of leaders in Singapore, and eventually ends up in Seoul to discuss nukes and North Korea. But make no mistake, the axis of this week is the time Obama will spend in China, which has catapulted to the forefront of international affairs and is on its way to joining the United States as the alpha and omega of the global economic system...

This morning, a Wall Street Journal article reported that the White House intends to use some of the remaining TARP cash for deficit reduction, while also keeping some funds available for emergencies.

The article reported that the Administration is also expected to lower the ten-year cost of the program from $341 billion, as reported in OMB’s Mid-Session Review, to $200 billion. This reduction is a result of two factors: lower expected spending and more optimistic assumptions regarding payback rates...

Antonio Giustozzi, a fellow at the London School of Economics, is the editor of a new volume of research essays about the Taliban entitled “Decoding the New Taliban,” which is being published here by Columbia University Press. It is an outstanding and important collection—just the sort of locally specific, openly debatable, scholarly analysis about the diverse structures and leaders of the Taliban that will be required more and more if the international community is ever to understand the insurgents and divine how to prevent a second Taliban revolution...

Recently, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice went at it during a session when 187 Members of the United Nations were about to vote against the United States and two allies on the issue of the US embargo against Cuba...

In a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), mid-year budget shortfalls, totaling $16 billion or 4 percent of these budgets, have already opened up in 26 states. As the mid-point of FY 2010 (which began July 1 in most states) approaches, states have seen revenues fall below previous projections. Our friends over at Value Added have also commented on the report here.

 The U.S. is one of the only industrialized nations in the world without a healthcare system that provides universal primary coverage. However, OECD statistics show that the U.S. spends more - both publicly and privately - on health care than any other OECD country. We spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare each year - almost double the OECD average of 8.9%...