India West

While the battered state of the economy in the days winding down to the presidential election determined the fortunes of Senator Barack Obama in his victory over Senator John McCain, it was arguably his pragmatic foreign policy vision that helped him edge out the heavily favored Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. As Obama assumes the presidency in January, he will need to tap into that pragmatic foreign policy vision, trading hubris for modesty, by operating with a principle of what grand strategist Barry Posen… more

Should an Obama-Biden administration take office in January 2009, their top foreign policy priority will have to focus on the situation in Iraq, which has consumed U.S. lives, treasure, military readiness, and credibility. They will also need to address the derivative strategic dilemmas that have both resulted from and compounded the situation in Iraq, including a resurgent Iran, a reconstituted al-Qaeda, and an Arab-Israeli peace process unraveling by the hour. But though the U.S. might seem consumed with the strategic quagmire in the Middle East, it would… more