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Since I was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and saw Flight 77 hit the building, the 10th anniversary of the attack naturally causes me to reflect on how much progress we have made in preventing another such cataclysm during the past decade as well as on the challenges that remain for preventing one in the future. Two issues immediately come to mind: further strengthening the Department of Homeland Security and considering how the United States might reduce the high level of anti-Americanism that persists in much of the world. The mere creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) […]

In February 2002, U.S. Special Forces arrived in southern Philippines, hot on the trail of various Islamic organizations that had taken sanctuary in Mindanao — including some that had allegedly relocated there from Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion. The 2002 deployment marked the opening of the so-called Second Front in the Global War on Terror, which would go on to include Indonesia. A decade later, assessing the results of America’s post-Sept. 11 involvement in the region depends on which perspective one examines it through. The U.S. response, though multifaceted, has been largely characterized by its support for the Philippine […]

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent two-day state visit to Bangladesh has been pathbreaking in more ways than one. Not only is Singh’s visit to Dhaka the first by an Indian prime minister since 1999, Singh is the first prime minister from India’s 126-year-old Congress party to visit his country’s eastern neighbor in nearly 40 years. Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence in 1971 with Indian military help. But relations between the two South Asian nations have since been bedeviled by mutual mistrust and border clashes that have thwarted any attempts at substantive commercial or political engagement. Until recently, New […]

In August 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pledged to “complete the process of building institutions of the independent State of Palestine in order to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years.” The Palestinian Authority (PA), he said, would do this “despite the hostile occupation regime.” Indeed, Fayyad argued that by focusing on building institutions, Palestinians would “expedite the end of the occupation,” because their state would “emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored.” Fayyad’s two-year deadline expired in August 2011. Is Palestine ready, in institutional terms, for statehood? The question may appear hypothetical because […]

The slow-burning war pitting militarized Kurdish groups in Iraq against the governments of Turkey and Iran has escalated since mid-August. Most notably, Turkish fighter jets have flown multiple bombing runs on bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Turkish bombing campaign, occurring inside northern Iraq, is reportedly being conducted in retaliation for a series of PKK attacks that have left more than two dozen Turkish soldiers dead since the beginning of the summer. Meanwhile, a PKK offshoot known as the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) is engaged in ongoing clashes with Iranian forces, with Iranian officials […]

One thing I’d like add to my remarks from last Friday’s The World This Week program on France 24 has to do with the question, at the end of Part I, about the impact of Sept. 11 on America’s relationship to the world. To begin with, I usually find that particular discussion a bit reductionist. On one level, America’s collective reaction to Sept. 11 included a large dose of distrust and suspicion of a world that suddenly seemed very hostile and threatening. But on another level, I often find the portrayal of the barriers between America and the world to […]

I had the pleasure of participating in France 24’s panel discussion program, The World This Week, on Friday. The program focused on the impact of Sept. 11 on America and the world over the past decade. The other guests were Ahmed Rashid, Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey, the IHT’s Eric Pfanner, Nooshabeh Amiri and France 24’s Loick Berrou. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here. I was especially struck by Eric Pfanner’s observation that this is the first Sept. 11 anniversary where we can consider its impact from the perspective of historic closure. The anniversary has already […]

The 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has garnered America almost as much schadenfreude from the world as the original events did. Back in 2001, the line was that we had it coming to us for lording it over the world since the Cold War’s end. Today, it takes the form of writing off our alleged “hegemony” in light of the shifts in global power over the intervening decade, a claim that is as absurd the previous one was insulting. Naturally, the Chinese are celebrated as our presumed replacement. So, as always throughout our history as a superpower, […]

Eight years after Moammar Gadhafi gave up his mail-order nuclear weapons program and chemical munitions in exchange for détente with the West, he has been chased from power by a ragtag rebel army backed by Western airpower. Chances are that Gadhafi regrets his decision to forgo his WMD programs. If he had been armed with nuclear or chemical weapons, NATO might not have intervened when he threatened to massacre his own people. While Gadhafi’s fall is good news, the end of the eccentric colonel’s dictatorship now heightens the challenge of getting the Irans and North Koreas of the world to […]

Despite high inflation levels, China’s economy is the world’s second largest. And as it continues to grow, so too do the building projects.

In thinking about the ways in which Sept. 11 and our responses to it changed America and the world, it’s important to remember that some of its impact, and perhaps the most historically significant aspects of that impact, may not have entirely emerged yet. In August 1945, for instance, while the advent of radar, jet technology and nuclear weapons were plainly evident, it would have been close to impossible to foresee the way in which the war effort, both domestically and in theater, would go on to inform the black civil rights movement and women’s liberation movement 20-25 years later. […]

A recent uptick in attacks on Colombia’s energy infrastructure, along with a 25 percent increase in kidnappings, has prompted speculation about whether major security gains made in the country over the past decade may be deteriorating. While the current spate of violence pales in comparison to the bloodshed that burdened Colombia through the 1990s and early 2000s, according to Michael Shifter, who heads the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, the recent attacks could create serious political challenges for Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Shifter reminded Trend Lines on Thursday that upon succeeding Álvaro Uribe as president of Colombia last year, Santos […]

Mozambique recently offered Brazilian farmers 15 million acres of farmland at a symbolic price to be used for the production of soy, corn and cotton. In an email interview, Adriana de Queiroz, an executive coordinator at the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI) who writes in a personal capacity, discussed Brazil-Africa relations. WPR: What are the main countries and sectors for Brazilian investment in Africa? Adriana De Queiroz: Brazilian companies have been investing mainly in mining, infrastructure and oil and gas in Africa. A significant proportion of this investment has been in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Angola and Mozambique. Brazilian […]

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the impact of Sept. 11 on U.S. foreign policy. Part I examined the militarization of U.S. foreign policy following Sept. 11. Part II examines ways to reverse this trend. After the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should be contemplating a future of military restraint and foreign policy modesty. Moreover, with potentially painful cuts on the horizon for the Defense Department, the time has come for the armed forces to do less and for other agencies to pick up the slack. But that doesn’t appear to be […]

Post-Gadhafi Libya is set to become the next major test of two competing approaches to international affairs — the “gratitude doctrine” of the Western alliance pitted against the “strict neutrality” practiced by Beijing. The “gratitude doctrine,” in short, is the West’s assumption that providing assistance to those seeking to overthrow a repressive regime — especially in the form of timely military aid to counterbalance the overwhelming advantages enjoyed by the forces of the dictator — will produce a successor government that will be more receptive to U.S. and European influence and more responsive to their interests and concerns. The doctrine’s […]

With Moammar Gadhafi now ousted, Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) is scrambling to restore order to Tripoli. It remains to be seen whether international peacekeepers will be needed during the months ahead to ensure a peaceful transition toward a sustainable post-revolution society. An Iraq-style security meltdown seems, at the moment, improbable. However, should it occur, the question of who from the international community might best be suited to intervene is likely to prove problematic, says Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House in London. While NTC leaders and opposition rebels […]

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on the impact of Sept. 11 on U.S. foreign policy. Part I examines the militarization of U.S. foreign policy following Sept. 11. Part II will examine ways to reverse this trend. On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the single deadliest terrorist attack in American history — the work, not of a foreign army, but of al-Qaida, a nonstate actor. The U.S. wasted little time in responding. The Taliban government in Afghanistan that had provided safe haven for the terrorist group was quickly deposed by a combination […]