April 2012 Archives

If Osama bin Laden were still alive today, he would hardly recognize the world he knew. Nor would he see the supposed "clash of civilizations" that he tried so hard to foment over two decades of violent jihad. Instead bin Laden would see Islamist radicals on the election stump in emerging governments in Egypt and Tunisia, pledging cooperation with senior U.S. officials, and even meeting with a few neocons in Washington. He would see a U.S. administration that, having killed most of bin Laden's confederates, is now ready to move into a post-al Qaida era and engage with Islamist politicians as long as they renounce violence and terrorism. He would see Islamist parties that are passionately pursuing power and vested interests within their own countries (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia) rather than against bin Laden's old "far enemy," the United States.

One year after bin Laden was killed, are we still involved in a war on terror? Has the death of bin laden and the rise of the Arab Spring changed anything?

6 responses: Jim Phillips, Wayne White, Brian Michael Jenkins, James Jay Carafano, Michael Brenner, Steven Metz

All eyes were on North Korea's controversial missile launch--and subsequent failure--on Thursday. Does the launch, in defiance of international pressure, mean the Obama administration's effort to engage Pyongyang has failed? The U.S. quickly announced it would suspend food aid, and is huddling with South Korea, Japan, and other allies to consider further retaliation. What steps should be taken? How does this new crisis affect early hopes that the country's new young leader Kim Jong Un would have a warmer-- or at least more rational-- relationship with the West?

3 responses: Michael Brenner, Michael Brenner, Steven Metz

After years of stone-walling, Tehran has agreed to restart talks with the Perm-5 Plus One (permanent members of the UN Security Council the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China, plus Germany) about its nuclear program. Yet even before the talks recommence, squabbling has broken out over the venue, with Iran objecting to the preferred site of Turkey. What are the chances that meaningful progress will be made at the upcoming negotiations? Is there a face-saving deal that would allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium supposedly for peaceful purposes, but of a quantity and quality that do not presage a possible nuclear weapon? Are sanctions biting hard enough to convince Tehran to give up enrichment altogether? If these talks fail, how seriously do you take the Obama administration's warning that they could represent the last chance for diplomacy?

2 responses: Wayne White, Michael Brenner