WASHINGTON – As he campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 1952, Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower argued that he would seek to bring “security with solvency” to the American people.  Eisenhower realized that the challenges posed by the Soviet Union could too easily stress America’s finite resources and a strategy to face that threat consider [...]

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WASHINGTON– Political realities facing the leaders of the United States and Iran mean that military confrontation between the two states is a distinct possibility. In late December, the Iranian armed forces conducted a number of war games — which included the live firing of missiles — in the Straits of Hormuz and adjacent waters of the [...]

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WASHINGTON—Slowly but surely, climate change is opening up the Arctic. Greenland’s glaciers and ice fields are melting, sea ice around the North Pole is decreasing each year, and the huge permafrost areas of Russia and Canada are beginning to thaw. This has led to widespread speculation of a Great Game-style scramble for the region’s abundant [...]

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The enduring image from last week’s UN conference on climate change in Durban, South Africa, was of negotiators “huddling” in full view on the plenary floor to come up with the form of words that allowed the final deal to be reached. The negotiators are in shirtsleeves, visibly tied at the end of talks that [...]

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MINSK– On 19 December 2010, Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a re-election (his fourth) marred by irregularities and falsifications. The mass protests that ensued were brutally repressed. All nine opposition candidates and 700 protesters were arrested; the opposition leaders Andrei Sannikov and Nikolai Statkevich remain in prison, as well as 13 other political [...]

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BRUSSELS — Expectations are low at the beginning of the 17th annual United Nations conference on climate change that began this week in Durban, South Africa. The European Union and the United States have assumed contrary positions and even disagree over what would constitute a successful outcome. But, behind the talks, and despite that standoff, [...]

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The avalanche of media coverage of the Department of Energy’s roughly half million dollar loan guarantee to Solyndra, a solar technology company that ultimately went bankrupt, has distorted what urgently needs to be a healthy debate on policy options to dramatically increase private sector investments in clean-energy technologies.  The real question is not aboutwhether governments [...]

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To this American previously unfamiliar with the South Caucasus, the first feeling upon arrival in Azerbaijan is a sense of growth and industry. Brightly-lit buildings line the road from the airport to Baku. Arresting new developments like the trio of “flame tower” skyscrapers seem designed to impress visitors and locals alike with a sense of [...]

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WASHINGTON—Last week’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran further refutes the conclusion of the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran abandoned weaponization activities in 2003. The Annex to the report makes clear that although Iran temporarily halted weaponization activities in 2003 on the heels of the Iraq invasion, the activities resumed [...]

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WASHINGTON—Earlier this week, according to the U.N. Population Fund, the world’s population surpassed 7 billion. With the global economy in recession and the impacts of a warming climate increasingly apparent, this new milestone comes at a time of enormous strain and has significant implications for the world’s natural resources, its economy, and of course, its [...]

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