Stephen M. Walt's Blog, page 15

Gates to NATO: Drop dead? - Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
[image error] Gates to NATO: Drop dead?
Foreign Policy
Outgoing SecDef Robert Gates delivered a blunt message to America's NATO allies last week. If they don't start pulling their weight, he warned, the alliance "faces a dim, if not dismal future." In particular, he said that public opinion in the United ...

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What I told the Navy this year - Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
[image error] What I told the Navy this year
Foreign Policy
I had the privilege of delivering a keynote speech to the Naval War College's Current Strategy Forum on Wednesday, and you can find a video of the talk here. The title of my talk was "The Twilight of the American Era," and my central point was that we ...

Decade of decadence - Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
[image error] Decade of decadence
Foreign Policy
I'm glad he (and Dionne) raised the issue, but trying to pinpoint a single moment or cause is probably futile. Corruption and decadence don't occur all at once; it's a progressive disease with no clear tipping point. Part of it lies in the rise of the ...

Stephen M. Walt: War Crimes and Misdemeanors - Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
[image error] Stephen M. Walt: War Crimes and Misdemeanors
Foreign Policy
I'm not a lawyer and I don't know if the officials responsible are guilty or not, but it seems clear that our government is as reluctant to tackle that issue as the ones that the report seeks to help The CFR report acknowledges this problem only once, ...

Stephen M. Walt: Is IR still 'an American social science?' - Foreign Policy

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[image error] Stephen M. Walt: Is IR still 'an American social science?'
Foreign Policy
But I'm still struck by the relative dearth of "big thinking" on global affairs from people outside the trans-Atlantic axis, including continental Europe. And by "big thinking" I mean ideas and arguments that immediately trigger debates that cross ...

Do the American people support the 'special relationship?' - Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
[image error] Do the American people support the 'special relationship?'
Foreign Policy
A couple of weeks ago, Americans were treated to a remarkably clear demonstration of the power of the Israel lobby in the United States. First, Barack Obama gave a speech on Middle East policy at the State Department, which tried to position America as ...

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Dam if you do, dam if you don't - Foreign Policy

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[image error] Dam if you do, dam if you don't
Foreign Policy
(I'll confess to occasional grumpy thoughts along those lines, mostly when I'm bicycling to work and pondering how China can build whole cities or an Olympic Village in a year or two, while the state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston can't manage ...

Foreign policy on the cheap - Foreign Policy

[image error] Foreign policy on the cheap
Foreign Policy
And I'm not saying he should've have pledged more, because I've no idea where he could find it or how he'd get Congress to authorize it. Which goes a long way toward explaining why the United States and its allies aren't going to have much influence ...

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