Article Alert May 2011
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Article Alert is a monthly service featuring some of the most interesting journal literature on relations concerning the U.S. and Europe. It is published every month except for August.
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Topics in this Issue
- EU Issues
- Osama Bin Laden's Death
- The Arab Spring
- Terrorism & Homeland Security
- Economic Issues
- International Relations
- The Obama Administration
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THE EUROPEAN UNION GOES EAST. Bruce Pitcairn Jackson. Policy Review, Apr/May 2011, var. pages. What is the eu up to in Europe's east? To answer this question, we must look at how Europe's east and relations between Europe and Russia have been changing in the past twenty years and how incremental change has now produced a different political structure which, in turn, necessitates new policy in Brussels. Since 1989, the relatively stable geopolitical competition in and for Eastern Europe which lasted for most of the 20th century has given way to a more ambiguous geoeconomic problem. READ MORE
FUTURE OF THE EURO. WILL THE EUROZONE SURVIVE INTACT? Sarah Glazer, CQ Global Researcher, May 2011, var. pages. Portugal has become the third eurozone government to seek a bailout loan from the European Union, which is struggling to prevent a debt crisis from crippling its poorest members and spreading to richer euro countries. Historically impoverished nations such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece experienced a surge of wealth in the 1990s after adopting the euro. But in the wake of the worldwide economic crash and recession, that wealth proved to be an illusion based on cheap credit from Germany and other stronger economies. The euro's defenders say the crisis has created a new determination to fix the eurozone's defects, particularly its lack of strong centralized governance. But the rise of nationalist parties in richer countries opposed to bailouts could hamper a solution. And despite years of rhetoric about European unity, critics say individual nations will never give up enough of their sovereignty — especially their right to tax and spend on liberal social programs — to become part of a United States of Europe. READ MORE
HOW TO SAVE THE EURO -- AND THE EU. Henry Farrell and John Quiggin, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pp. European politicians are worried about managing fiscal stabilization, but strict spending limits could destroy what little is left of the EU’s political legitimacy. READ MORE
A LEGAL-INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE EUROPEAN EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE. Bart Van Vooren, Common Market Law Review, April 2011, pp.475-502. The Lisbon Treaty has indeed brought about far-reaching changes to the institutional and constitutional organization of EU external relations: the common commercial policy now includes investment, the relationship of the Common Foreign and Security Policy with other EU external policies has been redefined, and the objectives of all EU international activities have been thoroughly overhauled. This article will focus on one particular aspect of the post-Lisbon innovations, the new European External Action Service (EEAS). The Lisbon Treaty provides for the establishment of the EEAS "to assist" the High Representative in Article 27(3) TEU, the sub-chapter of Title V on the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Due to the failed Constitutional Treaty and the bumpy road towards ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the final institutional set-up was decided through a rushed negotiation that commenced in autumn 2009. This article has indicated that several lacunae remain and review of the EEAS's institutional set-up will undoubtedly be necessary. READ MORE
BIN LADEN'S DEATH AND U.S. AFGHAN POLICY. Stephen Biddle, CFR, May 4, 2011, var. pages. "Although the conduct of the war in Afghanistan is unlikely to be affected directly by Osama bin Laden's death, it could affect whether or not the Obama administration thinks the stakes there are worth the investment, says CFR defense expert Stephen Biddle."READ MORE
WAS BIN LADEN THE EASY PART? Richard A. Falkenrath, Foreign Affairs, May 5, 2011, var. pages. "With bin Laden gone, life is about to become more complicated for U.S. policymakers trying to combat terrorism." READ MORE
HOW THE U.S. CAN FINISH OFF AL-QAEDA. Robert Pape and Jenna Jordan, The Atlantic, May 4 2011, var. pages. "Killing bin Laden will not be enough on its own. But by continuing to embrace the Arab and beginning massive withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. can finally defeat his war of terror." READ MORE
BIN LADEN: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. Raffi Khatchadourian, The New Yorker, May 4, 2011, var. pages. "It is hard to regard Osama bin Laden’s killing as a “political assassination” in the conventional sense. The White House has been insisting that the raid was a military operation, conducted against a military target, and it makes a credible case in doing so." READ MORE
TURMOIL IN THE ARAB WORLD: WILL DEMOCRACY EMERGE FROM THE “ARAB SPRING”? Roland Flamini, CQ Global Researcher, May 3, 2011, pp. 209-236. "Massive, largely peaceful demonstrations in January and February forced longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt from power, including Hosni Mubarak, who had dominated Egypt for more than 30 years. Subsequently, protests erupted in at least a dozen other countries across the Arab world, several of which continue. Using social media to organize, young demonstrators have called for the removal of long-entrenched corrupt regimes, greater freedom and more jobs. They have been met with violent government crackdowns in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, while in Libya strongman Moammar Gadhafi is battling a ragtag rebel force backed by NATO. As the region reverberates with calls for change, scholars say some key questions must be answered: Will the region become more democratic or will Islamic fundamentalists take control? And will relations with the West and Israel suffer? Then on May 1, al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan. Once, such news might have triggered anti-U.S. protests across the region. Now, it seemed, those bin Laden had tried to radicalize were more interested in jobs and freedom than in bin Laden's dream of a vast, new Muslin caliphate." READ MORE
UNDERSTANDING THE REVOLUTIONS OF 2011: WEAKNESS AND RESILIENCE IN MIDDLE EASTERN AUTOCRACIES. Jack A. Goldstone, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "Revolutions rarely succeed, writes one of the world's leading experts on the subject -- except for revolutions against corrupt and personalist "sultanistic" regimes. This helps explain why Tunisia's Ben Ali and Egypt's Mubarak fell -- and also why some other governments in the region will prove more resilient." READ MORE
DEMYSTIFYING THE ARAB SPRING. Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "Why have the upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya followed such different paths? Because of the countries' vastly different cultures and histories, writes the president of the American University in Cairo. Washington must come to grips with these variations if it hopes to shape the outcomes constructively." READ MORE
THE RISE OF THE ISLAMISTS. Shadi Hamid, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "The recent turmoil in the Middle East may lead to the Arab world's first sustained experiment in Islamist government. But the West need not fear. For all their anti-American rhetoric, today's mainstream Islamist groups tend to be pragmatic -- and ready to compromise if necessary on ideology and foreign policy." READ MORE
THE CONSEQUENTIALIST: HOW THE ARAB SPRING REMADE OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY. Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker, May 2, 2011, var. pages. "Despite the realist tilt, Obama has argued from the start that he was anti-ideological, that he defied traditional categories and ideologies. In Oslo, in December of 2009, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama said, “Within America, there has long been a tension between those who describe themselves as realists or idealists—a tension that suggests a stark choice between the narrow pursuit of interests or an endless campaign to impose our values around the world.” The speech echoed Obama’s 2002 address to an antiwar demonstration in Chicago’s Federal Plaza. In Chicago, he had confounded his leftist audience by emphasizing the need to fight some wars, but not “dumb” ones, like the one in Iraq. In Oslo, he surprised a largely left-leaning audience by talking about the martial imperatives of a Commander-in-Chief overseeing two wars. Obama’s aides often insist that he is an anti-ideological politician interested only in what actually works. He is, one says, a 'consequentialist.'" READ MORE
THE ULTIMATE ALLY: THE "REALISTS" ARE WRONG: AMERICA NEEDS ISRAEL NOW MORE THAN EVER. Michael Oren, Foreign Policy, May/June 2011, var. pages. "The surveys prove that most Americans do not accept the argument that U.S. support for Israel provokes Islamic radicals or do not especially care even if it does. (...) That kind of popular foundation for the Israeli-American alliance is all the more important at a time of great upheaval in the Middle East. As Iran's malign influence spreads and Turkey turns away from the West, Israel's strategic value in the region, both to the United States and to pro-Western Arab governments, will surely increase. Following Hezbollah's recent takeover of Lebanon and the political turmoil in Egypt, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is certain to remain stable and unequivocally pro-American. In Israel alone, the United States will not have to choose between upholding its democratic principles and pursuing its vital interests." READ MORE
THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS FOR DIGNITY. Anouar Boukhars, American Foreign Policy Interests, March 2011, pp. 61-68. "Before the historic revolts transforming the Arab world today, it was an article of faith that radical Islamist revolutionaries would spearhead any challenge to the dictatorships that rule the Arab world. The millions of prodemocracy protesters braving riot squads and regime thugs have demolished such preconceptions. Although much can still go wrong, the clamor for freedom and justice that started in the small town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia and exploded in Liberation Square in Cairo has shown that the impossible can happen. The Islamist boogeyman has neither engineered the revolutions for dignity and freedom nor dominated them. The Obama administration has so far demonstrated a new realism that realizes the failures of the old foreign policy model that saw Arab tyrants as guarantors of America's interests in the region. The temptation to contain the revolutionary fervor spreading through the region still exists within the administration, but there is also a growing realization that the time has come for redefining America's role in the Middle East." READ MORE
THE ROAD TO ANATOLIA. James Kitfield, National Journal, April 2011, var. pp. Democracy movements across the Arab world are looking to Turkey for guidance and inspiration, but Ankara is still working through its own democratic transformation. READ MORE
POLITICAL ORDER IN EGYPT. Francis Fukuyama, The American Interest, May/June, var. pages. "How Samuel Huntington helps us understand the Jasmine Revolutions. While academic political science has not had much to tell policymakers of late, there is one book that stands out as being singularly relevant to the events currently unfolding in Tunisia, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries: Samuel Huntington’s Political Order in Changing Societies, first published over forty years ago.1 Huntington was one of the last social scientists to try to understand the linkages between political, economic and social change in a comprehensive way, and the weakness of subsequent efforts to maintain this kind of large perspective is one reason we have such difficulties, intellectually and in policy terms, in keeping up with our contemporary world." READ MORE
THE HEIRS OF NASSER. Michael Scott Doran, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "Not since the Suez crisis and the Nasser-fueled uprisings of the 1950s has the Middle East seen so much unrest. Understanding those earlier events can help the United States navigate the crisis today -- for just like Nasser, Iran and Syria will try to manipulate various local grievances into a unified anti-Western campaign." READ MORE
THE BLACK SWAN OF CAIRO. Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Mark Blyth, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "The upheavals in the Middle East have much in common with the recent global financial crisis: both were plausible worst-case scenarios whose probability was dramatically underestimated. When policymakers try to suppress economic or political volatility, they only increase the risk of blowups." READ MORE
FOREIGN FIGHTERS—RECENT TRENDS. Barak Mendelsohn, Orbis, Spring, 2011, pp. 189-202. "Beginning with a historical perspective on foreign fighters, this article then seeks to clarify ambiguities and biases that shape how we often analyze the foreign fighter phenomenon. The central focus is then on the evolving trends and activities of the movement. A new generation of fighters has emerged who are comfortable as terrorists, recruiters, trainers and media propagandist, among other specialties. The author concludes by assessing the significance of the problem today." READ MORE
MANAGING FEAR: THE POLITICS OF HOMELAND SECURITY. Benjamin H. Friedman, Political Science Quarterly, Spring 2011, pp. 77-106. The author "argues that the United States has spent excessively on homeland security since September 11. He outlines psychological and political explanations for this overreaction and concludes that these factors make some overreaction to terrorism unavoidable but offers four strategies to mitigate it." READ MORE
TERRORISM AFTER THE REVOLUTIONS. Daniel Bymam, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "Although last winter's peaceful popular uprisings damaged the jihadist brand, they also gave terrorist groups greater operational freedom. To prevent those groups from seizing the opportunities now open to them, Washington should keep the pressure on al Qaeda and work closely with any newly installed regimes." READ MORE
RECALIBRATING HOMELAND SECURITY. Stephen Flynn, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pages. "As the recent fiasco with body scanners at airports demonstrated, the United States' homeland security strategy is off track. It has failed to harness two vital assets: civil society and the private sector. Washington should promote a sensible preparadness among individuals, communities, and corporations." READ MORE
AFTER DOHA. Susan Schwab, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pp. It is time for the international community to recognize that the Doha Round is doomed. Started in November 2001 as the ninth multilateral trade negotiation under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the talks have sought to promote economic growth and improve living standards across the globe -- especially in developing countries -- through trade liberalization and reforms. Yet after countless attempts to achieve a resolution, the talks have dragged on into their tenth year, with no end in sight. READ MORE
THE NEW GEOPOLITICS OF FOOD. Lester R. Brown, Foreign Policy, May/June 2011, var. pp. In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in the world price of wheat actually means that the wheat you carry home from the market to hand-grind into flour for chapatis costs twice as much. And the same is true with rice. If the world price of rice doubles, so does the price of rice in your neighborhood market in Jakarta. And so does the cost of the bowl of boiled rice on an Indonesian family's dinner table. Welcome to the new food economics of 2011: Prices are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally. READ MORE
MORE THAN 1 BILLION PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY IN THE WORLD. BUT WHAT IF THE EXPERTS ARE WRONG? Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, Foreign Policy, May/June 2011, var. pp. For many in the West, poverty is almost synonymous with hunger. Indeed, the announcement by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 that more than 1 billion people are suffering from hunger grabbed headlines in a way that any number of World Bank estimates of how many poor people live on less than a dollar a day never did. But is it really true? Are there really more than a billion people going to bed hungry each night? Our research on this question has taken us to rural villages and teeming urban slums around the world, collecting data and speaking with poor people about what they eat and what else they buy, from Morocco to Kenya, Indonesia to India. READ MORE
THE FUTURE OF THE LIBERAL WORLD ORDER. G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pp. As the United States' relative power declines, will the open and rule-based liberal international order Washington has championed since the 1940s start to erode? Probably not. That order is alive and well. China and other emerging powers will not seek to undermine the system; instead, they will try to gain more leadership within it. READ MORE
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT? David Kaye, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011, var. pp. A decade on, the ICC is still trying to find its footing, thanks partly from the chief prosecutor’s poor management and excessive ambition. The election to replace him is a chance to reboot. READ MORE
DECISION MAKING IN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE. James P Pfiffner. Presidential Studies Quarterly, June 2011, pp. 244-262. "Presidents attract extremely smart, ambitious people to serve in the White House, but the quality of the advice the president receives depends upon how he or she uses the available talent. Chief executives face daunting challenges in evaluating the onslaught of information, judging the perspectives of their subordinates, and ensuring that they receive advice based on presidential perspectives rather than the priorities of their subordinates. Political scientists who study presidential decision making have come to consider several factors as central to understanding White House organization and process: the level of centralization, the extent of multiple advocacy, and the use of honest brokers to manage advice to the president. This article examines President Obama's decision-making style with respect to these three factors and uses several case studies to illustrate them: economic policy, detainee policy, and decision making on the war in Afghanistan." READ MORE
WOMAN OF THE WORLD. Jonathan Alter, Vanity Fair, June 2011, var. pages. "In her ninth year as America’s most admired woman, Hillary Clinton is dealing with radical change across the globe, as well as trying to transform U.S. diplomacy on the nuts-and-coffee level. But despite the secretary of state’s punishing pace—half a million miles in her Boeing 757—and the complex relationship between her and President Obama, Clinton seems clear about what she can (and can’t) accomplish, and, as Jonathan Alter reports, her friends are clear about something else: Madam Secretary is in her element." READ MORE