An exercise in thinking through what ought to be the ultimate goal of U.S. policy toward Korea requires Americans to invite two handmaidens along for the effort: caution and humility. Those who would set such goals must understand that the United States does not have the power by itself to compel North Korea to reform […]

Like almost everybody else, I’ve spent much of the past year criticizing Barack Obama, second-guessing many of his decisions, finding fault with the incompetence of some of his appointees. Perhaps it sounds peculiar, then, but when I look back on the year as a whole, I find that I am nevertheless still inclined to withhold […]

President George W. Bush gets little credit in Washington these days, but he did achieve one major accomplishment in Asia: He resisted pressure from the Republican Right to confront China. U.S. cooperation with China and maintenance of U.S. alliances with Japan and South Korea are the pillars of future security in Asia. Contrary to popular […]

How to grade President Obama’s first year in office? As Zhou Enlai replied when asked his opinion of the French Revolution, “It’s too soon to say.” Obama has set in motion a host of bold reforms that could break some of America’s deepest political impasses, or cause massive disillusionment if they fail. The big question […]

How do we want the North Korea problem to end? The Joint Statement adopted in the Six-Party Talks in September 2005 has provided the single most comprehensive scenario to date. If everything envisioned in that statement comes to pass, we will have a world in which: North Korea has abandoned its nuclear weapons programs and […]

Dear Mr. President, It’s been nearly a year since Inauguration day, and it’s fair to say that things could be better. I think you know the lay of the land, but please permit me a brief summary.Just two months ago, on the first anniversary of your election, and the first time the voters had spoken […]

At the October 2009 New York gala dinner of the International Crisis Group, former President Bill Clinton paid a moving tribute to the presidency of the man he had beaten, George H.W. Bush. Clinton said that two brave decisions Bush 41 made vastly eased the challenges of Clinton’s presidency. Clinton cited, first, Bush’s decision to […]

There are three Democratic predecessors in whose footsteps Barack Obama could follow: Jimmy Carter, who was seen as a failure in both domestic and foreign policy; Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded at home but failed abroad; and Franklin Roosevelt, who achieved great things on both fronts. If Obama gets a reasonable health care reform bill through […]

The success of Barack Obama’s presidency will depend on his domestic accomplishments: health care, financial reform and the overall state of the economy. His presidency could be wrecked by foreign policy developments; it cannot be redeemed by them. The five big foreign policy challenges that the Administration confronts—North Korea, Iran, Middle East peace, Af-Pak and […]

A former President of Ecuador diagnoses Latin America’s real ailment.