The fall of our discontent

On this anniversary of the attacks that leveled the Twin Towers in New York and part of the Pentagon a dozen years ago, a long, hot and wet summer in Washington, D.C. risks metastasizing into a Fall of Discontent.  Syria is the most incandescent and looming issue underscored by President Barack Obama’s speech last night.  But Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and other ticking time bombs have not been defused.  And world economies remain fragile and emerging markets in flux. Any strike against Syria has the potential to ignite broader regional conflict.  Oil prices would be affected in the extreme with obvious economic consequences that will extend to China and the Pacific.  [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:28:33+02:0012 septembrie 2013|Analize si studii, Blog, Harlan Ullman, Orientul Mijlociu, Pace & Securitate, Regiuni, Studii internaționale, Subiecte|0 Comentarii
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A queen of heart’s advice for Syria

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland offers a relevant insight into how to respond or not   to chemical weapons attacks two weeks ago outside Damascus that claimed nearly 1500 lives.  “Sentence before verdict,” thundered the Queen of Hearts as Alice watched. For much of last week, a punitive military strike seemed imminent before a verdict had been rendered. But the queen also cried “off with their heads!” Evidence mounts that Bashar al Assad’s regime used Sarin filled missiles. Yet, the gross misrepresentations over Saddam Hussein’s non-existent arsenal of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) a dozen years ago are not forgotten and many demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt if force is [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:28:33+02:003 septembrie 2013|Blog, Harlan Ullman, Orientul Mijlociu, Pace & Securitate, Regiuni, Subiecte|0 Comentarii
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Egyptian and arab democracy uber alles?

Insanity has been described as constantly repeating the same mistake and expecting a different outcome. That characterization sadly applies to American attitudes and policies towards much of what is happening in Egypt and the Arab and Islamic worlds.  We have been there before often supporting what is mistakenly regarded as the triumph of some sort of democratic movement over a failing regime that ultimately proves highly destructive to U.S. interests. Remember that German elections led to the appointment of Hitler as chancellor in 1933 and how that turned out. Fidel Castro was the freedom fighter battling the corrupt Batista Government in Cuba more than a half-century ago.  And when the [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:28:34+02:0029 august 2013|Blog, Democratie & Drepturile Omului, Harlan Ullman, Subiecte|0 Comentarii
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No easy fixes for NATO

To paraphrase Shakespeare: Alas poor NATO.  We knew it well. My second column for 2013 bemoaned the absence of even the mention of NATO--the North Atlantic Treaty Organization--- in the strategic dialogue that accompanied the start of President Barack Obama’s second term.  Founded in Washington in April 1949 as a counterweight to the emergence of a hostile Soviet Union, NATO became the most successful military alliance in history. Clearly, the strategic “pivot” to Asia announced last year by the White House had overshadowed and eclipsed the importance of Europe.  And, today’s violence in Egypt and Syria as well as the ongoing chaos in Iraq, Afghanistan with Iran’s nuclear ambitions still [...]

By |2013-09-03T14:51:57+03:0020 august 2013|Blog, Harlan Ullman, Pace & Securitate, Subiecte|0 Comentarii
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An all-american agenda II: a financially realistic national defense

Perhaps the best thing that happened to America last week was Congress abandoning Washington for a five-week break deferring all the major issues and problems. Will anything improve when Congress returns?  The answer is not reassuring. Prior to the break, the Defense Department sketched out the impact of budget sequestration on the nation’s military strength to Congress.  Disastrous is not an unsuitable description.  But, in addition to the lack of specifics about the looming dilution of American military power, other flaws in our national security posture have been ignored. First, within a broken government, America’s national security organization is based on the obsolete National Security Act first passed in 1947.  [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:28:34+02:007 august 2013|America, Blog, Harlan Ullman, Regiuni|0 Comentarii
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