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Foreign Policy/ International Affairs Policy Studies

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• China’s Indian Provocations Part of Broader Trend

  By Dean Cheng, Lisa Curtis, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/09/2010
  

  Over the last few years, tensions have been brewing between India and China over their long-held border disputes. The source of the tensions is multi-faceted but driven in large part by China’s concern with an emergent India and Beijing’s desire to consolidate its position on Tibet. While military conflict between the two Asian giants is unlikely any time soon, recent Chinese moves illustrate a broader trend of muscular diplomacy from Beijing over its various territorial claims.

  
  
  

• Dmitri Medvedev’s Modernization Thaw: Objectives, Actions, and Policy Tests

  By By Leon Aron, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Russian Outlook, 09/09/2010
  

  Almost two and a half years into Dmitri Medvedev’s presidency, Russia is an authoritarian country, where democratic opposition is harassed and barred from politics; where elections are manipulated and their results falsified; where riot police and troops brutally attack peaceful demonstrators; where all national television and most print media are censored or self-censored; where rapacious bureaucrats from top to bottom extort businesses; where citizens are terrorized by police, while courts are owned by the state or higher bidders; and where corrupt local authorities silence, maim, and kill journalists with impunity. With a steep budget deficit and the prospect of sluggish growth at best and stagnation at worst, “modernization” has become the new catchword and the improvement of Russia’s investment climate a clear priority.

  
  
  

• The U.S.–U.K. Extradition Treaty: In the Interest of Both Nations

  By Theodore Bromund, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 09/02/2010
  

  Extradition treaties serve an essential function in the international state system. When the U.S. delayed ratification from 2003 to 2007, it was rightly criticized by British politicians who argued that the treaty was essential to prevent pedophiles from evading British justice. More recently, British commentators have alleged that the 2003 treaty is unfairly biased in favor of the United States. This claim is based on a misapprehension.

  
  
  

• India’s Flawed Nuclear Legislation Leaves U.S.–India Partnership Short

  By Lisa Curtis, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/02/2010
  

  Domestic politics can impact foreign policy in any genuine democracy. The very fact that both the U.S. and India share strong democratic traditions provides the basis for developing a strategic partnership. China’s recent muscle-flexing in the waters nearest its shores—the South China Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea—and diplomatic games with regard to its border with India also drive home the importance of building stronger U.S.–India ties. Washington and New Delhi need to move past the recent irritants in the relationship caused by domestic politics in both countries so that this important bilateral partnership will continue to advance.

  
  
  

• Defining the Obama Doctrine, Its Pitfalls, and How to Avoid Them

  By Kim R. Holmes, James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 09/02/2010
  

  The tenets of the Obama Doctrine described in this paper do not suit either this geopolitical reality or someone who believes in America’s obligation and ability to lead. Rather, they suit someone who believes he is managing America’s decline in a “post-American” world. They do not reflect history or the threats we face. They will serve to undermine America’s strengths and make it more difficult for friends and allies to figure out where we stand or how we might act in critical times. Ultimately, the Obama Doctrine will force friendly nations to look elsewhere, not to Washington, for arrangements that bring them greater security.

  
  
  

• The U.S. Universal Periodic Review: Flawed from the Start

  By Brett Schaefer, Steven Groves, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 09/01/2010
  

  The latest U.S. report to the United Nations Human Rights Council will likely be a painful and embarrassing process made possible by the administration’s decision to elevate and legitimize that deeply flawed body. Fundamental reform of the council, particularly establishing strong membership criteria, should be the principle objective of the Obama administration’s agenda for the council. Failure to achieve these reforms in the upcoming 2011 review would serve as a stark reminder of the necessity of creating an alternative arbiter of international human rights outside of the U.N. system.

  
  
  

• Chess on the High Seas: Dangerous Times for U.S.-China Relations

  By Michael Mazza, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Asian Outlook, 08/25/2010
  

  The Obama administration’s hopes that its warmer approach to Beijing would yield a more fruitful Sino-American relationship have been disappointed. Rather than adopting a more cooperative bearing, Beijing has become increasingly assertive over the past year. Recognizing the resulting detriment to U.S. interests and Asia-Pacific peace and security, the Obama administration is now pushing back. This new direction may convince Beijing to reconsider its recent assertive policies, but for now, the United States and China have entered a period of tense relations, raising the odds of a true crisis. Particularly worrisome is Chinese media coverage of this summer’s quarrels, which has been nationalistic and anti-American in tone and content. Such coverage makes conflicts more difficult to resolve, as the Chinese regime cannot afford to look weak in the eyes of an incensed citizenry. Policymakers in both countries should be aware of this dynamic as they approach any additional disputes in the coming months.

  
  
  

• Another Presidential Rescue Mission in North Korea

  By Bruce Klingner, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/25/2010
  

  August has become the month when former U.S. Presidents fly to Pyongyang to gain the release of U.S. citizens incarcerated for illegally entering North Korea. Last year, Bill Clinton attained the freedom of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. Now, Jimmy Carter has arrived in North Korea seeking the freedom of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a U.S. missionary sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing into North Korea and demanding the regime improve its human rights record.

  
  
  

• The China Military Report and What’s Left Unsaid

  By Dean Cheng, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/24/2010
  

  The long-awaited Department of Defense (DOD) annual report on Chinese military capabilities, required under the fiscal year (FY) 2000 National Defense Authorization Act, was finally released last week. The most interesting thing about this year’s report is what it leaves unsaid. The report is replete with information that should alarm anyone concerned about Taiwan’s diplomatic space and ability to defend itself if necessary. Yet the obvious strategic conclusions to be drawn from this information are left to the reader.

  
  
  

• Visa Waiver as an Effective Public Diplomacy Tool

  By Helle Dale, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/24/2010
  

  When a program can increase U.S. security and counterterrorism efforts and benefit the American economy at a time of a struggling recovery, you have hit a double jackpot. And when the program—in this case the United States Visa Waiver Program—is also an effective public diplomacy tool for improving the image of the U.S. abroad, it is a triple jackpot.

  
  
  
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Foreign Policy/ International Affairs Features

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• What the West Can Learn from Eastern Europe About Reform

  By Johnny Munkhammar
  
  April 17, 2008
  

  A reason why Donald Rumsfeld’s quip about certain parts of Western Europe being “old”—indirectly implying that other parts represented the new—created such a stir was probably that he just put words on the thoughts of many. During the turbulent years when the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain was...

  
  
  

• How America’s Freedom Alliances Have Lost Their Way

  By Kim R. Holmes
  
  April 17, 2008
  

  For much of the past century, the United States has oriented its foreign policy around the mission of advancing liberty around the world. Today, for a variety of reasons, that mission has been called into question. For example, some of our traditional allies have dissented from our efforts in Iraq...

  
  
  

• The Insider, Spring 2008

  April 17, 2008
  

  In the middle part of the previous century, the threat of Soviet expansionism brought the free nations of the world together into a series of alliances led by the United States. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the obvious question was whether and for what purpose those alliances were...