What a difference a few years can make. In September 2002, less than a year after taking office, the Bush administration laid out a breathtakingly ambitious vision of American foreign policy. “The United States possesses unprecedented—and unequaled—strength and influence in the world,” the newly-released National Security Strategy of the United States proudly proclaimed. “Sustained by faith in the principles of liberty, and the value of a free society, this position comes with unparalleled responsibilities, obligations, and opportunity. The great strength of this nation must be used to promote a balance of power that favors freedom.” But less than five years later, that vision appears to be in full strategic retreat.

Setting priorities for space; In Russia, mounting opposition to U.S. missile defense...; ...and more military modernization; Cutting off Chavez

A straggler in the PSI; Jitters over China's space ambitions; Romania takes itself off the table; Palestinian missile threat expands...; ...prompting a new focus on technology in Israel; U.S.-Japanese cooperation gathers momentum

Back on the global agenda; Seoul gets serious; Tokyo poised to deploy PAC-3; Poland in the crosshairs; New missile defense momentum in Israel

Changing course in Canada; A helping hand from Pyongyang; European basing faces the Congressional axe; In Israel, a changing missile defense focus; More missile moves from Moscow

Indo-Israeli cooperation moves forward; The push for Asian defense; Closing the book on the MTHEL; Refining the Shahab-3; Tokyo, Washington move closer on missile data; New missile claims from Moscow

This spring, practically unnoticed by the mainstream media, the battle lines were formally drawn in the “war of ideas.” President George W. Bush used his January 2005 inaugural address to deliver an unapologetic tribute to freedom and the premises that undergird Western liberalism: liberty, the individual, and self-government.In response, Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama Bin Laden’s chief lieutenant in Iraq, released an audiotape of his own. In it, he denounced the very principles President Bush has pledged to promote.This frank exchange should serve as a useful primer for all of those who believe that the War on Terror is at its core a struggle against global privation, or a cross-cultural misunderstanding that can be settled by a search for common ground. Quite the opposite is true. We are engaged in an ideological conflict that resists compromise.

Amid growing indications of a campaign against Iraq, U.S. officials are taking note of an alarming development. Scattered but not yet decisively defeated, al Qaeda appears to be regrouping — this time on the periphery of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.