Publications

Welcome to the new AFPC.ORG

July 31, 2008 Herman Pirchner, Jr.

As regular visitors to this site will notice, the American Foreign Policy Council's online presence is currently undergoing a major facelift. Once completed, our new website will feature more dynamic content, be more accessible to researchers, the public and the media, and provide greater coverage of our wide range of events and activities. In the meantime, please bear with us as we incorporate our past content into this new format. And, as always, thank you for your interest.

Al-Maliki Raises Hopes For A More Stable Iraq

July 13, 2008 Ilan I. Berman Jane's Defence Weekly

Give Nouri al-Maliki credit. Since assuming his post in May 2006, Iraq's embattled prime minister has been written off by more than a few observers as an agent of Iranian influence or a cat's paw of the US-led Coalition. However, since early this year, Al-Maliki has definitively proven that he is neither. In the process, he has moved his country considerably closer to lasting stability.

Responding to China in Africa

June 29, 2008 Joshua Eisenman

American and Chinese interests in Africa are different, but not substantially so. There are more areas where the two countries can cooperate for the benefit of Africans than there are issues of disagreement and potential competition. During his visit to Africa early in 2008, President George Bush acknowledged that the United States and China could pursue opportunities in Africa without increasing rivalry. He commented that he does “not view Africa as zero-sum for China and the United States” and believes both countries “can pursue agendas without creating a great sense of competition.” A few months later during a conference at Howard University in Washington on China-Africa relations, Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong said that China appreciated President Bush’s statement, adding that China and the United States need not pursue in Africa a “confrontational, or harmful rivalry, or a zero-sum game.”

Eurasia Security Watch: No. 179

June 25, 2008

Hezbollah hunkers down;

In the Muslim Brotherhood, a boost for radicals;

Common enemies in Uzbekistan;

Fatah under seige in Gaza;

Solidarity across the Islamist divide...

Eurasia Security Watch: No. 178

June 17, 2008

A Central Asian union in the works?;

Turkey's political scene erupts...;

...but U.S. intel courtship continues;

Egypt's perpetual state of emergency;

Syria talking... and hedging

Europe Holds The Key To Iran

June 17, 2008 Ilan I. Berman Guardian (London)

Officials in Europe are beginning to sound more and more like their American counterparts when it comes to Iran. In the wake of President Bush's trip to Europe, they even appear to be moving towards freezing the assets of Iran's largest bank as a way of signalling their resolve over Tehran's nuclear intransigence. In recent months, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned publicly that a nuclear Iran poses an "unacceptable risk for regional and world stability," and his government has taken the lead in calling for tougher international sanctions against the Islamic republic. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made similar noises. "If Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons, it would have disastrous consequences," Merkel told Israel's parliament, the Knesset, during her visit there in March. "We have to prevent this." In practice, however, Europeans are sending a very different signal. Indeed, recent days have seen the Old Continent deal a body blow to efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic.
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