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UPCOMING EVENTS

January 7
Book Event: 'Dateline Havana'
Washington, DC

January 11
Book Event: Aaron Glantz's 'The War Comes Home'
Washington, DC



Recent Reports

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A Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2009


Lessons from Iraq (May 2008)


Just Security (June 2007)


FPIF Picks


Review by Shaun Randol


Review by John Feffer


Postcard from...


Persepolis
By Kourosh Ziabari


Montevideo
By Joshua Frens-String


 

FPIF in the NewsFPIF in the News

Jun 18, 2009
David Alan Harris's dance therapy work for child soldiers in Africa (article here) was featured in an interview on the Marc Steiner Show.

May 6, 2009
Miriam Pemberton and David Vine's article, "Marine Protection as Empire Expansion," was republished in Truthout.

Apr 9, 2009
John Feffer had an interview with Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, entitled "UN Security Council Fails to Reach Agreement on North Korea Rocket Launch."

Apr 2, 2009
Emira Woods was quoted in a Winchester Star article about a forum on Africa at Shenandoah University.

Mar 17, 2009
FPIF's Co-Direcor Emira Woods was interviewed on NPR's Africa Update on Madagascar.

 
Support Your Voice in Foreign Policy

The Coming Capitalist Consensus
Economic and political elites are converging on Global Social Democracy as a solution to the current economic crisis. Columnist Walden Bello offers a timely critique of this new consensus.


Obama and the World

Barack Obama is on his way to the White House after a historic victory on Election Day. But the Obama administration will face steep obstacles, including a huge economic crisis and an overheated planet. After covering the campaign in detail, FPIF now looks at the foreign policy challenges and opportunities of the next administration.

Pragmatism Trumps Change: In the video at right, Phyllis Bennis and Lawrence Korb discuss the significance of Obama's foreign policy appointments.

John M. Miller notes in Obama: Stand Up to the Indonesian Military
that by restricting military assistance to Indonesia, President Obama can do the most for human rights in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

In his op-ed Foreign Policy for Obama Should Be Approached with a Broad Vision, John Feffer argues that exercising too much caution, if it translates into maintaining the status quo, would be a profound mistake.

The next president can and must take immediate steps toward a nuclear weapons free world, says Daryl Kimball in Change Nuclear Weapons Policy? Yes, We Can.

more...


Confronting the Financial Crisis

The global financial crisis is emptying the pockets of people in rich, poor, and middle-income nations alike. In its wake, FPIF offers new solutions to the crisis and innovative alternatives to the now officially defunct “Washington Consensus.”

 

Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, and Brendan Smith propose an innovative way to tackle the economic crisis and global warming in one sweeping proposal in Green Paper Gold.

Financial Crisis Hits Overseas Workers: Carmela Cruz says that as the financial crisis looms, the Philippines look to overseas Filipinos to keep the country together.

Ecuador's Debt Default: The South American country's refusal to make "immoral and illegitimate" payments exposes an international financial architecture glitch, say Neil Watkins and Sarah Anderson.

Shirin Shirin notes in Economic Woes? Look to Kerala that the Indian state's alternative development model offers valuable lessons as the global economic crisis unfolds.

more...


Fiesta!

Kyi May Kaung interviews Vietnamese-born artist Huong, who has created an immense mural that depicts the horror of war and the imperative of peace.

Poet Kyle Dargan takes us on a bombing mission in Pilot to Bombardier.

Laotian Americans are recapturing their experiences and memories through a remarkable set of illustrations, writes Channapha Khamvongsa in Drawing the Future from the Past.


FPIF Strategic Dialogue

On Pakistan

The United States must support the ongoing talks between Pakistan and its local Taliban, according to Mehlaqa Samdani. Sharad Joshi asserts that Pakistan is in danger of giving away too much to its local Taliban in the current talks. In a continuation of the discussion of Pakistan's negotiations with extremists within its borders, three experts, Mehlaqa Samdani, Sharad Joshi, and Tarique Niazi, take issue with each other.


Youth and Activism

Dedrick Muhammad and Farrah Hassen argue that we can't ignore Christian Zionists' influence on U.S. policy toward the Middle East in Christians United for Israel and Attacking Iran.


In Hungry for Justice, Indian guest workers, brought to the United States to help rebuild following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, hold a hunger strike to protest abuse by Signal International.


Peace and Security
Pakistan's Anti-Muslim Taliban
Mustafa Qadri
The Taliban may claim to fight for Islam but most of their victims are Muslims.

Georgia, Iraq, and Athenian Justice
Adil E. Shamoo and Bonnie Bricker
Russia didn't have to look back to ancient times to learn how to invade another country.

On the Brink of Peace in the Middle East?
Benjamin Tua
A convergence of interests in the region provide a golden opportunity for the United States to reverse its policy and help bring peace to the Middle East.

Multilateralism
Extraordinary Rendition, Extraordinary Mistake
Sangitha McKenzie Millar
By sending suspects to countries where they've been tortured, the United States has harmed individuals, broken laws, and tarnished its own reputation.

Nuclear Recycling Fails the Test
Robert Alvarez
The debate over nuclear power is heating up, along with the planet. Can nuclear fuel recycling be part of the mix? Not a chance.

Food Safety on the Butcher's Block
Christine Ahn and GRAIN
Washington is using new free trade agreements to push U.S. food—and food safety standards—down the throats of other countries.

Global Economy
The World Bank Takes the Money and Runs from Chad
Daphne Wysham
After funding a predictable boondoggle of a pipeline, the international lender hightails it out of an impoverished African nation.

The Dracula Round
Walden Bello and Mary Lou Malig
Will the WTO's Doha talks come back from the dead?

Derail Doha, Save the Climate
Walden Bello
From the point of view of environmental sustainability, global trade has become deeply dysfunctional.

Africa
Sinafrique
Leif Brottem
A Malian timber scandal points to a positive side of China's controversial growing presence in Africa.

Congress Challenges AFRICOM
Beth Tuckey
Congress is asking the right questions about the need for the Pentagon's new Africa Command.

Ballots vs. Bullets in Kenya and Zimbabwe
Briggs Bomba
The world's attention has been riveted in 2008 by election crises in Kenya and now Zimbabwe. What's next the the battle of the ballot vs. the bullet?

Americas
Mexico's Oil Referendum
Manuel Perez-Rocha
Opposition parties organized a non-binding referendum to fight government efforts to gut a constitutional ban on private investment in the oil industry.

Three Amigos Summit
Manuel Pérez Rocha and Sarah Anderson
The NAFTA-expanding Security and Prosperity Partnership is too cozy with big business.

Cuba's Post-Castro Revolutionary Transition
James Early
It's time to honestly step forth and engage Cubans and their government on the terms they negotiate inside their own country.

Asia
U.S. Strategy in Bangsamoro
Herbert Docena
Why would the United States hedge its bets by supporting greater autonomy for the Moros in the Philippines?

Musharraf's End: New Beginning?
Mustafa Qadri
Pakistan's latest military dictator has finally fallen, but the problems that plague the country are unlikely to disappear with him.

Mad Cows, Mad People
Gavan McCormack
What's the relationship between the beef crisis in South Korea, the humanitarian crisis in North Korea, and the global food crisis?

Eurasia
A New Helsinki Accord
Anton Caragea
In the aftermath of the Georgia crisis, Europe needs to think big and craft a comprehensive new agreement on borders and sovereignty.

What To Do Now in Georgia
Ian Williams
It's time for the UN to step up to the plate and help resolve the conflict.

Russia's Anti-Democratic Paradox
Anna Arutunyan
The United States must start treating Russia as it is, rather than as the United States would like it to be.

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Our Latest

Indicting Bashir is Right
Meghan Stewart
Jul 2, 2009

Strategic Dialogue: Bashir Indictment
Meghan Stewart and Hussein Yusuf
Jul 2, 2009

Indicting Bashir Is Wrong
Hussein Yusuf
Jul 2, 2009

Behind the Honduran Coup
Geoff Thale
Jul 1, 2009

Iran: Code Orange?
Yelena Biberman
Jun 30, 2009

Democratic Shocks
Vol. 4, No. 26
Jun 30, 2009

Weapons: Our #1 Export?
Frida Berrigan
Jun 30, 2009

Report: Pakistan's Ideological Blowback
Shibil Siddiqi
Jun 29, 2009

Maintaining Distance from Iran
Max Burns
Jun 29, 2009

Iran's Do-It-Yourself Revolution
Stephen Zunes
Jun 29, 2009

60-Second Expert: Pakistan's Identity Crisis
Shibil Siddiqi
Jun 29, 2009

A New Approach to Intelligence?
Erin Fitzgerald
Jun 25, 2009

A Withdrawal in Name Only
Erik Leaver and Daniel Atzmon
Jun 24, 2009

Pearl Harbor, Part II?
Vol. 4, No. 25
Jun 23, 2009

60-Second Expert: Democracy in the Middle East
Stephen Zunes
Jun 22, 2009

Propping Up Africa's Dictators
Khadija Sharife
Jun 22, 2009

60-Second Expert: The Key to U.S.-Muslim Relations
R.S. Zaharna
Jun 22, 2009

The Obama-Lee Summit: Dangerous Consensus?
John Feffer
Jun 19, 2009

Racial Discrimination at the World Bank
Bea Edwards
Jun 19, 2009

Dealing with North Korea's Tests
Wade Huntley
Jun 19, 2009


The Food Crisis

Food prices are up all over the world. Is the current food crisis a temporary problem or a sign of something more serious?


Sports and Foreign Policy Sports and Foreign Policy

Forty years after the historic 1968 Olympics, the eyes are on Beijing. FPIF explores what impact the Olympics will have on China, the role of sports and politics, and what governments and social movements hope to achieve at this year's games.


Military Footprint Focus U.S. Military Footprint

The United States maintains more than 700 bases around the world and is pushing to set up even more. What are these bases doing, how is the Pentagon rethinking their functions, and how can we reduce this military footprint?


Religion and Foreign Policy
Religion and Foreign Policy

A look at the role of religion in global affairs. Read about missionaries, monks, and the intersection of monotheism and modernity.


World Social Forum Focus
WSF Focus

A new stage in the evolution of the global justice movement was reached with the inauguration of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2001. Six years later, what's the result?

Erinc Yeldan, Bret Benjamin,Guacira César de Oliveira, Patrick Bond, Jamal Juma', Melanie Joseph, Rita Thapa, Adam Ma'anit, Walden Bello, Emira Woods


China Special Focus
China Focus

With China emerging as the new global go-to guy, FPIF assesses this growing influence and its impact on U.S. foreign policy.

Introduction, Central Asia, Arms Sales, Partnership or Competition?, Southeast Asia, India's Nuclear Deal, East Asian Security, China's Labor Law, Taiwanese Independence, Cross-Straits Unification, China and the Environment, Kung-Fu Nationalism, Debate on Labor, China in Africa, China and Human Rights, Frankenstein Alliance, Conclusion


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Material published and distributed by FPIF represents the views of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent the views of the board members or staff of IPS or of the FPIF editors. FPIF is committed to sponsoring a broad public dialogue about U.S. foreign policy and the role of the United States in the world.