Analysis & Commentary
Tocqueville on American Character
In 1831, Alexis De Tocqueville, a twenty-six-year-old French aristocrat, spent nine months travelling across the United States. From the East Coast to the frontier, from the Canadian border to New Orleans, Tocqueville observed the American people and the revolutionary country they'd created. His celebrated Democracy in America, the most quoted work on America ever written, presented the new Americans with a degree of understanding no one had accomplished before or has since. Astonished at the pace of daily life and stimulated by people at all levels of society, Tocqueville recognized that Americans were driven by a series of internal conflicts: simultaneously religious and materialistic; individualistic and yet deeply involved in community affairs; isolationist and interventionist; pragmatic and ideological.
Towards a Post-Assad Syria
A Discussion Paper Prepared by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) for the Syrian Working Group
UN Resolution on Iraq
Saddam Hussein must be disarmed – that's the main issue. As part of the ceasefire accord that suspended the Gulf War in 1991 Saddam Hussein agreed to give up his weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He agreed to Iraq's “full, final, and complete disclosure” of WMD activities. Saddam Hussein has failed to abide by this agreement. It is the obligation of the UN to enforce the cease-fire accord. If the UN fails, the US and other nations have every right, in their own self-defense, to use whatever means are necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein.
Understanding the New National Intelligence Estimate
Released yesterday, the unclassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate, entitled “Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities,” offers a stark contrast to a May 2005 assessment and raises some critical questions about our perceptions of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
US Forces Kill Saddam’s Sons
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- Qusay and Uday were the second- and third-most-wanted Iraqi leaders. They are believed to have been playing a key role in ongoing attacks against the coalition.
- Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters in
- Even before the identity of the bodies was confirmed, celebratory gunfire erupted across
War Footing
America has been at war for years, but until now, it's not been clear with whom. We have been fighting without being clear for what. We have been waging war without using the full resources we need to win. With the publication of "War Footing", Frank Gaffney and his colleagues make it clear not only whom the enemy is and how high the stakes are, but also how we can prevail.
We Need a National Security Court
In this 2006 white paper, which will be incorporated in a forthcoming AEI book on Outsourcing American Law, Andrew McCarthy, director of FDD’s Center for Law & Counterterrorism, explores the reasons why a National Security Court is an important tool in the global war on terror.
Webinar: Iran - What Next?
Despite increased sanctions and international pressure, the Iranian regime continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for terrorism, and human rights abuses.
What Obama Must Do in Syria After the Failed Annan Plan
A Joint Bulletin of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
Why Energy Security Matters Despite Falling Oil Prices
Americans watched helplessly as oil reached an all-time high of over $145 a barrel in July 2008. The climb in prices was relentless: after oil broke $100 a barrel for the first time in January 2008, it seemed that each day of commodities trading brought it to a new high.
Will divisions undermine Somali rebellion?
By mid-2007, when the fighting in
Willful Blindness
Andrew C. McCarthy takes readers back to the real beginning of the war on terror--not the atrocities of September 11, but the first bombing of the World Trade Center in February 1993 when radical Islamists effectively declared war on the United States. From his perch as a government prosecutor of the blind sheik and other jihadists responsible for the bombing, Andrew McCarthy takes readers inside the twisted world of Islamic terror.
Winning the Oil Endgame
Enough about the oil problem. Here's the solution. Over a few decades, starting now, a vibrant US economy (then others) can completely phase out oil. This will save a net $70 billion a year, revitalize key industries and rural America, create a million jobs, and enhance security. Here's the roadmap - independent, peer-reviewed, co-sponsored by the Pentagon - for the transition beyond oil, led by business and profit.
