The (Ex) Washington Realist

It has been nearly five years since TWR was launched. Initially, this blog served as the de facto blog of the National Interest; chronicled events being held at the magazine and at The Nixon Center; and posted items of interest from meetings held around Washington.

As I have settled in to my teaching position at the U.S. Naval War College, however, I have begun to blog far less and in more irregular increments. Now that The National Interest has relaunched its website, with new features and content, and a revamped magazine blog--meaning that TWR is no longer serving as the core blog of the magazine--I do not plan to maintain this site.

I will continue my weekly column at World Politics Review [WPR will return from its summer hiatus the week of August 30] and continue to be a guest blogger at other sites, notably at Global Security.

I thank readers of TWR for their comments and participation in this blog!

Congress also needs to put the national interest in front of partisan, electoral concerns, as I argue in a companion piece to Friday's WPR essay that appears in today's National Interest.

Some advice to the president I can guarantee his political team won't like! Again, my personal opinions only!

Interestingly enough, NPR reported today about the taped remarks General David Petraeus recorded for Meet the Press on Sunday. In them, he admits that the situation on the ground in Afghanistan may not have stabilized by the July 2011 date when the surge troops are set to start withdrawing--and he may have to recommend continuing with the mission. This is the type of decision that needs to be insulated from electoral calculation.

Yes, the combat mission is over. Yes, U.S. forces don't necessarily have to do anything should intra-Iraqi violence spiral upwards again. But that doesn't mean that the U.S. can go home.

Hence, the question: If Iraq is the new Lebanon, will the United States play Syria?

There is no one "Russian foreign policy" on Iran but a collection of policies that the Kremlin attempts to balance and harmonize. Russia's straddling of the fence can only be sustained if a diplomatic process gets back off the ground in September.

UPDATE: Do we have a two-track approach--Brussels and Beijing--on this issue?

For those who are interested, over at World Politics Review, two items that may be of interest.

The first is their special issue on the question of a post-American world, with contributions also from Tom Barnett and Parag Khanna ...

The second is my column this week, on whether the U.S. is indeed moving towards its own version of the Najibullah strategy as the Obama administration considers its end-game in Afghanistan.

Comments welcome!

Just some thinking out loud on whether setting up/strengthening a central government is the best approach for the challenges we face in Somalia and Afghanistan ...

Meanwhile, former deputy NSA Bob Blackwill's idea is also generating a good deal of discussion ...