Great Decisions 2010 Fall Updates: Global Financial Crisis

Fall 2010 Updates provide up-to-date news about Great Decisions 2010 articles.

Georgia's Mental Revolution

Although Georgia has reinvented itself as the “star of the Caucasus”, this Economist article is careful to emphasize that despite the progress, Georgia's future is still “fragile.”

Great Decisions 2010 Fall Updates: Russia and its neighbors

Fall 2010 Updates provide up-to-date news about Great Decisions 2010 articles.

Great Decisions 2010 Fall Updates: Global Crime

Fall 2010 Updates provide up-to-date news about Great Decisions 2010 articles.

Think Again: The Arctic

Lawson Brigham writes in Foreign Policy magazine how many players on the global stage want a piece of the thawing Arctic, but that does not mean anarchy will reign at the top of the world.

Beyond the NPT

Doctors Sagdeev and von Hippel have collaborated for decades on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation between the U.S. and the USSR, and now Russia. They discuss their work and their insights for the future arms control agenda.

Possible Attributes of a New Russian-American Treaty on Strategic Offensive Weapons: The View from Russia

Should the START Treaty expire in December without a new treaty (or accord) that has counting rules and verification procedures spelled out, it will be impossible to ensure that Russia and the U.S. fulfill their obligations to reduce the number of nuclear warheads on deployed strategic delivery vehicles.

Reset Button Plus

The Obama mantra for U.S.-Russia relations is "hit the 'reset button,'" yet the Clinton years (1992-2000) were a mixed bag. We should aim for a "reset button plus," one that engages Russia on a host of issues that would directly serve America's self interest.

After START - What Next? David Speedie Interviews Jayantha Dhanapala

Jayantha Dhanapala, former Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs at the UN, reviews the state of play on arms control today, including the role of non-state actors, Russia, the UN, and the increasing number of nuclear-weapon-free zones around the world.

Chechen rebel chief denies quitting

Doku Umarov, the head of Chechnya's armed separatist group, has withdrawn comments that he is stepping down from his post, according to a video broadcast online.

Viewpoints: The Curse of Forgetting in Kosovo

While NATO struggles to right the ship in Afghanistan, a decade of NATO and EU nation-building efforts are seemingly forgotten in the Balkans. The struggles of Kosovo are little remembered a decade after NATO went to war for its freedom in 1999.

I came, I saw, I withdrew from Iraq

As Obama's deadline for military withdrawal fast approaches, questions into the feasibility and likelihood of transitional force success by 2011 have begun to circulate. A speculative narrative by the Economist magazine examines pressing questions about Iraq's future, namely, if the U.S. can use its remaining military, political and economic influence to achieve a successful Iraqi election and Iraqi sovereign independence.

A Benchmark of Progress, Electrical Grid Fails Iraqis

As the American's seven-year combat mission comes to a close this month, a New York Times article critiques the United States and its allies failed attempts to provide one of the most basic services, often considered a significant indicator of Iraq's progress, to the Iraqi people: electricity.

The Consequences of a 'Conceptual Withdrawal' in Afghanistan

Following last week's WikiLeaks release of more than 90,000 classified military journals coupled with Dutch withdrawal from Afghanistan, Western Europe evaluates its objectives in Afghanistan. A editorial by Andrew Small, a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund's Asia Program in Brussels, in German news source Spiegel.

Afghans set ambitious 2014 security target

Following the July 2010 Kabul conference, an ambitious target is set for international turnover of security operations to Afghanistan by 2014.

In Afghanistan, a threat of plunder

An analysis by New York Times Op-Ed Paul Collier into the possible positive and negative implications brought forth by Afghanistan's new mineral wealth.

We're Not Winning. It's Not Worth It.

President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, comments on the future of Afghanistan and suggests the time has come for Obama to reduce and redirect what we do.

Ukraine—Not Yet Lost

With the election of Victor Yanukovych as President of Ukraine, the country has developed much closer ties with Moscow. However, as Steven Pifer writes, Russia's meddling in Ukrainian politics may be backfire for them, as it still maintains strong relations with the west and pursues multiple policies which are independent of or contrary to Russia's own.

Medvedev Casts Customs Deal as Stepping Stone

This article discusses how the creation of a Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan customs union is regarded as Russia's attempt to forge closer political ties with the post-Soviet states through economic integration.