September 11 presented the Bush administration with the opportunity for a strategic reorientation of American foreign policy. Contrary to the hopes of many, however, this chance was not used to move towards a more multilateral policy, rather it was used to mobilize resources to the benefit of a...

Recent tensions at the governmental level do not yet add up to a crisis in GermanAmerican relations. But political divergences and dissonances are an expression of structural conflicts in the transatlantic relationship that have been intensified by the post-September 11 strategy shift in...

In two policy speeches made in November 2003, President Bush reaffirmed and ex-plained his commitment to promoting democracy in the Middle East as a central goal of US foreign policy. Like no president before him, he has called for overcoming the failed, decades-old policy that has been...

In the United States, the debate about how to deal with Iran has recently intensified. Firstly, speculation about the relationship between Iran and al-Qaeda was prompted by the report of the 9/11 Commission. A number of those who participated in the attacks left Afghanistan via Iran, but they...

Even after the March 2005 European-American agreement on a common tactical approach to the conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions, policy towards Iran remains a potential flash point in transatlantic relations. The Bush administration supports the negotiations, in which Great Britain, France and...

If Iran does not 're-establish full suspension of all enrichment related activities' as called upon by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), then the US can be expected to push for sanctions. But what kinds of sanctions are available? What are the problems involved with them? How...

The conflict over Georgia has had one positive implication: the United States and Europe are forced to think strategically in dealing with Russia. Since the end of the cold war, Russia - and this is sometimes hard to understand for Europeans - has had little salience to US foreign policy. The...

The election campaign rhetoric on foreign policy issues is no direct indicator of the strategic priorities a new US President will set later - nor is it indicative of the actual policies which will be adopted. It does, however, reflect the ideological framework in which he and his circles of...

In the last four decades, no incumbent US president has faced such a formidable array of problems and challenges as Barack Obama does today: two wars being fought simultaneously, nuclear-armed Pakistan in a state of precarious stability, Iran possibly soon to be developing its own nuclear...

Increasing war weariness on the part of the American public and in Congress has madeit politically possible for President Obama to move away from the costly civil-militarycounterinsurgency strategy, without needing to fear criticism from the Republicans.The creeping transition to what is known...