The Pitfalls of Forecasting Foreign Policy; Plus, Profiles on Freedom’s Watch, 1992 Draft Defense Pl

FEATURED ARTICLE

The Pitfalls of Forecasting Foreign Policy
By Leon Hadar

With change imminent in the Oval Office, it is fashionable to predict how the future occupant will handle foreign policy. Yet the popular method for doing this, examining campaign statements, is problematic and unreliable, as history makes clear. According to the Cato Institute’s Leon Hadar, a far better barometer is one that assesses basic foreign policy dispositions by asking which camp candidates fall into—Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, or Wilsonian. But even then, surprises likely await.
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FEATURED PROFILES

Freedom’s Watch
The pro-Iraq War advocacy group, known for its multimillion-dollar ad campaign aimed at supporting the "surge," has seen many of its staff resign in recent weeks.

1992 Draft Defense Planning Guidance
The 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance played a singular role in shaping the "war on terror" strategies of the George W. Bush administration. Recently declassified documents shed light on the document’s origins.

Stephen Cambone
Cambone made headlines in 2004 for his role in the prison abuse scandal; now the former czar for defense intelligence is back in the news for the sweet contracts his former department is giving to his new employer.

Fred Iklé
A former anti-Soviet hardliner and backer of neoconservative policy, Iklé has soured on the Bush administration’s "war on terror" and says that an attack on Iran would be a "catastrophic failure."

Reuel Marc Gerecht
As with some other neoconservatives, Gerecht’s seemingly diplomatic line on Iran is thin cover for his unrepentant interventionism.

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The Growing Militarization of Foreign Policy
By Jim Lobe

Military commanders are taking the reins of U.S. foreign policy, jeopardizing civilian control of foreign relations, and Congress is doing nothing to stop it. Read full story

The Vanishing Laptop Scoop
By Gareth Porter

As the International Atomic Energy Agency investigates Iranian nuclear weapons activities, the origins of one part of the evidence against Tehran— the so—called laptop documentspurportedly revealing weapons plans—remain in doubt. Read full story

LETTERS

Congratulations on an excellent overview that serves as an essential introduction to the right-wing forces that have shaped our domestic and foreign policies for so long-though mostly unknown and hidden from public view and scrutiny.

This in itself is more than reason enough to support your work.

-Rudy Rasin

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