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Three Trillion Dollar War  As General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivered Congressional testimony about the situation in Iraq, Carnegie hosted an event in Washington with Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz on his new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. In his presentation, Stiglitz revealed a litany of costs—the vast majority financed through borrowing—that have been hidden from U.S. taxpayers and will continue to add up in the years ahead. • Mathews: Lessons and Guiding Principles • Effectiveness of the "Surge" • Ottaway: The Iraq Stalemate • Additional Resources: The War in Iraq |
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Russian Affairs
Putin Leads United Russia
Vladimir Putin’s decision to accept the chairmanship of United Russia, the country’s dominant political party, is further evidence that he plans on retaining considerable political power even as Dmitry Medvedev replaces him as president. But as Nikolai Petrov explains in The Moscow Times, it is Putin’s control of the regional political apparatus that could touch off a “struggle between the presidential administration and that of the prime minister for influence.”
Related:
• Kagan: The End of the End of History
• Resources: Russian Presidential Election
NATO and Missile Defense: What's At Stake?
NATO's endorsement last week of a U.S. missile defense system in Europe could further strain the already tense U.S.-Russia relationship. After Presidents Bush and Putin met one-on-one last weekend in Sochi, Russia, Carnegie experts in Moscow and Washington provide analyses and resources to explain what is at stake.
Related:
• Trenin: NATO's Eastern Extension
• Mathews: A New Russia-U.S. Arms Race?
• Dubinsky: Georgian Spring
• Gottemoeller: Saving the Relationship
• Resources: U.S.-Russia Relations
Egyptian Politics
Egypt's Deteriorating Politics
The Egyptian government’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in advance of the controversial April 8 local election underscores the present backward slide and broad deterioration in Egyptian politics. In Egypt’s Local Elections Farce: Causes and Consequences, Amr Hamzawy and Mohammed Herzallah further argue that the activists' last minute decision to boycott the elections signals to the government that with "sufficient political persecution and repression, the authorities can count on the Brotherhood to take itself voluntarily out the political equation."
Related:
• Commentary: Egypt's Political Future
China-Taiwan Relationship
China-Taiwan Talks Signal Progress
Meetings last weekend in Hainan, China between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Vice President-elect Vincent Siew of Taiwan provide an initial encouraging glimpse into how relations between the two countries may change as Siew and President-elect Ma Ying-jeou prepare to take office in Taipei on May 20. Carnegie experts provide analysis to help explain the evolving relationship between China, Taiwan, and the U.S.
Related:
• Events: Assessing U.S. Taiwan Policy
• Pei: Taiwan Poll Offers Hope for Peace
• Kagan: Behind the 'Modern' China
Power Players
Inside the Global Power Elite
In his ground breaking new book, Superclass, David Rothkopf contends that an often unregulated global community of 6,000 individuals governs not only the world's business and finance, but also politics and culture. Rothkopf lifts the veil that has hidden this little-known society to reveal the most powerful people on the planet whose daily decisions impact the lives of millions across borders and whose ideas shaped recent history.
Related:
• Rothkopf: What Power Looks Like • Who Is The Superclass?(Newsweek) • Superclass Has Global Influence (Miami Herald)
• Event: Rothkopf Discusses Superclass
New Autocracy
The End of the End of History
In the early years after the Cold War there was wide-spread optimism that all nations would liberalize both their economies and their politics under the banner of liberal democracy. Robert Kagan writes in The New Republic that today, as Vladimir Putin consolidates his political power in Russia and the Communist leadership in China remains firmly entrenched, the old struggle between liberalism and autocracy has created a global political environment in which "there is no longer an international community to be summoned or led." This division hampers an effective response to the traditionalism of radical Islamists in the Middle East.
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