When the war on terrorism began, the task seemed straightforward - deter, disrupt and destroy the terrorist network threatening the United States. Through the years, however, as our awareness of the nature of the threat has grown, our strategies have not kept pace. Today, there are significant gaps in American counterterrorism strategy, a problem that my colleague, Ilan Berman, seeks to address in his new book "Winning the Long War. Mr. Berman, vice president for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council, has written a compact, swift-moving book in which he seeks to set the agenda for future strategic frameworks that will better address both the root causes of Islamic radicalism and the ongoing struggles we face with its most dogmatic and violent adherents.
It doesn't really matter who wins today's presidential election in Iran. No matter the outcome, Tehran's foreign policy will not change and the nation's people will remain oppressed. While Iran has the trappings of democracy with an elected legislature and highly visible president, actual political control remains in the solid grip of the radical Islamist leadership. As American Foreign Policy Council vice president for policy Ilan Berman wrote in the American Spectator yesterday: "Whoever ends up becoming president will have little real power - and even less influence over Iran's geostrategic direction.
Ilan Berman, one of Washington's most astute experts on Iran, explains how our victories in the terror war have handed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's firebrand president, the unexpected twin benefits of deposing the Taliban, the mullah regime's most immediate ideological adversary, and Saddam Hussein, its most formidable military enemy.
Ilan Berman argues that the one surefire way to eliminate the threat of an atomic Iran is for Washington policy-makers to incite a regime change. ("Pre-empting Iran's ambitions," Op-Ed, Friday). Apparently, we did not learn our lesson when we overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Unless America wants to risk another violent Iranian revolution and a repeat of events similar to the Iranian hostage crisis, policy- makers should not directly intervene in the domestic politics of Iran. America simply cannot afford to take the risks that are involved in an overt regime change.
By most objective standards, President Obama's Libya speech can be considered a success. After weeks of comparative silence, the president's address - delivered on March 28 before the National Defense University - was as spirited a defense of America's decision to intervene forcefully in Libya as any we have seen to date. So much so, in fact, that it raised eyebrows in many quarters. "Serious question," one foreign policy observer asked wryly on Twitter in the wake of the president's remarks. "Who did the neocons have to trade to get Barack Obama on their team? Indeed, with his newfound emphasis on humanitarian intervention, pro-democracy activism and the use of force, Mr. Obama these days sounds a great deal like his predecessor. Upon closer inspection, however, the similarities break...
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
The foiled Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, which was made public by the White House on Oct. 11, amounts to a dramatic escalation of the West's confrontation with Iran. In the wake of the disclosure, the Obama administration has talked tough, pledging new diplomatic pressure against Iran and emphasizing that "all options are on the table" as it contemplates its response. But what can actually be done about Iran's clerical army and the radical regime that enables it? The most ready answer lies in the prominent role the IRGC now plays in the Iranian economy, which can be exploited by Washington and its allies in the service of a new economic offensive against the Islamic republic.
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
The sudden death of North Korea's long-serving "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il, has propelled the world's last remaining Stalinist state back into the international spotlight. In the process, it has refocused attention on one of the most stubborn strategic dilemmas facing the United States. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has bedeviled American policymakers for as long as most people can remember. Under the nearly 6 1/2-decade-old dynasty headed first by "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung and more recently by the recently departed Mr. Kim, North Korea emerged as a global sponsor of terrorism, a nuclear-armed rogue state and a brutal prison for its own captive and impoverished population. Now, Mr. Kim's demise has raised new questions about the future of the "Hermit Kingdom.
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
Is electromagnetic pulse a real threat to American security? On the heels of recent Republican primary debates, the danger to U.S. electronics and infrastructure posed by a high-altitude nuclear blast suddenly has emerged as a campaign issue. So has concerted opposition to it, with both liberal and conservative skeptics ridiculing the idea as an overblown, even fabricated, distraction. Yet there is ample evidence that the danger is both clear and present. Far and away the most authoritative assessment in this regard is that of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States From Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, colloquially known as the EMP Commission. That blue-ribbon panel, convened by Congress a decade ago, outlined the nature of the challenge as follows: EMP is one of a...
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
Even the best-laid military plans, it is said, rarely survive first contact with the enemy. At the moment, America and its NATO allies are finding this out the hard way in North Africa, where they now face a stark choice regarding their intervention in Libya: stalemate or escalation. The grass-roots protests that erupted in Libya in mid-February, inspired by the political ferment next door in Tunisia and Egypt, prompted a savage response from the country's dictator, Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Over the month that followed, Libya descended into civil war, with regime forces carrying out indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas, torturing suspected rebel fighters, importing mercenaries from nearby African states and intentionally targeting civilians. Not surprisingly, the international respons...
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
Last weekend, amid deepening ten- sions between his regime and the international community, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commenced a high- profile diplomatic tour of Latin America. The foreign visit, which will take the Iranian president to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, is the latest sign of Iran's growing interest in, and intrusion into, the Western Hemisphere - a phenomenon with grave implications for U.S. security. Iran's contemporary presence in the region centers on its strategic partnership with Venezuela. Since Hugo Chavez became Venezuela's president in 1999, alignment with Iran's radical regime has emerged as a cardinal tenet of his government's foreign policy. The subsequent election of Mr. Ahmadinejad in 2005 kicked cooperation into high gear, with dramatic results. Today, V...
...Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign P...
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