By George Friedman at Stratfor.Com
The endgame of the U.S.-jihadist war always had to be played out in Pakistan. There are two reasons that could account for this. The first is simple: Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda command cell are located in Pakistan. The war cannot end while the command cell functions or has [...]

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It is, of course, impossible to know for sure what dangers the United States will face in 2008. Russian aggressiveness, Chinese military investment, Pakistani instability, and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are obvious threats that need to be addressed, but the security problems faced by the American government go far beyond the obvious. [...]

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The Venezuelan president touts Beijing’s $4 billion investment as another punch in his bid to undermine US clout. China is more pragmatic.
Caracas, Venezuela; and Beijing - One country’s motivation is political, the other’s pragmatic. Venezuela is seeking a strategic geopolitical alliance, China a steady supply of energy.
A new oil exploration deal between the two countries [...]

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In 1816, as Europe emerged from 20 years of war and revolution, the French political theorist Benjamin Constant wrote an essay comparing ancient and modern ideas of liberty. The modern European differed most fundamentally from the Athenian and the Roman, Constant argued, in his attitude toward violence. In the ancient world, being at war was [...]

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Despite its claims, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are vulnerable.
Even a quick analysis of the security situation faced by Pakistan’s nuclear custodians presents clear outlines of their nightmare—and ours. First, just four years ago the chief scientist and father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, A. Q. Khan, was arrested for black-marketeering nuclear weapons technology and even bomb designs [...]

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Israel does not expect war with Iran: Peres
AFP - 2 hours ago
Sanctions, not war, did away with North Korea’s nuclear weapons.” He said he did not believe the Iranian people wanted to destroy Israel or develop nuclear …
Peres Accuses Ahmadinejad of `Craziness,’ Sueddeutsche Reports Bloomberg
Israel’s Peres: Iran a danger to the rest of the world Earthtimes
all [...]

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Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman’s new book, Point of No Return, has topped best-seller lists there for months. FP sat down with Bergman to get an inside look at the book that intelligence expert Ephraim Kam calls in the January/February issue an “impressive inquiry into the Iran-Hezbollah-Israel triangle.”
Foreign Policy: This is an impressive book about [...]

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In all the millions of words in the media devoted over the past week to the challenges facing Gordon Brown in the New Year, Britain’s three greatest problems have been all but ignored. Truly, they may be judged to be Tony Blair’s real legacy.
They are: the effects on Britain of mass immigration; the demolition of [...]

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Deng Xiaoping, who turned China away from Maoist revolution, believed that the country should “bide time” and keep a low profile in international affairs. Deng wanted Beijing to “seek cooperation and avoid confrontation,” especially with the U.S. China, after a series of disastrous episodes like the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen massacre, needed a peaceful [...]

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Russia on the other hand, sees the situation very differently. Moscow has warned it will not accept independence for Kosovo. Mr. Putin has put his prestige on the line. He cannot afford to back down as Boris Yeltsin did. And therein lies the crisis.
This is an “optional” crisis. We cannot overlook the fact that the [...]

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But now the administration is facing questions from weapons experts about whether some equipment - newly authorized for export to Chinese companies deemed trustworthy by Washington - could instead end up helping China modernize its military. Equally worrisome, the weapons experts say, is the possibility that China could share the technology with Iran or Syria.
The [...]

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