How To Deal With Iran

Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has a few pointers on handling the Iranians, among them:
Washington should refrain from making any grand overtures to Tehran that could redeem Ahmadinejad’s leadership and increase his popularity ahead of the country’s June 2009 presidential elections. Since assuming office in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has used his [...]

Diplomatic Timing

Tom Barnett for a long time has favored a diplomatic opening to Iran, but now contends that Obama doesn’t need to rush:
My advice? Do nothing before Iran’s presidential election except hint you’d welcome a new attitude from Tehran.
Ahmadinejad is sinking, so [his congratulatory letter to Obama] reveals his personal desperation more than the mullahs’.

Turks as Friends

Turkey’s offer to mediate between the Obama administration and Iran is getting good reviews.
Ezra Klein:
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Ivo Daalder, Susan Rice, and others have for some time been pushing this concept of “strategic leadership,” wherein America begins thinking more about its interests than its preeminence. Part of that means being willing to let allies take a leadership role [...]

Russia: “We’re back”

It appears Russian forbearance is sorely lacking in Georgia:
Russian troops briefly seized a Georgian military base and took up positions close to the Georgian city of Gori on Monday, raising Georgian fears of a full-scale invasion or an attempt to oust the country’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Like I said previously, there’s really nothing to stop them [...]

Zbig on Georgia

Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, compares Putin’s invasion of Georgia to the pre-WW2 policies of Stalin and Hitler, then manages to recommend nothing much more solid than “mobilizing [a] collective international response” with economic sanctions to deal with it. Thanks for that, Zbig, nice to know that you’re as helpful today as you [...]