Events

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  Afghanistan: How Should the Biden Administration Manage the Graveyard of Empires?

  In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Milt Bearden, who ran the CIA’s covert support to Afghanistan’s mujahedin during the Soviet war, published a prescient article cautioning the United States against biting off more than it could chew in what he called “the graveyard of empires.”  His advice went unheeded.  Some twenty years later, the

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  How Should Biden Deal with Russia?: A Debate

  In its forthcoming issue, the National Interest features a cover story with dueling perspectives from John E. Herbst and Dimitri K. Simes about future American relations with Russia. On February 25, 2021, the Center hosted a debate between Herbst and Simes over their competing perspectives on the future of US-Russian relations. Melinda Haring (deputy director

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  The Challenge of Iran

  As the Biden administration surveys the Middle East, one of its top priorities will be how to deal with the threats to the region posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, which have continued to evolve since the US withdrew from the Joint Cooperative Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. At the same time, relations between Israel and

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  Fit for Purpose?: The US-Japan Alliance at 60

  As part of the Center for the National Interest’s series examining the evolving security relationship between the United States and Japan, the Center hosted a panel discussion on February 12, 2021 to discuss the nature of the alliance after sixty years.  This session addressed the current policy effectiveness of the US-Japan alliance and prospects for

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  Convergence and Divergence: US and Japanese Strategic Perceptions

  As the Biden Administration begins to grapple with foreign policy challenges in Asia, the Center for the National Interest has launched a project examining the underlying assumptions and performance of the US-Japan security alliance.  More than six decades after the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, Japan’s technologically advanced economy, democratic government, and hosting

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