Brookings Press Blog

"Limits of Influence" Receives Award

The American Academy of Diplomacy has awarded the 2009 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy to Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer for his book, The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir. The Limits of Influence represents the first systematic history of U.S. efforts to help forge a settlement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Drawing on interviews with senior American officials, historical research, and his decades of experience in South Asia, Schaffer explains and evaluates three generations of U.S. activities and policies toward the volatile region. The award will be presented at the Academy’s annual awards luncheon at the U.S. Department of State in December 2009.

Previous Dillon Book Award winners from Brookings include Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, by Joel Wit, Daniel Poneman, and Robert Gallucci (2005) and Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis by William J. Gleysteen, Jr. (2000).

Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer to Speak on the U.S. and India

On Wednesday, October 14, Howard B. Schaffer, author of The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir, and his wife Ambassador Teresita C. Schaffer, author of India and the United States in the 21st Century: Reinventing Partnership, will be the featured guests at a reception and book signing cosponsored by the Asia Society and the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington, D.C. They will also participate in a discussion of “The US and India: Deepening Ties, Resolving Issues” moderated by Jack Garrity, executive director of the Asia Society Washington.

Ambassador Howard B. Schaffer is a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who spent   much of his 36-year career dealing with U.S. relations with South Asia. He served as Ambassador to Bangladesh (1984-87) and Political Counselor in India (1977-79) and Pakistan (1974-77), and he was twice Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for South Asian affairs. He became Director of Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University in 1995. Ambassador Teresita C. Schaffer has been with Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) since 1998 after a 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service. She devoted most of her career to international economic issues and to South Asia, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (1989-92), U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka (1992-95), and Director of the Foreign Service Institute (1995-97).

- Register for the event.

- Learn more about The Limits of Influence.

How the Kashmir Dispute Affects Security in South Asia

Author Howard B. Schaffer reveals the limits of American influence in the Kashmir region

The escalating dispute in the Kashmir region proves a threat to security in South-Asia and to the United States. In an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, former ambassador to Bangladesh and author of The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir, Howard Shaffer discloses the growing dangers of the conflict between India and Pakistan, warning that the dispute may instigate the emergence of a potential nuclear war. He urges independent settlement in both areas to promote India-Pakistan relations.

As for Washington’s influence, Schaffer states, "If Washington does find a propitious opportunity to play a more active role, the settlement it promotes should call for making the Line of Control a permanent border that is porous; autonomy for Kashmiris on both sides; and joint institutions on an all-Kashmir basis."

Howard B. Schaffer has spent thirty-six years as an officer of the U.S Foreign Service, through which he was appointed ambassador to Bangladesh. Ambassador Schaffer currently teaches and writes at Georgetown University and widely recognized as a leading American specialist on South Asia. He is the author of highly regarded biographies of two American diplomats who served as ambassadors to India at times when Washington was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute. They were published as Chester Bowles: New Dealer in the Cold War (Harvard University Press, 1993) and Ellsworth Bunker: Global Troubleshooter, Vietnam Hawk (University of North Carolina Press, 2003). Schaffer is also the author of many articles on South Asian matters.

- Learn more about The Limits of Influence

- Read the complete interview with the Council on Foreign Relations

Now that the June 12 elections are over, how does the U.S. undertake relations with Iran?

Brookings author Suzanne Maloney reveals the key to U.S. strategy toward Iran

Global news headlines read “Iran vote Illegitimate,” “Sanctions on Iran” and “G8 'deplores' Iran poll violence” as the world grapples for better options to address the issues rising in the country. In a conference by United States Institute of Peace, Suzanne Maloney, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the book Which Path to Persia?, uncovers solutions that address the right path to resolve the issues in Iran. In the conference titled "Iran's Presidential Elections: Implications for US-Iranian Engagement." Maloney offers her ideas on how the U.S can aid Iranian democracy and development.

Maloney studies Iran, the political economy of the Persian Gulf and Middle East energy policy. A former U.S. State Department policy advisor, she has also counseled private companies on Middle East issues. Maloney has also published books on Iran and its role in the Middle East.

While the title of Which Path to Persia? asks the all-important question, its content tackles the issues and provides options for a new American strategy toward Iran. In the book, Maloney teams up with Ken Pollack, former Director for Persian Gulf affairs at the National Security Council; Dan Byman, Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies; Martin Indyk, acting vice president and director of Foreign Policy at Brookings; Michael O’Hanlon, senior author of the Iraq Index; and Bruce Riedel, senior advisor to three U.S. presidents on Middle East issues. Together, this team of experienced scholars offers the most important policy solutions available to the United States with regard to Iran and the Middle East.

- Learn more about Which Path to Persia?

- Read full details of the conference from an article by the National Iranian American Council

Brookings authors Benjamin Wittes and Martin Indyk in the news

Experts from the Brookings Institution give their opinion and get quizzed on global and national events

With the recent departure of American troops form Iraq, the topical Iranian elections and uprisings, and the ongoing Israel-Palestine state struggle, Brookings intellectuals Benjamin Wittes and Martin Indyk analyze Obama’s approach to addressing terrorism and the recent happenings in Iran, Iraq, Israel as well as the crises in the Middle East respectively.

In a Washington Post op-ed writted with Jack Goldsmith, Benjamin Wittes examines past presidencies and suggests the model the Obama administration can take to address new ground rules for a war on terror. His assessment: “Roosevelt's approach, not Bush-era unilateralism, should be President Obama's model.” In his forthcoming book, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform, Wittes addresses the legal issues surrounding the struggle against terrorism.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, expounds on America’s role in Middle East affairs. With years of international experience as ambassador to Israel (April 1995-September 1997 and January 2000-July 2001) and recent books—Which Path to Persia? and Restoring the Balance—under his belt, Indyk offers his expertise on how President Obama can tackle the issues in the region stating, “Obama is determined. He understands that he has to be persistent, and that will require everybody else to change their calculations.”

Martin Indyk is acting vice president and director of Foreign Policy at The Brookings Institution, and Benjamin Wittes is currently a senior fellow of Governance Studies at Brookings and the contributing editor of The Atlantic.

- Learn more about the changing circulations in the Middle East from Indyk's books, Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran and Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President

- Read the Indyk's full interview with Ruthie Blum Leibowitz of The Jerusalem Post

- Learn more about America’s struggle against terrorism from the book Legislating the War on Terror

- Read Wittes and Goldsmith's Washington Post op-ed, "Will Obama Follow Bush Or FDR?"

The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir

India Abroad interviews author Howard Schaffer

In an interview with India Abroad [pdf], Former ambassador to Bangladesh Howard B. Schaffer explains the limits of America’s influence in the highly disputed Kashmir region since 1947 until today.

Schaffer reveals that America’s role in the Kashmir region during the 1940s to 1960s developed a settlement that was limited, unsuccessful, and focused on crisis-management. He recommends that both India and Pakistan develop strong governments in order for the region to advance considerably. Schaffer adds that the United States might be of assistance only if this is achieved.

“Howard Schaffer’s superb book on Kashmir explains the effect it has had not only on India-Pakistan relations, but also on the Cold War and the growth of radical Islam. The author skillfully uses the historical narrative as a lead-in to the persuasive final chapter on why the Obama administration should take a major role in helping solve the Kashmir dispute,” says Former US envoy to Pakistan, Robert B. Oakley.

Schaffer imparts 36 years of expertise on South Asia into his book, The Limits of Influence, and is currently the Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.

- Learn more about The Limits of Influence

- Read the India Abroad interview [pdf]

Outrage in Iran: "Which Path to Persia?"

Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran

What do we do about Iran? Over the past thirty years, Washington has produced an unimpressive track record for policies - ranging from undeclared warfare to unilateral concessions - that have largely failed to convince Tehran to drop its support for terrorist groups, the pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, or its wider efforts to overturn the regional status quo. Now the world watches as protests continue to heat up over the apparently rigged elections that have given hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory over reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi.

Available in July, Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran, objectively presents the most important policy options available to the United States in crafting a new strategy toward Iran, including: diplomacy, military, regime change, and containment. The distinguished group of authors, all senior fellows with the Saban Center at Brookings, points out that no one strategy is ideal and that all involve heavy costs, significant risks, and potentially painful tradeoffs.

- Learn more about Which Path to Persia?

Journey into Islam experts comment on Obama’s Cairo speech

Ahmed and Martin featured on NPR, WaPo, HuffPo and C-SPAN

Akbar Ahmed, author of Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization offered his own insights on President Obama’s speech at Cairo University this morning in a Washington Post guest column. Referring to his 2006 travels into Muslim nations for the research behind Journey into Islam, Ahmed called on the president and the world to continue repeating the statements and actions of cross-cultural understanding.

Yesterday, on Wednesday, June 3, Ahmed was also featured in an interview on the Diane Rehm Show. Ahmed, whom the BBC has referred to as “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” is currently taking a one-year sabbatical to research Muslims in America. His cross-country study of the attitudes and perceptions Americans have regarding Muslims will be published in a forthcoming complement to Journey into Islam, tentatively titled Journey into America. C-SPAN also had video of Ahmed discussing President Obama's speech in Cairo today.

In related news, Frankie Martin, one of Ahmed’s researchers for Journey into Islam, was published in the Huffington Post on Tuesday, June 2 with the article “Obama and the Dialogue of Civilizations.” In the article Martin ties his work for Journey into Islam into speculations on Obama’s Thursday morning speech at Cairo University:

“Given these challenges, what can the President say that will make his Cairo speech a success? I believe an extensive trip I took through the Muslim world in 2006 with Professor Akbar Ahmed, the Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, can yield some answers.”

Martin is currently the Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University's School of International Service.

- Read Ahmed’s column in the Washington Post

- Listen to Ahmed’s interview on the Diane Rehm show

- See Ahmed discuss President Obama's speech in Cairo on C-SPAN

- Read the full text of Martin’s HuffPo article, “Obama and the Dialogue of Civilizations”

- Follow the Journey into America blog

- Learn more about Journey into Islam

Power & Responsibility on Huffington Post

Changing how we address global and national security

The Huffington Post ran a piece on global and national security adapted from the book Power & Responsibility. In the post, authors Bruce Jones, Carlos Pascual and Stephen John Stedman discuss how threats that preoccupy other parts of the world—poverty, civil wars, regional conflicts—threaten national security here in the United States just as much as terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, pandemics of deadly disease, global warming, and economic instability. According to the authors, international cooperation is key to promoting peace and prosperity.

- Check out the article to see their recommendations for rebuilding international order

- Learn more about Power & Responsibility, the book

- Watch video, listen to audio, and read the transcript from a recent Brookings event on Power & Responsibility

Brookings Authors on Gaza, Iraq, and Pakistan

Experts offer commentary on foreign affairs

In addition to penning timely and important books, Brookings Press authors often provide expert analysis of current policy decisions and discussions. Here are three recent articles.

Tamara Cofman Wittes, author of Freedom’s Unsteady March, writes on YaleGlobal that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue must combine the aspirations of Arab citizens with regional interest.

Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, who recently authored a chapter on Iraq in Restoring the Balance, discuss President Obama’s decision to withdraw American troops from that country in the New York Times.

Akbar Ahmed, author of Journey into Islam, explains why he believes that Obama must save Pakistan on The Huffington Post.

- Learn more about Freedom's Unsteady March

- Learn more about Restoring the Balance

- Learn more about Journey into Islam