Brookings Press Blog

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?"

U.S. Strategy in Iraq

Ivo Daalder discusses this important issue on the Diane Rehm Show

Brookings senior fellow Ivo Daalder offered up his expertise in a discussion of U.S. strategy in Iraq on the Diane Rehm Show on Thursday. The discussion, which also included Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations and Dan Senor, former Bush Administration foreign policy advisor, apprised the current situation in Iraq, and examined the military strategy options offered up by the leading presidential candidates.

Daalder is the author or coauthor of several Brookings titles, including most recently Beyond Preemption: Force and Legitimacy in a Changing World and Crescent of Crisis: U.S.-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East.

- Listen to "U.S. Strategy in Iraq" on the Diane Rehm show.

- Learn more about Beyond Preemption.

- Learn more about Crescent of Crisis.

Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America's Next President

Brookings book launches an intense focus on issues, not partisanship

The book Opportunity 08 emerges from a special bipartisan project created by Brookings, in partnership with ABC News, to offer solutions to America’s most pressing policy challenges. This new book will help candidates, the media, and voters focus on the critical issues at stake in the first presidential election since 1928 that does not include an incumbent president or vice president.

The diverse roster of contributors to Opportunity 08 reflects an impressive breadth of expertise, opinions, and political beliefs. This team of experts addresses voters’ demand to hear more about issues and less about partisan politics by presenting authoritative analysis and innovative policy solutions on a wide array of domestic and foreign policy questions.

Furthermore, this volume contextualizes these crafted plans for action by explaining not simply what should be done but why it should be done. This framework serves as a launching pad for a sharp focus on specific issues, which shapes the three distinct sections of the book. Part One of the book is titled "Our World," and its topics include the challenge of dealing with Iran, the rise of China, climate change, oil dependence, Middle East peace and the future of Iraq. Part Two, "Our Society," features accessible treatment of domestic issues such as voting reform; housing policy; poverty, inequality, and upward economic mobility. Part III, "Our Prosperity," tackles vexing problems such as the budget deficit, health care access and quality, retirement security, and the challenge of strengthening information technology in the United States.

- Learn more about Opporunity 08.

- Learn more about the Opportunity 08 Research Project.

Planning for Defeat

George Packer discusses Things Fall Apart in The New Yorker

In a recent New Yorker article, "Planning for Defeat: How should we withdraw from Iraq?" correspondent George Packer takes a hard look at Iraq's future. According to Packer, American leaders must "do what they have not yet done—look beyond the next three to six months, to the next two or three years."

Packer examines the merits of several strategies put forth by various think tanks and government officials, including one outlined in Daniel Byman and Kenneth Pollack’s book, Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from an Iraqi Civil War. Byman and Pollack, senior fellows in foreign policy studies at Brookings, assert that the top priority is to prevent the Iraqi conflict from spilling over and destabilizing neighboring states. Things Fall Apart explains what the United States can do to reduce the threat of a wider conflict. Such a containment approach would require deterring neighboring states from intervening, helping mitigate the risks associated with refugees, and striking terrorist havens.

- Read the New Yorker article, “Planning for Defeat.”

- Learn more about Things Fall Apart.

No End in Sight

Critics Applaud New Documentary about the American Occupation of Iraq

Brookings author Charles Ferguson has received a great deal of attention for his new documentary, No End in Sight. The film, Ferguson’s first, presents a sharply critical picture of the American government’s failure to adequately plan and execute the occupation of Iraq.

Since winning a special jury prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, No End in Sight has continued to gain plenty of momentum, with articles appearing in The Washington Post and the New York Times. Newsweek calls the film “lucid and without partisan rhetoric,” a “powerhouse of a movie that should be required viewing for every member of Congress.” Salon.com dubs it “among the year’s most memorable events.” In its review of the film, Variety states, “Ferguson delivers the calm, meticulous survey of U.S. policy that legions of critics of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 have been waiting for…Even well-informed audiences will find their jaws dropping.”

The film is currently playing in Washington, DC at the E Street Theater and in New York City at the Film Forum. Check the official website for additional showings throughout the United States.

Charles Ferguson is author of The Broadband Problem: Anatomy of a Market Failure and Policy Dilemma (Brookings, 2004).

- Learn more about No End in Sight.

- Read Washington Post article, “Focusing on a Losing Battle.”

- Read New York Times article, “His First Film Is a Winner (Being a Millionaire Helps).”

- Read Newsweek article, “Ideas: The Road to Ruin.”

- Read “Beyond the Multiplex” on salon.com.

- Read the Variety review.

- Learn more about The Broadband Problem.

Beyond Preemption

New book examines force and legitimacy in a changing world

America’s recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq have raised profound questions about military force: When is its use justifiable? For what purpose? Who should make the decision on whether to go to war?

Beyond Preemption, moves this debate forward with thoughtful discussion of what these guidelines should be and how they apply in the face of today’s most pressing geopolitical challenges: terrorism, WMD proliferation, and humanitarian emergencies. Brookings senior fellow Ivo Daalder and his colleagues draw on three years of crossnational dialogue with politicians, military officials and strategists, and international lawyers in presenting specific proposals on forging a new international consensus regarding preemption and the proper use of force in today’s world.

- Learn more about Beyond Preemption.

The Results Are In: Climate Change Tops the Charts

Our “issues election” at BookExpo America 2007 focused on the issues that most concern this year’s attendees

This year at BookExpo America, we polled the attendees about which issues were most important to them. In keeping with the idea of the forthcoming book Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America’s Next President, the poll focused the discussion on today’s pertinent issues rather than the presidential candidates and their views. Members of the Press whittled the 26 topics presented in Opportunity 08 down to 5: climate change, health care, homeland security, immigration, and Iraq.

Our booth at BEA had five canisters, each labeled with one of the five topics. Attendees were asked to place a marble in the canister for the issue that was of most importance to them; this type of voting eliminated the possibly partisan stance of the voter and solely measured the amount of interest in the topic itself. Climate change, the winner of our marble poll, received 31.55% percent of the votes, beating out Iraq by 3 percentage points. Health care came in third with 26.13% of the votes. Surprisingly (to us, at least), immigration received just 7.82% of the votes and homeland security garnered only 6.04%.

The goal of our issues election was to focus on the issues that matter to voters in this unusually wide-open presidential election. The results indicate substantial interest in more dialogue on climate change, the situation in Iraq, and the health care system.

Citizens are clearly saying they want to hear more from candidates about the issues and less about partisan politics. Opportunity 08 aims to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation, providing ideas, policy forums, and information on a broad range of domestic and foreign policy questions.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the book.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the project.

- Learn more about BookExpo America.