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Sunday November 22, 2009

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  • The Four Who Ended the Cold War

    Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    The Four Who Ended the Cold War
    The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday has become for many a celebration of Ronald Reagan’s starring role in the demise of the Evil Empire, writes Brookings President Strobe Talbott. But, he says, it was a group of four who ended the Cold War peacefully: Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and the calm—and calming—"air traffic controller" George H.W. Bush.

  • U.S., Russia Must Lead on Arms Control

    Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    U.S., Russia Must Lead on Arms Control
    Ten years ago, the U.S. Senate rejected the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT), setting back efforts to reduce the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Brent Scowcroft, Joseph Nye, Nicholas Burns and Strobe Talbott offer the Obama administration their counsel on how to build support for a revised CTBT and a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia.

  • Needed: Less Drift, More Mastery

    Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    Needed: Less Drift, More Mastery
    When President Barack Obama addresses foreign leaders at the UN General Assembly and the G-20 Summit later this week, it’s a safe prediction that no one will boo or shout insults at him, at least within the halls, says Strobe Talbott. The hearing he gets in New York and Pittsburgh will reflect the astronomical popularity and hopes for his success that Obama enjoys around the globe.

  • A Better Base for Cutting Nuclear Weapons

    Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    A Better Base for Cutting Nuclear Weapons
    President Obama's decision to rethink and revamp the plan for Poland-based defenses against Iranian missiles was met with some criticism at home and in Eastern Europe for giving too much to Russia. However, argues Brookings President Strobe Talbott, the new strategy is a pragmatic step to counter Iran's real short-range missile threat, strengthens the transatlantic alliance, and better serves the goals of U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction.

  • Counseling That Helps the Dying Live

    Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    With the debate over end-of-life counseling clouding the health care reform discussion, some in Congress have abandoned support for the service. Strobe Talbott and his son Devin describe their family's experience this year, providing a vivid perspective on the value of both counseling and hospice care.

  • A Tough Message to India on Climate Change, Non-proliferation

    Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    A Tough Message to India on Climate Change, Non-proliferation
    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the first visit to India by a top Obama administration official, engaged her hosts on two major issues facing the world: nuclear non-proliferation and climate change. Brookings President Strobe Talbott writes that Indians, like many Americans, still need to be persuaded to see the urgency of prompt action on these two issues.

  • Dangerous Leviathans: Russia's Bad Philosophy

    Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    Dangerous Leviathans: Russia's Bad Philosophy
    Strobe Talbott says Russia's aggressive foreign policy over the last decade is ill-suited to today's interdependent, consensus-based world. While Russia's leaders seem to have adopted the philosophical tenets of Thomas Hobbes in their pursuit of an authoritarian state, Talbott says that the cooperative vision of statehood proposed by Immanuel Kant is a better model. "If Russia’s future is to be better than its past," argues Talbott, "then Kant will have to prevail over Hobbes."

  • A Russian "Reset Button" Based on Inclusion

    Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

    A Russian
    Vice President Joseph Biden made headlines by proclaiming the Obama administration’s intention to "press the reset button” in U.S.-Russian relations. While some world capitals are concerned that Russia is cracking down at home and throwing its weight around abroad, Strobe Talbott explains that the Russians have provided an opening for renewed diplomacy and that the United States and its partners should encourage them to integrate into a globalized world.

  • The Obama Administration Will Be Very Cautious on Foreign Policy

    Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    The Obama Administration Will Be Very Cautious on Foreign Policy
    In a Spiegel interview, US foreign policy expert Strobe Talbott discusses the daunting foreign policy challenges facing Obama, the next president's desire to turn Americans into global citizens and the prospects for reinvigorated trans-Atlantic relations.

  • Tackling the Crisis of Global Order

    Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    Tackling the Crisis of Global Order
    Strobe Talbott and Thomas Pickering of the U.S. Advisory Group of the Managing Global Insecurity Project joined co-directors Carlos Pascual, Bruce Jones, and Stephen Stedman to assess several lessons of the current global financial crisis and resulting G20 summit. They argue that even though this is a trying time, it has brought about renewed prospects of broader cooperation, which is something the global community needs now more than ever.

  • The Presidential Transition

    Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    After a long campaign, American voters will elect a new Congress and a new commander-in-chief. Brookings President Strobe Talbott discusses the agenda for the president-elect, and announces a new effort to re-examine the top challenges he’ll face in the wake of a historic campaign and an unprecedented global financial crisis.

  • America's Next President Must Master the Tyranny of the Urgent

    Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    Climate change, nuclear proliferation, global trade and poverty, pandemics and terrorism will top the next president's agenda. The biggest job for the new U.S. administration, says Strobe Talbott, is to find better methods of governing an interdependent world. That is the only way to ensure the upside of globalization prevails over the downside.

  • 7 Years to Climate Midnight

    Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    7 Years to Climate Midnight
    Global warming—among the most complex economic, political and diplomatic challenges of our time—has become a central focus of the presidential campaign, with both candidates supporting the creation of a cap-and-trade system that would limit national emissions. Strobe Talbott and Carlos Pascual argue that the U.S. must take the lead now in facing the annual buildup in greenhouse gas emissions that threatens global catastrophe.

  • Global Turmoil: Pakistan, Russia, Georgia and Iran

    Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    How can the interconnection of Pakistan, Russia, Georgia and Iran affect the United States? Brookings President Strobe Talbott, Ted Koppell and Neal Conan discussed this question on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

  • Resurgent Russia Challenges U.S. Diplomacy

    Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    The United States has found itself in a difficult position with the conflict between Georgia and Russia. Strobe Talbott talks with Scott Simon about U.S. relations in the region.

  • Russia's Ominous New Doctrine?

    Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    Russia's Ominous New Doctrine?
    Strobe Talbott asks whether Russian policy has changed with regard to the permanence of borders. Because of its "rampage" through Georgia, the next U.S. administration will have to reexamine the underlying basis for the whole idea of partnership with Russia and its continuing integration into a rule-based international community.

  • Why All Augurs Well for India-U.S. Relations

    Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    Why All Augurs Well for India-U.S. Relations
    The most dramatic American presidential election in many decades contains good news for U.S.-Indian relations, says Strobe Talbott. The next president will inherit a relationship that is on an upward trajectory, but to better meet the challenges both countries share, he should translate into concerted action all the talk in recent years about the world’s oldest and largest democracies being “natural allies” and “strategic partners.”

  • Global Challenges for the Next U.S. President

    Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:46:54 GMT

    The next president of the United States will face significant domestic and international challenges. Brookings president Strobe Talbott, author of "The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation," explains that nuclear proliferation and climate change are two of the most critical issues the next administration will have to address.

  • The Great Experiment : The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and The Quest for a Global Nation

    Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT


    Offering an insider's view of how the world is governed today, Talbott interweaves through this epic tale personal insights and experiences and takes us with him behind the scenes and into the presence of world leaders as they square off or cut deals with each other.

  • The President and Foreign Policy

    Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    In a discussion of his new book, The Great Experiment, Strobe Talbott addresses America's role on the world stage, how presidents conduct foreign policy and their impact on the global community. He also looks at challenges facing President Bush as he enters his final year in office and what might be in store for his successor.

  • Trouble Ahead for the Next U.S. President

    Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

    Strobe Talbott says the next president will face the most dangerous and complex challenges ever for a new administration, especially with nuclear proliferation and climate change. He or she will need to move quickly and dramatically to demonstrate that respect for international law, treaties and organizations is firmly reinstated as part of the bedrock of American foreign policy.

  • Building a Constructive U.S.-Russian Relationship

    Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

    Strobe Talbott testified before a congressional committee that in the contentious dialogue between the United States and Russia, where domestically popular Vladimir Putin continues to assert state power, we must get the tone and tactics right in a "long-term strategy of inducing Russia to accept the terms and standards of the international community." Talbott focused particularly on energy issues, arms control and Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.

  • Unilateralism: Anatomy of a Foreign Policy Disaster

    Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, International Herald Tribune (2/21/07)

  • Tackling Trade and Climate Change: Leadership on the Home Front of Foreign Policy

    Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

    Tackling Trade and Climate Change: Leadership on the Home Front of Foreign Policy
    For the next President, effective leadership abroad will depend largely on marshalling bipartisan support for foreign policy at home. Combating terrorism, constricting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, reducing global poverty, promoting an efficient, equitable world trading system, and reversing the process of climate change are all issues that require far more effective diplomacy and skillful management of U.S. domestic politics.

  • How Bush Can Fix His Policy Failures

    Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, Financial Times (12/18/06)

  • Bush Foreign Policy: The Next Phase

    Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

    Speech by Strobe Talbott, Keynote Address to Stanley Foundation Conference (12/7/06)

  • Russia and the G8: Better Luck Next Year

    Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, The Financial Times (6/30/06)

  • Ideas, Policy, and Politics: The Role of Independent Research in Partisan Times

    Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT

    From a speech at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, March 28, 2006

    The fact that one of our nation's Founding Fathers should also be the founder of this university is a good starting point for my remarks. Thomas Jefferson personified—perhaps even epitomized—the proposition that good governance is based on good ideas, and that good ideas are based on respect for facts, rigor in thinking, rationality in debate, and civility in discourse.

  • The Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal

    Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

    Meenakshi Ahamed interviewed Strobe Talbott and Robert J. Einhorn for Seminar #560, "Building Partnerships," a symposium on India's changed relations with the United States.

  • Interview on the Situation in Iraq

    Tue, 06 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

    Interview with Strobe Talbott, JoongAng Ilbo (12/6/05)

  • Good Day for India, Bad Day for Non-Proliferation

    Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

    Article by Strobe Talbott, YaleGlobal (7/21/05)

  • To Russia, With Tough Love

    Thu, 24 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, New York Times (2/24/05)

  • Fighting World Poverty a Worthy Second-term Goal

    Sun, 19 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, San Francisco Chronicle (12/19/04)

  • The Strains of Putin's Clampdown

    Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Opinion by Strobe Talbott, Financial Times (9/27/04)

  • Jaswant Achieved More of His Objectives

    Tue, 21 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Interview with Strobe Talbott, Rediff.com (9/21/04)

  • Too Few Americans Pay Attention to the World

    Sat, 18 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Interview with Strobe Talbott, The Straits Times (9/18/04)

  • "Reagan and Gorbachev": Shutting the Cold War Down

    Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Book review by Strobe Talbott, New York Times (8/1/04).

  • Putin: Talk Like a Democrat, Walk Like an Autocrat

    Wed, 12 May 2004 00:00:00 GMT

    Brookings President Strobe Talbott writes that Russia's success in coming years depends on whether Vladimir Putin is willing and able to bring his authoritarian walk in line with his democratic talk.

  • Georgian Leader Brought Down by Corruption, Chances of Success for New Leaders Seen as Uncertain

    Mon, 24 Nov 2003 00:00:00 GMT

    Interview with Strobe Talbott, President, the Brookings Institution, by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor of crf.org (11/24/03)

  • War in Iraq, Revolution in America

    Wed, 01 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT

    Revised text of the sixth John Whitehead Lecture delivered by Strobe Talbott at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House (10/9/03)

  • The Axis of Irony

    Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:00:00 GMT

    The Iraq crisis could have the ironic but salutary effect of reinvigorating the United Nations, revealing George W. Bush to be more of a multilateralist than the rest of the world thought (and feared), and establishing a welcome degree of continuity