Iran-US nuclear deal revival efforts will face hurdles

Significance US President-elect Joe Biden supports the agreement, from which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew, and has named as his national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who under former President Barack Obama began the secret outreach that fostered the JCPOA. Impacts Biden will immediately lower the temperature by facilitating trade in medical supplies to fight COVID-19. An end to the ‘Muslim ban’ will likely mean Iranian citizens can again travel to the United States, pandemic permitting. Iran may halt or slow steps that violate JCPOA limits, such as the installation of advanced centrifuges.

Kissinger and Latin America

This book analyzes U.S. policies toward Latin America during a critical period of the Cold War. Except for the issue of Chile under Salvador Allende, historians have largely ignored inter-American relations during the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. This book also offers a way of adding to and challenging the prevailing historiography on one of the most preeminent policymakers in the history of U.S. foreign relations. Scholarly studies on Henry Kissinger and his policies between 1969 and 1977 have tended to survey Kissinger's approach to the world, with an emphasis on initiatives toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and the struggle to extricate the United States from the Vietnam conflict. This book offers something new—analyzing U.S. policies toward a distinct region of the world during Kissinger's career as national security adviser and secretary of state. The book further challenges the notion that Henry Kissinger dismissed relations with the southern neighbors. The energetic Kissinger devoted more time and effort to Latin America than any of his predecessors—or successors—who served as the national security adviser or secretary of state during the Cold War era. He waged war against Salvador Allende and successfully destabilized a government in Bolivia. He resolved nettlesome issues with Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. He launched critical initiatives with Panama and Cuba. Kissinger also bolstered and coddled murderous military dictators who trampled on basic human rights. South American military dictators whom Kissinger favored committed international terrorism in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

Finally, Diplomacy Backed by Force July–August 1995

In July 1995 genocide in Srebrenica led to efforts to forge a new peace plan. The Principals received a “Bosnia Endgame Strategy” paper, which proposed shoring up UNPROFOR, pushing for a political settlement with Slobodan Milošević, supporting Bosnia’s survival if UNPROFOR withdrew, providing additional support to the Bosniaks, and offering sanctions relief to induce Milošević to stay out of Bosnia. Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger initiated strategizing that Madeleine Albright used to “examine how to shift from a European-led plan to an American-led plan.” Albright proposed using air power to compel the Bosnian Serbs to negotiate a peace settlement and training Federation forces. Bill Clinton endorsed this. The Croatian Army successfully regained their lands in Croatia. Discussions in the Situation Room focused on creation of a post-settlement Peace Implementation Force. Another bombing of the Markale market in Sarajevo unleashed NATO air power, and Milošević began to negotiate seriously.

Shattered Plans 1993

The year 1993 never got close to a peaceful settlement of the Balkans conflict despite the United Nations, European, and American attempts to achieve one. The siege of Sarajevo had begun in 1992 immediately after the declaration of independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina. By the end of 1993, a military stalemate persisted in Bosnia as the diplomatic challenge limped along. President Bill Clinton’s cabinet of national security leaders—the Principals Committee—gathered in the Situation Room for the first time on January 28, 1993, and dealt exclusively with the situation in Bosnia. In April 1993, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Madeleine Albright, delivered a memorandum to the national security adviser recommending use of American air power. The recommendation failed to attract sufficient support, and further diplomatic efforts to end the war also failed. “Assertive multilateralism” took a beating in Situation Room discussions as 1993 wore on.

The Sit Room

The Sit Room brings you into the secretive Situation Room of the White House, the most important deliberative room in the world, during the early 1990s when the author was one of the policymakers who framed the Clinton administration’s policy toward the bloody Balkans War. With newly declassified documents and his own notes to draw upon, David Scheffer, who later became America’s first Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, weaves the true story of how policy options were debated in the Situation Room among the highest national security officials. The road to a final peace deal in late 1995 came at the high price of the murderous siege of Sarajevo and ethnic cleansing of mostly Bosnian Muslims from their homes and towns. The book relates the inside story about how American policy evolved—often futilely—to try to stop an intractable war and shocking atrocities. Main actors in the Situation Room include the Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, the State Department’s ace negotiator Richard Holbrooke, National Security Adviser Tony Lake, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili, Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, and White House moralist David Gergen. For three years the Situation Room table was littered with shattered proposals to end the war until armed force backed up diplomacy to compel a fragile peace deal. The book reveals authentic policymaking at the highest levels with a unique journey into the arena of war and peace where spirited debate guided America’s foreign policy.

Top official's defection will reshape Afghan alliances

Subject Hanif Atmar's credibility as a presidential contender. Significance President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani's hopes of easy re-election next year have been dealt a serious blow by the resignation of National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar. Seen as one of the most capable members of Ghani's team and a key player in his election planning, Atmar is reportedly considering running for the presidency himself. Impacts Legislative elections due in October may alter the balance in parliament but are less critical than the presidential polls. Another election cycle marred by massive fraud will exasperate Kabul's foreign backers as well as Afghan voters. The Taliban may be disinclined to engage with Ghani's peace offer unless they can extract extra concessions.

The Nixon Years

The administration of President Richard Nixon presents several examples of how Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, used food aid as a tool to advance foreign policy goals that Congress was attempting to foreclose. This chapter discusses two such examples: (1) food aid to Thailand in 1971, intended to free other financial resources in support of Southeast Asian military purchases, and (2) White House intervention in food aid decisions involving East Pakistan/Bangladesh and India in the months after Pakistani leader General Yahya Kahn unleased military reprisals against East Pakistan that led to the latter’s war of independence and a consequent flood of millions of East Pakistani refugees into India. Nixon’s support of Yahya Kahn and reluctance to assist India and the food aid-related repercussions of that support are described in this chapter.