November/December 2011

Editor's Introduction
James S. Denton
In his excellent critique of the Obama administration’s Iran policy (one of several provocative articles in this issue of World Affairs), Sohrab Ahmari notes in passing that the Middle East’s “architecture of power is undergoing a massive and unprecedented change.” No doubt about it. But the recent upheaval in that region, while in some respects startlingly new, also represents more of the same: another dimension of complexity and danger in what was already a disconcertingly volatile, wildly unpredictable, and dangerous world. ... Read More

In This Issue

Daze of War: The Russia-Georgia Conflict on Film

James Kirchick
Even the most hawkish Russia critic will spot the Georgian propaganda at work in Renny Harlin’s latest flick.

The Next al-Qaeda?

Neil Padukone
Lashkar-e-Taiba has morphed from a militia operating in Kashmir to a regional broker with designs on becoming the next global terror network.

The WikiLeaks Tell-All That Doesn’t

John Rosenthal
Billed as a peek inside the strange world of WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s memoir reads more like a swan song to the author’s beloved former boss, Julian Assange.

Balkans’ New Lost Generation

Kristin Deasy
Years after the tumultuous wars of the region, life in the Balkans remains complicated and tense—especially for the young.

WikiLeaks Shows Enhanced Interrogation Worked

Marc A. Thiessen
Whether intentionally or not, the controversial website has provided ample evidence that enhanced interrogation directly aided the war on terror.

Obama’s Iran Confusion

Sohrab Ahmari
Is Washington’s plan to “contain” Iran too little too late?

Neglected India: Ignoring the World’s Largest Democracy

Mary Kissel
The US and India are natural allies, but Obama has let China and Pakistan get in the way of New Delhi’s importance.

What’s Next for Assad and Syria?

James H. Anderson
As the brutal Syrian president clings to his aging regime, a number of possibilities lie in store for the country.

Libya’s Punk Revolution

Ann Marlowe
The fighters who toppled Qaddafi were poorly organized, but their victory could signal a new type of insurgency warfare.

The End of Oslo

Aaron Menenberg
Now that yet another US president has failed to bring Israel and the Palestinians closer to a settlement, it’s time to abandon the outmoded Oslo negotiation model.

Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Security: Whither the IAEA?

Richard Weitz
The International Atomic Energy Agency has been caught flat-footed so many times in the last decade that its future effectiveness is in doubt.

Unraveling the Mykonos Killings

Marcus Wilford
In her painstaking new book, Roya Hakakian recounts the Tehran-backed 1992 assassination of Iranian exiles in Berlin—and the legal and diplomatic complications it spawned.

In the May/June Issue

Jackson Diehl on sectarianism in Syria, Elliott Abrams and Robert Wexler on Iran's nuclear threat, and John Rosenthal on Germany and the origins of the euro crisis. Plus US-Pakistan relations, academia's new communism, Spain's economy, and more...

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