Even modest cooperative activities, as long as they are built across the wide span of the region, may help each nation advance its own goals while improving their relationship with each other.

The Future of the Greater Middle East and the Prospects for US-Russian Partnership

Whether or not the United States today should be called an empire is a semantic game. The important point is that it resembles previous empires enough to make the search for lessons of history worthwhile. Overwhelming dominance has always invited hostility. U.S. leaders thus must learn the arts of imperial management and diplomacy, exercising power with a bland smile rather than boastful words.

History and the Hyperpower

Global power shifts happen rarely and are even less often peaceful. Washington must take heed: Asia is rising fast, with its growing economic power translating into political and military strength. The West must adapt -- or be left behind.

A Global Power Shift in the Making

A Council on Foreign Relations report, co-chaired by Robert M. Gates and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Iran: Time for a New Approach

I find it interesting that in the section describing the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s, there is no mention of the role played by the United States in that conflict. Perhaps it's because the section is entitled, "Who is the enemy?"

The commission's recommendation to establish a cabinet-level director of national intelligence appears to have been motivated by the fact that Tenet's 1998 "We are at war" memorandum did not seem to have the expected effect on the Community. Later, they also argue that the current DCI job has too many concurrent responsibilities for a single person to perform properly.

A few selected excerpts:

Many dedicated officers worked day and night for years to piece together the growing body of evidence on al Qaeda and to understand the threats.

Al Qaeda had a pre-9/11 annual budget estimated at $30 million.

What to do?

Strengthen long-term US and international commitments to the future of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Confront problems with Saudi Arabia.

Secrecy stifles oversight, accountability, and information sharing. Unfortunately, all the current organizational incentives encourage overclassification. This balance should change; and as a start, open information should be provided about the overall size of agency intelligence budgets.

The system of "need to know" should be replaced by a system of "need to share."

We look forward to a national debate on the merits of what we have recommended, and we will participate vigorously in that debate.

Executive Summary of 9/11 Final Report

The official web site is Slashdotted. Many news outlets have cached the report. Get it here from NYT.

We present the narrative of this report and the recommendations that flow from it to the President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the American people for their consideration.

We have come together with a unity of purpose because our nation demands it.

Our mandate was sweeping.

In pursuing our mandate, we have reviewed more than 2.5 million pages of documents and interviewed more than 1,200 individuals in ten countries.

We learned about an enemy who is sophisticated, patient, disciplined, and lethal.

We learned of the pervasive problems of managing and sharing information across a large and unwieldy government that had been built in a different era to confront different dangers.

We came into this process with strong opinions about what would work. All of us have had to pause, reflect, and sometimes change our minds as we studied these problems and considered the views of others.We hope our report will encourage our fellow citizens to study, reflect -- and act.

The 9/11 Commission Report

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) will release its final report at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 22, in Washington, D.C.

"AT&T will focus on lines of business where we are a clear leader, where we control our own destiny and where we have distinct competitive advantages."

AT&T to Stop Marketing Traditional Service

FBI Director Mueller noted that "Boston and New York will be hard targets" and suggested that the terror network might look elsewhere.

CIA Sends Terror Experts to Tell Small Towns of Risk

The resolution, such as it is, involves the complexities of time travel — wormholes, tangent universes and so forth — in a way that asks larger questions about free will.

The Resurrection of 'Donnie Darko'