Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...stopped pursuing the European antimissile defense system, which should please the Russians - and he has reminded the Chinese that we face a common enemy in central Asian Islamic extremism. But that doesn't guarantee either country will be willing to get tougher on the Iranians. (See pictures of Afghanistan's Kunar province...
...biggest foreign policy problem Obama faces is Afghanistan. Indeed, it is an issue that has divided his foreign policy team for the first time. I'm told the Secretaries of both State and Defense and National Security Adviser Jim Jones warily favor the military's request for more troops. But Vice President Joe Biden and, perhaps, the President remain skeptics - and rightly so, since any military policy depends on whether the Afghan government can regain some credibility after the flagrantly corrupt August elections. If Hamid Karzai limps into a second term but does not make some major reforms - like removing...
...election is required, it will be held before winter - just about the time health care is decided in Congress, which brings us back to Kerry's observation. These issues are linked. If Obama wins health care, he will have the political capital to move any way he wishes on Afghanistan - with the military, or against...
...robust new approaches to international problems. "There has been a passive consensus on foreign policy issues," says Jan Techau, director of the Europe Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations. "But that passivity is inappropriate now, as Germany faces increasing demands from NATO - for example, burden-sharing in Afghanistan and on the general discussion about the future of NATO." (See pictures of the Berlin Wall...
...Afghanistan shook up an otherwise tame election campaign when reports emerged that a Sept. 4 air strike ordered by a German commander in Kunduz province resulted in high civilian casualties. But even on such a contentious issue as the war, there's precious little disagreement between the parties most likely to form a new government. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current Foreign Minister and the SPD's candidate for Chancellor, at one point appeared to suggest a timetable for German troop withdrawal, then beat a swift retreat from anything so radical. Steinmeier, Merkel and Guido Westerwelle, the leader of the Free...