Word: consensus
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...sticks to successfully pressure nations like Peru and Colombia to defect from Brazil's alliance. Lula, meanwhile, accused Washington of creating a "commercial apartheid." He sent diplomats throughout Latin America to shore up support for what he and Argentine President Néstor Kirchner call the Buenos Aires Consensus, a left-leaning design for trade that emphasizes job creation and access to markets. Now Lula faces a delicate diplomatic moment. If things melt down in Miami, Brazil could be blamed for derailing the ftaa. If Brazil is seen as giving in to the Yankees, it risks losing its heady...
...even as there is growing consensus that more soldiers are needed, there is also growing concern that current levels are unsustainable. In September, the Congressional Budget Office determined that without extending tours of duty beyond one year, current force levels in Iraq would have to start dropping precipitously in about five months. In line with this reality, the Pentagon’s new rotation plan relies on the idealistic hope that expanding forces now will prevent the need for a sustained U.S. presence in the spring. The Pentagon’s plan actually leads to a reduction of forces...
...While there's no clarity yet on what proposals Ambassador Bremer will take back with him to Baghdad, there's a consensus in Washington that the current transition program is not working. The escalating security crisis in Iraq has prompted the Pentagon to pursue a strategy of "Iraqification," deploying more and more Iraqis against the insurgency. But for "Iraqification" to have any impact, it will have to be accompanied by a parallel political transition: Iraqis are a less likely to risk their lives defending an occupation authority than they would be to fight for a new Iraqi government...
...inclusiveness may actually preclude it from taking decisive action. Its presidency, for example, is rotated on a month by month basis among seven different leaders, each with his own distinct agenda. The IGC's problems, however, are not simply rooted in its cumbersome structure. They reflect an absence of consensus among Iraqis over a post-Saddam order. The Kurds favor a federation that would give them maximum autonomy in northern Iraq, but the Sunnis and Shiites are reluctant to see the country divided. The Sunnis, who make up much of Iraq's technocratic elite, are accustomed to power and privilege...
...holding elections for a transitional authority is risky, then simply appointing one, as in Afghanistan, may be even more so. In Afghanistan, the political process was conducted under UN auspices, and followed months of intense consultation that established a political consensus among all of the country's neighbors (including Iran). While Karzai had no popular constituency inside Afghanistan, he carried a sufficiently broad international backing to allow him to balance the contending claims of contending Afghan warlords. But achieving the Karzai effect in Iraq would likely require a similar consensus from regional stakeholders including the Arab League, Turkey and Iran...