Foreign Policy In Focus

www.fpif.org

Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) is a "Think Tank Without Walls" connecting the research and action of more than 600 scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the United States a more responsible global partner.

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Recent Work

Op-Ed
Playing the Hawk With North Korea
July 1 - The Obama administration needs to recognize an aggressive policy toward North Korea is as ineffective now as it was during Clinton and Bush. By John Feffer, published in Antiwar.com and Inter Press Service

Commentary
A Withdrawal in Name Only
June 24 - U.S. troops are moving out of Iraqi cities — or are they? By Erik Leaver, published in AlterNet and Common Dreams and Foreign Policy In Focus

Op-Ed
The Obama-Lee Summit: Dangerous Consensus?
June 19 - Washington and Seoul should coordinate policy. But they should also keep their eyes on the prize: resolving the current crisis with North Korea without resorting to force. By John Feffer, published in Foreign Policy In Focus and The Asia Chronicle

Op-Ed
Outsourcing North Korea Policy
June 11 - Washington can't rely on Beijing to clean up this mess. By John Feffer, published in The Asia Chronicle

Op-Ed
Korean Tragedies
May 29 - North Korea's nuclear test and Roh Moo-Hyun's suicide have both cast a shadow on inter-Korean cooperation. But engagement is needed now more than ever. By John Feffer, published in The Asia Chronicle

Letter to the Ed
The Oil Need That Fuels U.S. 'Outreach' in Africa
May 28 - U.S. military "outreach" on Africa's seas and land is in search not of pirates but of oil. By Emira Woods, published in The Washington Post

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Download
- Released September 22, 2008
A Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2009
By Lawrence Korb and Miriam Pemberton
In this fifth annual edition of the “Unified Security Budget,” as with the previous four editions, a non-partisan task force of military, homeland security, and foreign policy experts laid out the facts of the imbalance between military and non-military spending. The ratio of funding for military forces vs. non-military international engagement in the Bush administration’s proposed budget for the 2009 fiscal year has widened to 18:1 from 16:1 in the 2008 fiscal year, according to the report.
Download
- Released March 17, 2008
The Iraq War: The Costs to States
By Erik Leaver and Jenny Shin
Five years ago, the Bush administration launched what may become the greatest foreign policy disaster of this country’s over 200 years of history, and today we stand on the threshold of the 4,000th American killed, the 30,000th American tragically wounded, and the millionth Iraqi dead.

These latest fact sheets outline the costs of this war to all 50 states and the District of Columbia to help illustrate the local costs of the war. It is designed for duplication and popular education.
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- Released January 31, 2008
Military vs. Climate Security
By Miriam Pemberton
Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore called on the nations of the world to mobilize to avert climate disaster “with a sense of urgency and shared resolve that has previously been seen only when nations have mobilized for war.”

This report measures in fiscal terms how far our own nation has to go to reach that goal.

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Buy This Book
- Published May 5, 2008
- ISBN 978-1594514999
Lessons From Iraq: Avoiding the Next War
Edited by William D. Hartung and Miriam Pemberton

IPS research fellow and FPIF peace and security editor Miriam Pemberton has teamed up with New America Foundation scholar William D. Hartung to produce a new book that pulls together the thinking of some great minds on the lessons we should be able to take from the Iraq War disaster.

This war may actually have an upside: it should permanently discredit quite a few policies and practices. Preventive war. Politicized intelligence. Coalitions of the coerced. New frontiers of media manipulation. This book's editors drew up a list, and asked the experts on each to boil down what they know for the rest of us. The authors include The Three Trillion Dollar War's Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, pre-war UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, National Book Award winner Frances Fitzgerald, NYU legal scholar Aziz Huq, and artist-restauranteur-activist Anas Shallal.

Lessons From Iraq: Avoiding the Next War (Paradigm Publishers, 2008) is short, accessible and affordable. As Barbara Ehrenreich said, "Read this compelling set of essays and join the movement to prevent the next war."