Grand Strategy of ‘Restrainment’

With the end of the Cold War, the subsequent global war on terror, the global economic recession, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, one would think that the United States would have formulated a grand strategy for dealing with these problems. This, however, is not the case. This article advances a grand strategy of “restrainment,” as a guiding concept for our approach to international politics. It builds from the principle that U.S. policy must seek to restrain—individually and collectively—those forces, ideas, and movements in international politics that create instability, crises, and war.     

Suffering What It Must? Mongolia and the Power of the ‘Weak’

Mongolia is not a hapless object on which the great powers may act at will. Like other small states existing on the periphery of great powers, Mongolia has—and does exercise—political agency. Its policies and actions affect not only the bilateral relationship it has with each of the greater powers, but—as an outgrowth of those bilateral relations—it also exerts some influence on the relationship that the great powers, in turn, have with each other. “… you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”¹     

The Information Confrontation with Radical Islam

Information has emerged as a critical—potentially the decisive—front in both the global war with violent radical Islam and the overlapping but so far largely unadmitted Cold War with nonviolent radical Islam. In fact, the information front is undoubtedly the closest thing that al Qaeda has to a strategic center of gravity. Unfortunately, America faces an extremely hostile information environment in the Middle East and al Qaeda has proven far more effective at getting its message across than has the United States. A more effective U.S. information strategy would be one that stresses three themes: a democratic critique of radical Islam; an Islamic critique of radical Islam; and a critique of the crisis in Middle Eastern civilization. While these will not necessarily make the U.S. or its policies more popular, they may drive a wedge between radical Islam and potential supporters.     

Indonesia Returns to the International Stage: Good News for the United States

Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country, third largest democracy and home to the world's largest community of Muslims, has returned to the international stage. Indonesia's membership in a number of important global communities-it resides physically in Asia but is part of the broader Muslim world, the developing world, and the community of democracies-makes it an important international actor. Many Americans assume that common democratic values will translate into shared foreign policy goals and cooperation between the United States and Indonesia. The two countries do share significant interests, such as counter terrorism, maritime security, and a wariness of China, but also hold starkly different positions on the Middle East peace process and global trade issues. Democracy provides opportunities for the two-thirds of Indonesians who hold anti-American views to influence foreign policy, making it costly for Indonesian leaders to cooperate with the United States. Indonesia's return is good news for America, but the relationship needs to be managed skillfully to maximize benefits for both sides.     

Immunohistochemical study of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling in the involuted thymus

Thymic involution has been reported to be an important parameter of the degree and duration of child abuse. In the present study, we assessed the status of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling, which is known to play a key role in the physiological function of the thymus, in involuted thymuses of abused children through immunohistological studies performed with anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies. We found that tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were present in high amounts in Hassall’s corpuscles (HC) in the medulla of control thymuses. In involuted thymuses of abused children, expression of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins was reduced with accompanying morphological changes of HC, such as reduction in size or calcification. These findings lead us to the suggestion that tyrosine phosphorylation signaling is reduced in involuted thymuses of abused children and that reduction of the signaling may be associated with morphological changes of HC as observed in involuted thymuses of abused children. In order to certify the suggestion, we investigated expression of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins in involuted thymuses of stressed rats as well as in control thymuses. Immunohistochemistry revealed that tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were expressed in control thymuses, more abundantly in the medulla, and reduced remarkably in involuted thymuses of stressed rats. Further, immunoblot analysis also showed that expression of phosphotyrosine-containing proteins was reduced in thymus extracts of involuted thymuses of stressed rats, thus supporting the suggestion. Our results also raise the possibility that components of tyrosine phosphorylation signaling could be a molecular marker for thymic involution.     

“Strangers in the new homeland?” Gendered citizenship among non-Jewish immigrant women in Israel

As part of the recent wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union (FSU), about 300,000 non-Jews came to Israel as spouses of Jews or partly-Jewish offspring of ethnically-mixed families. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences of non-Jewish women, wives of Jewish husbands, who came to Israel after 1990 under the Law of Return. The study is based on the qualitative analysis of 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with these immigrant women, aiming to explore their perceptions of religious practices, Jewish holidays, conversion (giyur), and their political views — in order to understand their constructions of Israeli citizenship. The issues of citizenship and loyalty to the Jewish state are resolved by Russian immigrant women in a variety of ways. Some women (a small minority) opt for ethno-national citizenship through religious conversion — giyur, typically for the children's sake. Others prefer to become part of Israeli society through experiences connected to the military service of their children and grandchildren, which can be seen as a version of republican citizenship. For most women in this study, the process of getting closer to the Israeli society and its traditions often occurred via embracing local culinary customs and specific holiday foods. In any case, the gender roles as wives and mothers appeared to be central in our informants' understanding of Israeli citizenship. The adoption of political views of Israeli Right and militant anti-Arab discourse also served as a venue for their ‘nationalization’ through republicanism.