Obama's Realist Idealism

President Barack Obama pledged in his first TV interview—with the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya—that America under his watch would "listen with respect and not dictate" to the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has further announced that this country will no longer just throw around its military might but will pursue a "smart power" approach by tempering the use of hard weaponry with the "soft power" of persuasion and cultural attraction. Or, as Madame Secretary's husband Bill has put it, America will now lead through the power of example instead of the example of power.
The first exceedingly complex test of Obama's smart power strategy will be how to end George W. Bush's misguided "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, keeping al-Qaida at bay without being swallowed by the quagmire of tribal politics. An array of experts from New Delhi to Paris offers their views in this section.     

CRITERIA FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICE

This paper examines the question of what factors determine whether a hazardous activity is 'acceptable'. We conclude that there is no simple answer to this question which can be derived from risk analysis, but that qualitative criteria can be developed to help decisionmakers evaluate risk analysis results. A preliminary set of criteria is proposed.     

The Cost of the Last Six Years,From North Korea to Kosovo

As the Soviet Union collapsed and China shifted to the market, it was said that communism was nothing more than the longest road between capitalism and capitalism. It now looks like the Bush‐era neo‐conservatism is similarly a long road back to the realism from whence it departed. The US is now talking with North Korea and Iran instead of preempting them through war. A dissident Iranian scientist, the former top UN arms inspector and a former US secretary of state ponder this state of affairs.