This Week on ForeignAffairs.com 7/19

July 19, 2012

This Week on ForeignAffairs.com

This newsletter is sponsored by the Foreign Affairs Student Essay Contest 2012.

Snapshot

Stuck in the Mud

Vanda Felbab-Brown

To get all its extra supplies out of Afghanistan, NATO needs to send one container over the Afghan border every seven minutes from now until 2015. With the Pakistan-Afghanistan border open again, much of that will travel southward. About a third, however, will make the even more perilous journey North, toward Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Given the conditions on these routes, NATO might not be leaving on time. Read

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A Map of the NATO Supply Routes out of Afghanistan

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Foreign Affairs Student Essay Contest 2012 - Sponsored by APSIA

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Response

Iran and the Bomb

Colin H. Kahl and Kenneth N. Waltz

A nuclear-armed Iran would not make the Middle East more secure, argues Colin Kahl; it would yield more terrorism and pose a risk of a nuclear exchange. Kenneth Waltz maintains that nuclear deterrence enhances stability, and if the price is more low-level conflict, so be it. Read

Essay

Obamacare and the Court

Barry Friedman

Pundits predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act would make history. In fact, by upholding the individual mandate as a tax, the justices took themselves largely out of the picture, ensuring that the debate over health care will play out in the political sphere, where it belongs. Read

News & Events

A Discussion of the Healthcare Decision With Peter Orszag and Barry Friedman

The editor of Foreign Affairs talks with the former director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget and a NYU Law Professor about the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act. Read

Snapshot

Libya's Militia Menace

Frederic Wehrey

Libya's elections passed peacefully, but observers should have no illusions about the momentous challenges ahead, especially the task of rebuilding and formalizing the country's security services. During its 16 months in power, the outgoing transitional government walked a fine line between trying to dismantle the country's regional militias and making use of them as hired guns. The strategy sowed the seeds for the country's descent into warlordism. Read

Comment - Jul/Aug 2012

Trading Up in Asia

Bernard K. Gordon

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive multilateral trade agreement now in the works that focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, could add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and solidify Washington's commitment to the Pacific. But if the Obama administration fails to calm critics of the deal, there is a growing possibility that it could collapse. Read