Editor’s Corner

he War on Terror, it seems, will be with us for quite some time. The latest indication came shortly before this issue went to press, when British authorities foiled an ambitious terrorist plot to blow up as many as 10 airliners in mid-air. Had it been successfully carried out, that plan would have killed hundreds and caused damage on an unimaginable scale. Credit for thwarting the attacks rests primarily with British authorities, but a number of foreign nations—including the United States and Pakistan—provided valuable assistance in uncovering the plot, and exposing its inner workings.

August’s abortive terror attacks underscore an unmistakable fact. Given the diffuse nature of today’s terrorist threat, the United States simply cannot “go it alone”—if it ever could. In today’s world, Washington needs reliable allies capable of complementing and augmenting its efforts on everything from counterterrorism to counterproliferation. It is therefore more than a little fitting that this issue of The Journal focuses on identifying exactly who America’s main international partners—and its chief adversaries—will be in the years ahead.

Our first section deals with allies. Efraim Inbar, director of Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Stategic Studies, outlines the strategic bonds, old and new, underpinning the Middle East’s most durable alliance: the partnership between the United States and Israel. Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation takes a probing look at Japan’s evolving threat perceptions—and how they are bringing Tokyo closer to Washington. The University of Georgia’s Anupam Srivastava offers an incisive analysis of the principles underpinning the emerging partnership between India and the United States. Svante Cornell of Johns Hopkins University’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, meanwhile, provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities confronting the U.S. in Central Asia and the Caucasus. For his part, counterterrorism expert Olivier Guitta explores the quiet cooperation that is taking place, away from all the public discord, between Washington and European capitals. From there, we move to Australia, as the American Foreign Policy Council’s Joshua Eisenman reviews the state of America’s strategic alliance “down under.” Closer to home, Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary sketches the contours of America’s future defense relationship with Canada. Finally, Chuck Downs, a former Pentagon policy planner, gives us a worrying glimpse into the growing rift between the United States and South Korea, as Seoul continues its drift into Pyongyang’s orbit.

The second deals with adversaries. For a cutting edge treatment of Iran, we turn to the synopsis of a recent policy roundtable convened by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Then, Robert Rabil of Florida Atlantic University reviews the survival strategy of Iran’s major regional partner: Syria. Sino-Russian expert Alexandr Nemets, meanwhile, gives a sobering review of the burgeoning strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing—and their likely consequences for the United States. For his part, Latin American expert Luis Fleischman identifies the next great threat emanating from the Western Hemisphere: the radical, anti-American regime of Hugo Chávez in Caracas. Last, but most certainly not least, Walid Phares of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies examines the changing nature of terrorist threats to the United States and its allies, and the likely battlefields where the War on Terror will be joined in the years ahead.

Here at The Journal, our objective is to foster new and creative thinking about U.S. foreign policy, so it is our distinct pleasure to inaugurate a periodic new feature which allows experts to debate the ideas published in these pages. The first such “Response” comes from Nikolas Gvosdev of The National Interest, who takes issue with Stephen Blank’s policy prescriptions on Russia from our Spring 2006 edition.

We also have dispatches on a variety of foreign policy topics from Mexico, Slovenia and Georgia. Rounding out the issue are reviews of four important books: Joshua London’s Victory in Tripoli, The Other War by Stephanie Gutmann, John Yoo’s The Powers of War and Peace, and Hamas by Matthew Levitt.

All in all, we think that you will agree that there is plenty of food for thought in these pages.