Archive for December 2009
6 December 2009
President Barack Obama’s plan to increase American activities in Afghanistan will transform the political and strategic landscape. His decision to send 30,000 more U.S. soldiers to the region, increase counterinsurgency activities, and work more closely with Pakistan will commit American power, treasure, and credibility to the creation of a stable state in Afghanistan. This is a worthwhile, but very difficult endeavor. For more of my thoughts on Afghanistan, and the role of scholars and educators, see my 7 minute news interview from 4 December 2009:
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Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-building from the Founders to Obama (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, Fall 2011)
Americans are a nation-building people, and in Liberty’s Surest Guardian, Jeremi Suri looks to America’s history to see both what it has to offer to failed states around the world and what it should avoid.
More at the book website >
Jeremi Suri is the Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of five books on contemporary politics and foreign policy. In September 2011 he will publish a new book on the past and future of nation-building: Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama. Professor Suri's research and teaching have received numerous prizes. In 2007 Smithsonian Magazine named him one of America's "Top Young Innovators" in the Arts and Sciences. His writings appear widely in blogs and print media. Professor Suri is also a frequent public lecturer and guest on radio and television programs.