American Diplomacy Links--March 2016.

• Author: Clack, George
• Position: Internet Article FYI

March 2016

"The Obama Doctrine"

The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America's role in the world. In a nutshell, says the author, Obama favors foreign-policy realism and "generally does not believe a president should place American soldiers at great risk in order to prevent humanitarian disasters, unless those disasters pose a direct security threat to the United States."

By Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic. Goldberg is a national correspondent for the Atlantic, Previously, he was a Middle East correspondent and the Washington correspondent for the New Yorker as well as a correspondent for the New York Times Magazine and New York magazine.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/

"Election Fallout: What Iran's Vote Means for Hope and Change (and Washington)"

The recent elections in Iran suggest the possibility of a new force in Iranian politics, a durable coalition of moderates that can claim both popular support and traction among the system's power brokers. That would not be a ticket to overnight improvements in Iran's most problematic policies, but it could curb some of the regime's ideological excesses.

By Suzanne Maloney, Brookings Blogs. Maloney is deputy director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow in the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy and the Energy and Security Initiative, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2016/03/04-iran-post-election-analysis-maloney?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=26967998&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8JIh22gAe57AwZtI1SsWrZCr9C8vHGos3v0XVjCUryeU_BeuRPgwwFagzuq3oTyYifjbztP1ysUa6CAxnYZV2xK7uug&_hsmi=26967998

"Where the Iran-Saudi Showdown Will Erupt Next"

From Syria to Bahrain, the Tehran-Riyadh rivalry has plenty of flashpoints, By Matt Purple, the National Interest. Purple is the deputy editor for Rare Politics. Previously, he was the assistant managing editor of the American Spectator.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/where-the-iran-saudi-showdown-will-erupt-next-14830

"Europe: The Far Left and the Far Right Take Us on a Joy Ride back to the Future"

What was once the oppositional language of fringe parties in Europe has combined into a toxic new politics that is making its way to the center of Western democratic discourse. That should frighten us.

By Harold James, Tablet. James, professor of...