Terms of Engagement
James Traub is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of, most recently, The Freedom Agenda. "Terms of Engagement," his column for ForeignPolicy.com, runs weekly.

An Unnecessary War

Afghanistan used to be the central front in the war against terrorism. Now it's a distraction from it.

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 29, 2010

The Spectacle of the Society

France's half-century social-spending spree is coming to an end -- and Nicolas Sarkozy is stuck holding the bag.

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 22, 2010

All Roads Lead to Istanbul

Turkey is more popular now than it has been since the Ottoman Empire. But can it please all of its new friends at the same time?

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 15, 2010

How Lebanon Was Lost

A former U.S. ally under Bush's Freedom Agenda, the country is now being neglected in the name of "engagement" with Syria -- and the results could be disastrous.

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 8, 2010

A Long Road Ahead in Pakistan

If Obama wants to make progress, he needs to give up on making it overnight.

BY JAMES TRAUB | OCTOBER 1, 2010

Wallowing in Decline

Americans have gone from gloating over their global influence to bemoaning the loss of it. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now.

BY JAMES TRAUB | SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Bashir Insanity

Team Obama has just offered Sudan's genocidal tyrant one last olive branch. A hickory switch might work better.

BY JAMES TRAUB | SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Darkness and Light

Barack Obama promised to end "the color-coded politics of fear." But we're still living in the shadows.

BY JAMES TRAUB | SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Judgment Day for Rwanda

Paul Kagame is proving to be a pliant Western ally. But a shocking new U.N. report shows why the Rwandan president can no longer claim to be a victim -- and it's time to hold him accountable.

BY JAMES TRAUB | SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Mixed Irish Blessing

Obama's peace negotiator thinks his success in Northern Ireland should give us hope in the Middle East. But does the analogy really hold?

BY JAMES TRAUB | AUGUST 27, 2010

The Georgia Syndrome

Two years after a disastrous war, Tbilisi is booming, but Georgians remain on edge, for one overriding reason: They're not sure Barack Obama loves them enough.

BY JAMES TRAUB | AUGUST 13, 2010

The Two Obamas

It's too early to call the U.S. president a foreign-policy failure. But he does need to figure out what kind of global leader he wants to be.

BY JAMES TRAUB | AUGUST 6, 2010

Documents of Mass Destruction

So what if the WikiLeaks revelations aren't the Pentagon Papers redux? They still do deep damage to President Obama's case for continuing the war.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY 27, 2010

Good Night, Ban Ki-Moon

The U.N. secretary-general must go.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY 22, 2010

Attack of the Zeros

Will the rise of a new class of Cold Warriors doom Obama's nuke treaty?

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY 16, 2010

Bad Politics Is Better Than No Politics

Why Iraq's bloody democracy isn't so terrible.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY 9, 2010

COIN Toss

Is Hamid Karzai worth the fight in Afghanistan? We'd better learn the answer soon -- or give up the counterinsurgency game.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 29, 2010

It's Not Too Late to Save Kyrgyzstan

Russia and the United States weren't able to stop the recent outbreak of violence and ethnic cleansing in Osh. But there's still time to prevent the worst.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 22, 2010

The Tragic Death of Haji Abdul Jabar

What Afghanistan just lost.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 16, 2010

Turkish Dilemma

Once a reliable Western ally, Turkey is now going its own way in the Middle East. And nobody in Washington or Brussels knows what to do about it.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 15, 2010

Two Cheers for Multilateralism

Why the nuclear review conference was a minor triumph for Obama.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 8, 2010

The World According to Barack Obama

The U.S. president's new National Security Strategy says more about the views of the man in whose name it was written than it does about what America must do next.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 1, 2010

Whoa There, Rising Powers!

Brazil and Turkey's diplomatic forays may be annoying, but they also signal a huge shift in the way the world works. Is Obama paying attention?

BY JAMES TRAUB | MAY 25, 2010

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Obama administration needs to make up its mind: Is Ahmed Wali Karzai a menace or an asset?

MAY 19, 2010

The Rights Stuff

Has Obama's campaign to be the anti-Bush in the Middle East gone too far?

BY JAMES TRAUB | MAY 12, 2010

Thunder in Oslo

The tug of war over human rights in the age of Obama.

BY JAMES TRAUB | MAY 4, 2010

Scenes From an Arab Classroom

The surprising lessons my class in Abu Dhabi taught me.

BY JAMES TRAUB | APRIL 27, 2010

How’s That Appeasement Working Out?

Barack Obama's Sudan strategy is more sophisticated than his detractors will admit. But that doesn't mean it is working.

BY JAMES TRAUB | APRIL 20, 2010

The Karzai Dilemma

Afghanistan's president is far from the country's only problem. But he just might be its most intractable one.

BY JAMES TRAUB | APRIL 13, 2010

The Things I Forgot to Carry

My very first embed.

BY JAMES TRAUB | APRIL 5, 2010