Associate director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute
Wayne White
A withdrawal from Iraq, allowing for adjustments in response to changes in the situation on the ground, accepted by the president of the United States at the request of the government of Iraq, would not be a “white flag of surrender.” In Diplomacy 101, it’s called accepting the will of a sovereign foreign government (and one we helped put in power).
Adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and head of the State Department’s Iraq intelligence team from 2003 to 2005
Farhana Ali
Iran is run by mullahs, not madmen like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Pakistan is a country with fundamentalists, fanatics, and fashion models. It is a mix of modernity and mania.
International policy analyst at the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization
Victoria Samson
Neither Iran nor North Korea has ballistic missiles that can reach the United States. What’s the hurry to deploy unproven missile defense systems?
Senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information
Jalal Alamgir
The world’s a much more complex place than just the “good guys” vs. the “bad guys.” There’s a lot of gray, both about us and them, that you will need to look into before making foreign-policy judgments.
Assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
Kavita N. Ramdas
Governor Palin, as someone who claims to be concerned about women and children worldwide, should know that women and children represent between 70 and 75 percent of civilian casualties in war and 80 percent of the world’s refugees.
More than 500,000 women die each year due to childbirth or related causes. More than 5,000 women die each year in what are euphemistically termed “honor killings.”
President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women
Daniel Mitchell
Contrary to what Senator Biden said during the debate, the United States has spent far more in Afghanistan since 2001 than it spends in Iraq each month. Your job is to decide whether it’s worth the cost.
Tax expert and senior fellow at the Cato Institute
Idean Salehyan
Climate change will fall especially hard on developing countries, even though industrialized nations largely created the problem. Helping poor countries adapt and meet the challenge is not only the right thing to do, it’s also smart policy.
The correct pronunciation of Iran is “ee-ran,” with a soft “i” as in “irritant.”
Assistant professor of political science at the University of North Texas
Steve Tsang
The Republic of China is not China, but the United States’ loyal friend, Taiwan.
Louis Cha fellow in modern Chinese studies and reader in politics at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University
Emile Hokayem
The Middle East is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse regions on Earth. Learn these nuances early in your tenure and never (ever) mistake a Sunni for a Shiite, an Arab for a Kurd, or a Maronite for a Chaldean.
Talk to Arabs who dress, speak, and think like Westerners, but understand that they represent a tiny minority with decreasing influence at home.
Political editor, The National, Abu Dhabi
David Shorr
Gen. David Petraeus hasn’t actually endorsed your ticket. If we get technical about it, unfortunately he really can’t. In our system, the political process is supposed to give the orders to the military, rather than the other way around.
Program officer in policy analysis and dialogue at the Stanley Foundation
Raj Kumar
Diseases don’t respect borders. That’s why all health issues are global.
Forget “trade not aid.” Today it’s “trade and aid.”
Africa is not a country; it’s an entire continent. And China is winning there.
President of the Development Executive Group
Riad al-Khouri
The kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan are both named Abdullah.
So as not to make a huge gaffe along the lines of “King Abdullah of Jordan has promised to supply America with 20 million barrels of free oil daily to help stave off economic collapse” or “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is sending his young Queen Rania shopping in Manhattan to help stave of economic collapse,” remember that the Jordanian monarch is Abdullah II (pronounced “the second” and not “aye aye”) while the Saudi ruler is just plain Abdullah.
You should therefore, for example, say, “King Abdullah II has promised to put in a good word for us with the Syrians in exchange for the quintupling of U.S. aid to Jordan” or “King Abdullah has agreed to lift the ban on women drivers in exchange for posting the entire Alaskan National Guard permanently on his country’s border with Iraq.”
Economist specializing in the Middle East and North Africa
Benjamin Friedman
Politicians like your running mate claim the world is an increasingly dangerous place. The data says otherwise. According to academic studies, deaths from war have been declining for 50 years. The incidence of war has been declining rapidly since 1992. Deaths from terrorism have been declining since 2001. The number of genocides has been in decline since the 1980s.
Research fellow at the Cato Institute
Hugh Gusterson
There’s no such thing as “ungoverned areas,” just differently governed areas. And when you intervene based on a false premise, you don’t get the result you want.
Professor of anthropology at George Mason University
Reidar Visser
Iraq should not be partitioned. Period. That’s both wise and very easy to remember!
Iraq analyst and editor of historiae.org
Lilia Shevtsova
The new administration has to find a balance between realism and idealism and find ways to create a benevolent environment for Russia’s transformation without turning to lecturing and preaching. Accepting Russia as it is will only persuade the Russian hawks to continue their macho politics.
Senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center
