The New Politics of Intelligence: Will Reforms Work This Time? The failure to prevent the September 11 attacks or find Iraqi WMD have put intelligence at the center of this year's presidential campaign. The key to better performance, however, lies not in major reforms but in the character and sense of responsible officials

The Decline of America's Soft Power. The Bush administration may dismiss the relevance of soft power, but it does so at great peril. Success in the war on terrorism depends on Washington's capacity to persuade others without force, and that capacity is in dangerous decline

Afghanistan Unbound. Two and a half years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is once more lapsing into bloody chaos? Although President Hamid Karzai is strong on paper, he is weak in fact. The drug trade is surging, the Taliban are creeping back, and real power rests in the hands of the country's many warlords