James Mann

America has been operating with the wrong paradigm for China. Day after day, U.S. officials carry out policies based upon premises about China’s future that are at best questionable and at worst downright false. The mistake lies in the very assumption that political change — and with it, eventually, democracy — is coming to China, […]

The 2004 election results carry especially profound implications for the Democrats on foreign policy. John Kerry’s defeat means that the party must develop both new voices and a broader vision of America’s role in the world. It will not be sufficient to argue merely that the Republicans have bungled foreign policy. (If that message didn’t […]

In its first months, President George W. Bush’s new foreign-policy team has gotten the wrong rap–an inane one that deflects attention away from the serious questions. Since November the press has been abuzz with the supposed insight that Bush’s appointees are “retreads” from previous Republican governments. Yet this conceit has obscured the far more important […]

On the face of things, the overseas focus of America’s antiterrorist campaign should be on the Middle East. Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. His al-Qaeda network is made up primarily of Saudis, Egyptians, and others from the Middle East. No matter how you define the underlying causes of the problem–whether you blame Islamic fundamentalism, […]

America is in the midst of a supposedly great debate over China policy. Congress will soon hold a seemingly momentous vote on whether to extend indefinitely China’s trading rights in the United States. The Clinton administration and the business community are pressing hard, indeed desperately, for congressional approval, which they argue is necessary for American […]