Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to offer to its readers a special three-part interview with Andreas Kakouris, the ambassador for Cyprus to the United States, conducted by Robert Friedman, Managing Editor of Foreign Policy Digest.

The interview marks another installment of Foreign Policy Digest "World Views", a series of interviews on contemporary foreign affairs topics conducted by the staff of Foreign Policy Digest with diplomats and foreign policy-makers, available on the Foreign Policy Digest website and the Foreign Policy Digest channel on YouTube.

 DEVELOPMENTS

President Obama’s address to the nation at the West Point Military Academy on Tuesday December 1st was well received in as much for its subject matter as for the fact that Mr. Obama has decided upon a course of action.  This action will consist of sending roughly 35,000 thousand U.S. troops to Afghanistan on top of the thousands that are already on the ground.  The speech and Mr. Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan does have it detractors as well as its supporters. 

This announcement follows several months of consultation with military experts, political and policy analysts and Mr. Obama’s close advisors.  Several different policy practitioners and theorists including General Stanley McChrystal had been calling for over 40,000 more troops but given the political climate that exists on Capitol Hill this course of action would have been politically uncomfortable for the president.  Instead, the president settled on a middle ground of 35,000 troops. 

Several contentious issues arise from the escalation of Americas’ involvement in Afghanistan.  First, the amount of money that this troops surge will cost.  The cost has been estimated by various sources as ranging anywhere from fifteen to thirty billion dollars.  Second, the timeline that the president has given for a removal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, 18 months.  Lastly, more liberal members of the Democratic Party feel betrayed by an escalation of the war effort by the president.  In particular, during the 2008 presidential election cycle many liberal Democrats cast their vote for then Senator Obama under the assumption that much like his calls for a complete removal from Iraq, he would do the same in Afghanistan upon assuming office.