Letters

Author Clare Lockhart assesses Nathaniel Fick and John Nagl's advice on Afghanistan.

Former National Security Council staffer Peter Feaver argues that Niall Ferguson's "axis of upheaval" won't replace the old "axis of evil" any time soon.

Arturo Surakhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, thinks Sam Quinones's dire assessment of Mexico is dangerously misleading.

Economic historian Harold James says Moisés Naím is too optimistic about the future of globalization, while Karl Moore and David Lewis argue that global trade is nothing new.

Winberg Chai feels that Chinese Communist Party politics are not quite as simple as Cheng Li would have us believe.

Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, says Minxin Pei underestimates the significance of Asia's growth in "Think Again: Asia's Rise." Economic Strategy Institute President Clyde Prestowitz suggests authoritarian leadership helped drive the region's success.

Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to the U.N. secretary-general, says Jacob Heilbrunn's criticism of his boss in "Nowhere Man" is unfairly focused on style, not substance.

Economists Edward Hugh and Daniel Mitchell critique Edward Lucas's analysis of the collapse of the Baltic states. Hugh thinks long-term demographic trends are worrying, while Mitchell sees cause for optimism.

George Ayittey of the Free Africa Foundation observes that most African countries in the Failed States Index followed the same depressing formula to failure.

Irma Erlingsdóttir, director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Iceland, thinks Reihan Salam's "The Death of Macho" overestimates the erosion of "male-archy" in Iceland.