The American Interest debuts

Francis Fukuyama's new journal of foreign policy analysis, The American Interest, is now up and running. The inaugural issue looks good, with an interview with Condoleezza Rice, and articles by Robert D. Kaplan, Owen Harries, Zbigniew Brzezinski and a symposium full of notable contributors.

Unfortunately, they are all locked up behind the subscribers-only gateway, with only an abstract or opening paragraph available. I will have to look into whether Borders plans on stocking it or whether I should invest in a subscription.

Of more immediate use, however, is their blog AI cont'd, which despite the silly name (it sounds like the sequel to the Spielberg robot movie) looks to be interesting. The first few posts have obviously been introductory as well as dealing with the crisis on the Gulf Coast, and the posters seem witty and intelligent. Their recommended links are extensive, although their designer should try to remember that magazines and sites that begin with the word "The" (e.g. The Atlantic) shouldn't be listed alphabetically with the Ts.

AI, as it seems to want to be called, is definitely positioning itself as hawkish centrist. In the first AI cont'd post, the writer acknowledges that while AI will be open to a range of political ideas, they also recognise where their audience's politics lie: "It’s probably fair to say that there aren’t many Michael Moore fans among the AI family, nor many Patrick Buchanan fans either." It should be an interesting site to keep an eye on.