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The word ‘neo-conservative’ has become a part of the American lexicon, particularly during the Bush years. Twelve years ago William Kristol, the editor of the conservative magazine Weekly Standard, joined right-wing foreign policy pundit Robert Kagan in launching a non-profit think tank called Project for a New American Century. Among the group’s charter members were those who later rose to prominence serving in the Bush Administration: people like Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. The Project for a New American Century, defunct since late 2006, was credited with forming a blueprint for US military interventions in the post-Cold War era, thereby increasing American dominance on the global sphere. Now, coinciding with the launch of Obama’s presidency, the idealogues are making a come-back, albeit a quiet one. According to reporters Daniel Loban and Jim Lobe of the Inter-Press Service Agency, Kristol and Kagan are reviving their neo-conservatism with a new and obscure group called the Foreign Policy Initiative. While they haven’t been terribly vocal yet, FPI’s sole action has been to sponsor a conference pushing for the military surge in Afghanistan.

GUEST: Jim Lobe, Washington Bureau chief of Inter-Press Service

Read Jim Lobe’s article at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/26-7

Visit the website of the Foreign Policy Initiative at www.foreignpolicyi.org.