Smart Power

The Middle East and Central Asia — particularly Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan — will remain a problem spot well into the future, but military power alone won’t be enough to bring peace and stability to the region, President Bush’s chief military adviser said at the University of Kentucky on Friday night.

Instead, Adm. Michael Mullen said, a variety of international partnerships will be needed, plus sending more American experts to teach the region’s troubled countries such things as how to build strong police forces and create economically viable systems of agriculture and business.