First, officials said, will likely be a series of step-by-step agreements on military cooperation, intelligence sharing and counterterrorism operations, including revamped "kill boxes," the term for flight zones over Pakistan's largely ungoverned borderlands where C.I.A. drones will be allowed to hunt a shrinking number of Al Qaeda leaders and other militants.
But in the hope and expectation that a Democrat will be elected president come next November, putting the Arab-Israeli conflict at the forefront of American diplomacy once again with 24/7 support to help the parties reach step-by-step agreements is part of that gift that will keep on giving to Israel, to Palestinians and the cause of peace throughout the world.
"We have lost the opportunity to negotiate a step-by-step agreement that would lead to the eventual dismantling of their nuclear program," Mr. Harrison said in Beijing after returning from Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.
The simple framework for a step-by-step agreement exists, with the United States giving a firm and direct statement of no hostile intent, and moving toward normal relations if North Korea forgoes any further nuclear weapons program and remains at peace with its neighbors.
They propose a step-by-step agreement to lift the sanctions gradually, though it's not clear who has to take the first step.
U.S. specialists inside and outside government insist that confidence must be carefully created, step by step, agreement by agreement, until decades of mistrust are replaced by a nearly equal experience of problem-solving cooperation.
A wise path toward nuclear disarmament will pursue step-by-step arms control agreements that make the United States, and the world, safer at each stage.
Much more needs to be done to start managing the situation". there must be a "frank discussion" with Turkey to implement step by step the agreements reached, while recognizing the "considerable efforts deployed by Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan".
They are also convinced that Mr. Netanyahu is maneuvering to kill the Oslo process and to get American support for his own plan, which is to jettison the step-by-step approach of the Oslo agreements and to plunge instead into all-or-nothing final status talks.
"This is a dangerous, step-by-step degradation of the nuclear agreement," said David Albright, a former weapons inspector who now heads the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
