Russia, China, and all the Central Asian states except Uzbekistan took part in war exercises south of Dushanbe. About 1,000 soldiers took part in a staged factory take-over with hostages. The only truly remarkable fact about this event is this quote from Radio Liberty: During the exercises, Tajik soldiers demonstrated their ability to tear apart […]
The government of Japan has submitted its application for observer status in the Arctic Council to its current chair, Norway. Though Japan does not possess any Arctic claims, the government is interested in gaining greater access to discussions and negotiations on the Arctic. Japan could benefit heavily from the opening of the Northwest Passage, which […]
IS EUROVISION THE NEW STALINGRAD? For whatever reason, in Russia this contest is taken very seriously… people feel that the Eurovision Song Contest is like an annual Stalingrad battle.” THE RUSSIA-GEORGIA SPLIT AS PLAYGROUND POLITICS: Saakashvili supposedly lost track of time while doing laps in his hotel pool, arriving at the Kremlin half an hour […]
On April 15, Henry E. Hale, Ph.D. Harvard 1998, an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington (GW) University in Washington, DC, who specializes in the comparative study of democratization, federalism, ethnic politics, and international integration, came to speak at the University of Washington at Seattle on the “Logic of Regime […]
The Palestinian Authority refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to a Jewish state while Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mandates the statement prior to the resumption of any peace process. Palestinian officials contend that the PLO already acknowledged Israel’s right to exist in the Declaration of Principles while Netanyahu refuses to support the Palestinians’ right to a state. […]
IN this wretched, unfortunate land, anger and despair have been wasted emotions. After all, while we may never have known how to fix things, at least we could be relatively sure that they wouldn’t get much worse. But as things begin to fall apart, the assumptions of yore are crumbling before our eyes. And the […]
Less than two months before the parliamentary elections and things seem relatively calm. Posturing and overt displays of force and support have been absent, as are incidents of confrontation and violence. There has been some engagement of the Lebanese Armed Forces with a drug cartel operating in the south, but that situation seems contained to […]
TOKYO – International donors, led by the United States and Japan, pledged more than $5 billion Friday to stabilize Pakistan’s troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism in the Islamic nation and neighboring Afghanistan. The U.S. and Japan started off the one-day conference by pledging $1 billion each. Saudi Arabia added $700 million and […]
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here. The strategy cleared a path to power for the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where the government allowed […]
State Department Middle East Envoy George Mitchell met yesterday with Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem and the West Bank, reaffirming the U.S. position of the need for a two-state solution. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that the historical approach to the peace process only weakened Israel and led to wars. Instead, Lieberman proposed […]
We remain in a state of denial. We are fully capable, we say, of handling the terrorist threat; we are going to fix our economy; all we want is trade opportunities, not aid; and we do not accept or give blank cheques. The truth is that we are in a parlous state The parliament approved […]
These are two phrases chanted by opposing groups during the protest demonstration by a group of about 300 Afghan women yesterday in Kabul. The group of women were voicing their opposition to the recent law passed by the Parliament and signed by President Karzai, which among other items, states that Shiite women in the country […]
President Barack Obama is visiting Mexico. Not surprisingly, drug trafficking will be at the center of the agenda as the violence fueled by American weapons threatens to cross the border into American territory. Presidents Obama and Calderón will have to work out the details of how a strong state can help a weak one to […]
This morning I found hanging from my door handle an informational note from the Home Front Command explaining to residents the amount of time they have between hearing an alarm signifying rocket fire to entering a bomb shelter. In large letters the note reads (translated from the Hebrew where it rhymes), “To be on protected, […]
“Opportunity in crisis” isn’t so much rhetoric in the first days of the Obama Administration. The financial meltdown that began in Wall Street and spread to America’s working class has knocked top-ranked financiers out of a comfortable context where risk was appropriately and indefinitely hedged. Most of middle class America is suffering and feeling the […]