I'd like to express my appreciation to the Foreign Policy Association and Brian O'Neill for giving me the opportunity to take the reigns on the Middle East blog this week. This past week the Ramallah-based Mohammed Assadi of Reuters put together a nice piece that captures the frustration of ailing Fatah veterans, who are growing […]
Afshin Molavi has a shrewd New Republic piece on the Iranian elections, and the schism in the conservative branch. Despite reformists being largely banned from running, and the general assumption being that conservatives- or, as they call themselves, “Principalists”- consolidated their power, Molavi argues that a surprising number of seats went to a pragmatic branch […]
An analysis of Russia's policies toward Central Asia by upcoming President Medvedev will be postponed for a couple days. Instead, I would like to discuss two interrelated stories occurring in China, but having ramifications in Central Asia and beyond: 1. China's Xinjiang terrorist threat, specifically the March 7 plane incident 2. Chinese government suppression of […]
It appears that a deal is in the works between NATO and the Russian government for greater cooperation in Afghanistan. The deal would allow NATO troops the use of Russian land and airspace, the possible leasing of Russian planes and trains, and Russian training for Afghan helicopter pilots and counter-narcotics assistance at a center in […]
The Mail & Guardian has posted a Special Section on Zimbabwe that basically consists of new and recent coverage of the election campaign. This should keep you busy while I partake of the secular American holiday known as “March Madness.”
I was as surprised as anyone to read this morning that Robert Mugabe trails in recent polls taken in Zimbabwe. And I was especially stunned to see that Morgan Tsvangirai, longtime opposition stalwart and largely overlooked (by me included) Movement for Democratic Cchange candidate also running against Mugabe and operating in Simba Makoni's shadow. But […]
Not an interesting piece by me, of course. Let's not be ridiculous. FPA War Crimes blogger Daniel Graeber has an excellent piece in UPI on the long-term consequences of arming Sunni militants to fight al-Qaeda. He discusses why this is a short-sighted plan, and one possibly doomed to blow-back in even more violence and mayhem, […]
The New Republic has an essayby Zvika Kreiger about the construction boom in Mecca, including a luxury hotel right across from the Kaaba. This is controversial, largely because hundreds of holy sites are being destroyed. Over protests by groups like the Islamic Supreme Council of America and the Muslim Canadian Congress, Saudi authorities have authorized […]
Well, we’re five years in folks. There is a ton of press coverage, the tone varies from publication to publication. First off, I would like to bring your attention to the Washington Post's ‘Five Years in Iraq‘ section, which has interviews with people as wide ranging as an Iraq war protester, an infantry officer, and […]
Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma are bound to be inextricably linked for the foreseeable future — through the resolution of Zuma's corruption trial or the 2009 election at least — and yet increasingly they seem to represent opposite sides of the same coin. Or to be more precise, they seem to absorb the characteristics of […]
Well, this one provides a cynicism test: Robert Mugabe has declared March 29, the country's election day, to be a public holiday. Now, ordinarily speaking, I believe that anything that makes voting easier and more accessible to the most people is a good thing. And yet Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe is far from ordinary, and […]
In the final segment of Freedom in the World Rankings; Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan received the highest scores (which means they are the least free) of all the Central Asian states. Turkmenistan Political Rights , 7/7 Civil Rights , 7/7 Status , Not Free Freedom House's report mainly concentrates on former President Niyazov's "iron control' over […]
Two attacks in Yemen today, onenear the US Embassy in Sana’a and another in the southern province of Abyan. As of right now, the Yemeni government doesn't see this as targeting the US Embassy, but rather as a “purely criminal incident”. To be sure, the mortars in Sana’a hit a school, some 500 meters from […]
IRIN has two stories on the work of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) in Africa. One involves providing emergency food aid for tens of thousands of people affected by cyclone Jokwe in the north of Mozambique. The other addresses the concerns about food scarcity in Sierra Leone (which the UN has judged to […]