Whose side is Pakistan on in the NATO-led conflict in Afghanistan? Does the Pakistani government and army want to stop and defeat the Taliban? Can it? As a US decision maker, should you be extremely worried about Pakistan's answers to all of these questions? Unfortunately, the last question is the only one that should be […]
Ahhh! That's better! NOW FOR THE RUSSIA NEWS ROUNDUP! 1) Not to gloat or anything, but it seems the Brookings Institution has finally started reading FPA Russia Blog. Only a few days after we exposed the absurdity of Anders Aslund's disingenuous insinuation that Russia's economic downturn was somehow caused by the Georgia war, their Clifford […]
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization 8th annual summit in Dushanbe two weeks ago covered many issues and issued several decrees. We already discussed how the grouping did not give Russia the diplomatic support regarding the Georgian conflict as they hoped, but the conference also set up joint military manuevers, moved along the process of an Afghan […]
Having despatched his women vote, has Sarah Palin taken the fight to Obama's core demographic of pot-smoking hippie homosexual intellectuals? Compare and contrast Palin's recent interview with Charlie Gibson, in which she rails against a new cold war with Russia while refusing to rule out a hot one, and Allen Ginsberg's poem ‘America‘, in […]
First off the post below was one done a few weeks ago, but we had to put it back up for so it could be linked to the Brookings Institute newsletter, my apologies for any confusion. Today, will be a glorified link-dump, focusing on Iran in Central Asia, among other topics. A. Iran In light […]
In honor of Dushanbe's hosting of tomorrow's Shanghai Cooperation Organization 2008 summit, we should discuss the current state of the nation, its struggles and prospects. To help me do this I will use another one of Johannes Linn's, executive director of the Brookings Institution's Wolfensohn Center for Development, pieces he wrote while visiting the region […]
It seems like every other post I was link dropping Johannes Linn's Brooking Institution pieces on Central Asian's energy, water, and food challenges, but today is the day, my friends, when I actually discuss them! 1. Central Asia's Energy Challenge – In Linn's ‘Central Asia's Energy Challenge; Overcoming the Natural Resource Curse‘ he reports back […]
…I'd rather compose romances for you – more profit in it and more charm. –V.V Mayakovsky I am sick of this whole Georgia thing. I’ve had enough of politics, international relations, diplomatic intrigue! I hate how news has to be about events. Who cares about events? When was the last time an event […]
Dans le monde réellement renversé, le vrai est un moment du faux (In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false) -Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle Every so often comes an event so bizarre that it provides a lucid glimpse into the dark inner workings of everyday […]
Here in the US, we do not have many discussions about whether our nation is at war in Afghanistan. It is basically seen as a fact. After all, we were attacked on our homeland by terrorists from the nation who were backed by its Taliban government at the time. Only recently, have their been discussions […]
Today I will provide several links to three or so stories which have been developing for days and sometimes weeks now in the region. Some aspects have to do with items and themes we have covered, 'soft power’ in Afghanistan, another is an issue or event that I have barely mentioned. Though I want discuss […]
So with one billion dollars in aid combined with a diplomatic visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, featuring many strong rebukes to Russia and a statement arguing for the nation's inclusion in NATO, the US appears to have anted up or at least called Moscow's hand in the Georgia-Russia conflict. Here are couple Cheney quotes […]
For the past year and half the US media has been dominated by the 2008 presidential election. This is in many ways a good thing as we need to know who these candidates are and what they stand for and against, but the coverage has become so saturated that we are starting to miss coverage […]
In his hysterical editorial in today's Guardian, Edward Lucas calls Russia “deeply corrupt and lawless”. Unfortunately, exactly the opposite is true: Russia is so saturated with laws and its legal system so harsh that “more than one in 10 of the country's citizens have been convicted of crimes over the past 15 years“, reports […]
In the past few weeks we have discussed Russian relations and influence in Central Asia in the prism of the recent Georgia-Russian conflict, and for good reason, as the war sent vibrations across the geopolitical landscape, and was especially relevant to former Soviet Republics such as our CA states. However, before the early August invasions […]