Ban Ki Moon visited Haiti for five and a half hours on Sunday. As Huffington Post reports: The U.N. World Food Program plans to start feeding 1 million people in two weeks and 2 million people in one month, the secretary-general said. WFP spokesman David Orr said the agency hoped to reach more than 60,000 […]
In terms of U.S.-North Korean relations, the year began auspiciously, mysteriously, or even inauspiciously, depending on how one interpreted North Korea’s New Year’s state-run media editorial. The full text can be found here. The passage most frequently quoted in the Western press seemed promising. The editorial stated: The fundamental problem arising in guaranteeing the peace […]
Reflections of a Retired Baby Boomer Topic: Haiti: U.S. Military Contributions While watching the excellent media coverage of the Haitian earthquake last night, I noticed that many people are beginning to wonder why it was taking so long for U.S. military units and other nations and relief groups involved in the effort to […]
Al Jazeera reports on the global response to Haiti’s earthquake: The PBS Newshour reports on the disaster relief efforts of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti (MINUSTAH): And the New York Times elaborates on the Pentagon’s response: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that 9,000 to 10,000 American troops […]
The argument that climate change is a long-term security concern is strong (see CNA’s report, National Security and the Threat of Climate Change). The argument is also fairly strong that American power would benefit if the U.S. were to take the lead on innovating energy technology (see Thomas Friedman’s recent column, in which he warns […]
Good friends (Uribe and Obama) vs. Best friends (Uribe and Bush)… Sources: zimbio.com, AP. I have long argued that the Democrats have gotten it wrong on Colombia, by parroting the misinformation about this country and its President, Alvaro Uribe, circulated by US labor unions intent on stopping a free trade agreement between two staunch allies. This is […]
Even sound actions can have negative consequences. That is why in times of crisis, policy makers must remain vigilant. Easing monetary and credit policies last year and keeping them loose made sense. In an effort to avoid the mistakes of the Great Depression, when governments tightened both monetary and fiscal policies, policy makers this time around gave the wounded private sector what it […]
Planet Earth’s critical issue this decade will be whether American power will erode — and if so, what the implications will be for the liberal world order we erected after WWII. The Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus package cum bank bailout, building on the Paulson-Bush-Geithner-Bernanke efforts of 2008 and the unprecedented coordination of economic policy globally, constituted a brilliant, […]
China has a dual economy. There is the modern coastal economy oriented for export that has exploited China’s comparative advantage in labor-intensive manufacturing to generate US$2 trillion in fx reserves; and, there’s the rest — the government-directed economy of bank lending, state-owned enterprises, and massive, massive investment in real estate, roads and other infrastructure. With […]
In the midst of a debate about whether the Boumediene v. Bush decision granting habeus corpus rights to Guantanamo prisoners should apply to prisoners at Bagram, the U.S. has arranged for Afghan officials to take control of the prison.
Reflections of a retired Baby Boomer Topic: Obama and the Intelligence Community On Thursday, President Obama and his staff discussed the findings of their internal review of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack. They concluded there was not a failure to share information such as was seen in the pre 9/11 days; but […]
Another missed-during-holiday-hiatus story worth looking at comes from ArmsControlWonk. Peruse the results of a 2005 survey of nonproliferation experts: More than 78% of respondents agreed that one or two new nations would acquire nuclear weapons during the next five years. More than 89% agreed that between one and three new nuclear nations would emerge during […]
* From Juan Cole – Find out about Andy Worthington’s comprehensive research on Guantanamo detainees. * From Opinio Juris – Find out about the recent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on some Guantanamo habeas petitions.