Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s arrival to Mexico this week came amidst a war of accusations between Mexican and U.S. government officials regarding drug trafficking violence at the border. Most contentious was the report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command which recommended the monitoring of Mexico as a “failing” state, one that could ultimately prove […]
The cherry blossoms are in bloom in Washington, D.C., and I am especially cheery because the March/April issue of Moment Magazine is out on newsstands. There is a lot of good stuff in this one, and I hope that you will check it out. First, we tackle the whole Bernand Madoff mess. The former NASDAQ […]
President Obama announced his war strategy today, and the White House website has a nice recap as well as a direct link to a PDF file on the new policy. As expected, his strategy calls for more troops in Afghanistan and a coordinated attack on al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I was most interested […]
A coalition of 183 social justice and civil society groups, including 76 U.S.-based organizations and 107 international groups from 29 countries, signed a letter appealing to President Obama and the U.S. Congress to re-regulate the commodities market as a means of preventing continued food price speculation – a practice food poliocy experts claim was a […]
A Kremlin strategy paper, outlining Russia’s plans to develop a military force capable of protecting its interests in the disputed arctic region, was made public today. By 2020, Moscow expects the arctic to be the country’s main strategic resource base. Rising temperatures are melting polar ice, opening shipping lanes and easing exploration in the area. […]
Carlotta Gall is the Kabul-based veteran war correspondent with The New York Times who reports on both Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Read one of her recent report from the front lines, Pakistan and Afghan Taliban Close Ranks. I caught up with her last week while working on a piece for an upcoming article for Quill, […]
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled south this week to ease relations with Mexico. The US-Mexico relationship is increasingly characterized by trade, drugs and violence. Clinton praised President Felipe Calderón’s efforts to reduce corruption and fight drug cartels, tried to alleviate concerns over a recent decision to scrap a pilot program allowing Mexican […]
Quote of the Week – From Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero: “To change the world’s energy model is the most significant challenge facing humanity in this generation, not only for the impact on climate change but also for its effects on the economic model.” I think he’s got it. By George, he’s got […]
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” – Jimmy Carter Those who suffer disproportionately from all violent conflicts are women and children. War not only kills children […]
Welcome to the Arms Control and proliferation blog, the latest addition to the Foreign Policy Blogs network.
This week South Africa rejected a visa to Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama for his scheduled visit to a peace conference in Johannesburg. Many of the attendees including several Nobel laureates have withdrawn from the event and the conference has been canceled. South Africa reportedly admitted that it banned the Dalai Lama’s visa due to […]
This documentary is scary. It deals with the issue of water, who owns it and who controls it in different parts of the world. Should water be considered public for everyone to enjoy, like air? Or should it be held in private hands, like oil? It is obvious where Irena Salina, the film’s director, stands: […]
Let’s peel our eyes off of today’s Dow Jones Average for just a few minutes… March has marked a rather curious point in US-Mexican relations, causing many to raise a speculative eyebrow toward our new direction in international trade policy. Is President Obama beginning to draw a dangerously protectionist “line-in-the-sand” in an attempt […]
2. The global financial crisis pushed the G20 to the fore and next week the grouping will take center stage. Many hope the solutions for the economic crisis – developing new financial regulations, coordinating stimulus packages, reforming financial institutions and preventing protectionism, trade wars and “deglobalization” – will be born in London. In many ways, […]
In a rare admission of China’s strategic petroleum reserve capacity, a senior industry executive acknowledged that all four state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks – holding a total 100 million barrels – are filled to the brim. Revealing that China’s current stockpiles have already exceeded the capacity of the first phase of facilities, which the government […]