Congressional Research Services – Congress’ think tank – has a significant report out discussing the legal issues associated with President Obama's executive order closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (link available here). The report constitutes the most comprehensive publicly available treatment of the issues surrounding Gitmo closure yet offered by the United States government, […]
A justice at the military court in Guantanamo Bay moved against an executive order issued by U.S. President Barack Obama to delay tribunals there for 120 days. Judge James Pohl denied delay requests for a case involving Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri for his role in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 […]
Talking to our children about violence and war is difficult in its own right, as no parent wants to bring their child into the harsh reality that is our globalized world. And while yes, sheltering children from violence is ideal, it is not an option that holds feasibility for long. Soon children will catch a […]
Things have been difficult for U.S. ally Turkey lately. The rebuff from the EU over accession has sent ripples of shock and consternation through the secular military and the increasingly Islamic political class. Tensions between them are high and there have been rumors of a coup. The stress may be getting to the prime minister, […]
The first witness in war crimes trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga reversed his testimony hours after relaying accounts of his conscription as a child soldier. The young man told the court rebels from Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots nabbed him and forced him into a military camp when he was in the fifth grade, […]
Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi extermination camps. We hope you’ll join us in taking a moment to memorialize the more than 1 million people – mostly Jews, but also Gypsies and political prisoners – who were murdered at Auschwitz and […]
The 27-nation European Union has come up with its proposals for how to proceed after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. As you know, the world is going to sit down in Copenhagen in December and finalize an agreement. (See Further Thoughts on Poznan here from December.) EurActiv reports here that “According to the Commission, […]
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is far from being anything remotely close to new, and who's right and whose wrong remains muddled in the smoke and dust of war. However one thing is clear, and that is that the children on both sides of the war are caught in the middle. Currently Gaza's children […]
In his inaugural address President Obama offered a new engagement with the Muslim world, specifically addressing them by name and telling them, “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” That new way forward was on full display today as he granted the Arabic satellite network […]
You might think Barack Hussein Obama would choose a safer audience than the Arab world for his first TV interview as President. But he chose Dubai-based Al Arabiya, and he chose well. With all the innumerable problems facing the United States, the most daunting long-term problem is America's relationship to the world; within that context, […]
President Obama is apparently working hard to keep his campaign pledges. He has now had his first interview with Al Arabiya, while repeating his promise to give a speech in a Muslim capital in the first 100 days of his administration. In some ways, President Obama's approach to the presidency feels like the campaign season […]
A truly thoughtful essay from Harry Eyres, Freedom and the price of oil, appeared in this past weekend’s “FT.” It’s a meditation, to a great extent, on the ecologist Ivan Illich. Eyres writes of Illich: “He had the barmy-seeming idea that we would do better – that is to say would lead more human, fairer […]
The defense team for Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Tuesday said secrecy clauses made the trial inherently unfair, adding it struck a blow to the notion of transparent international justice. All but two of the 93 alleged victims of Lubanga taking part in the trial were allowed to do so under the cloak of anonymity and […]
I’d like to call your attention to the new White House website that has a page devoted to the foreign policy agenda. The site highlights efforts in dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan, Nuclear Weapons, Iran, Energy Security, Renewing American Diplomacy, Israel, and Bipartisanship and Openness. Although the page is not in a blog format and […]
Obama takes steps to reverse Bush climate policies is the headline from Reuters. For one thing, the new President has instructed the EPA to revisit California’s application to institute carbon dioxide limits on motor vehicles sold there. (See California Standards here.) See also this from the “Washington Post” today, including the video of Obama’s announcement […]