This week violence broke out the capitol city of Tibet. Tibetans demanding independence from China took to the street in a rare act of defiance from almost 50 years of Chinese rule. Tibet's government-in-exile said 80 Tibetans had been confirmed killed by the Chinese while trying to squash the protests. The Economist reports in-depth from Lhasa: “China […]
On his way to a scheduled trip to Israel and the West Bank, Vice President Cheney made an unannounced stop in Iraq. Now five years since the invasion commenced, the Vice President met with Prime Minister Maliki to push him on political reconciliation. While he described changes since his last visit ten months ago as […]
There have been rumors circulating (or for some hawks, wishful thinking) that the Bush administration has been considering a unilateral attack on Iran. The move would be aimed at halting the Iranian government's nuclear enrichment program, which the US government believes will lead to the development of not just nuclear energy (as the Iranians claim) […]
John Bolton, former Bush-appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, recently authored a book, titled Surrender Is Not An Option. The American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank in Washington, DC at which Bolton is a scholar, describes the book: “With no-holds-barred candor, the straight-talking former ambassador to the United Nations takes readers behind the scenes at the U.N. and […]
UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations held a conference yesterday discussing US foreign policy and rogue states. Reviewing the list of accomplished conference speakers, I, and I'm sure my co-blogger would agree, wished the event was held in DC (yes, I see no need to hide my east coast bias). One of the speakers, Dan […]
The current issue of American Interest has a fascinating article lauding China's "smart policy" compared to the United States. The author, Kishore Mahbubani, is dean of the National University of Singapore. Mahbubani's article predominantly deals with China, however I have teased out several indictments on US actions, as interpreted by a foreign observer. Concerning the […]
A new report from the Washington, DC-based think tanks the Center for International Policy, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) examines the gradual shift of foreign policy decision-making away from the State Department toward the Defense Department. Cleverly titled “Ready, Aim, Foreign Policy,” it can be […]
Nuclear proliferation was the subject of some important meetings across the globe this week. In New York City: The UN Security Council met to slap Iran with new sanctions for its nuclear program. Reuters reported: “The U.N. Security Council on Monday imposed a third round of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, even though some members […]
This week there is a lot of action going on at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The UN Security Council is meeting about imposing new sanctions on Iran. The Commission on the Status of Women is in its second week of meetings. To add to the action, now comes reports of controversy […]
Secretary Condoleezza Rice travels to Israel this week to help restart peace talks. Rocket attacks followed by Israeli raids escalated towards the end of last week, erupting into a Gaza incursion on Saturday. Abu Mazen suspended negotiations with Israel, due to the escalation in violence. We have cited on this blog before the dual track […]
Apologies for the lack of posting at the end of this week. By chance, Melinda and I picked the same week to move, thus our attention has been slightly drawn away. In the absence of an in-depth post, here are some interesting articles for our readers. Angelina Jolie on humanitarian assistance in Iraq Fouad Ajami […]
Last week, more than 100 government leaders met in Wellington, New Zealand to discuss an international treaty banning cluster munitions (aka cluster bombs). This was the fourth meeting of states committed to eradicating these weapons (the first took place one year ago in Oslo, Norway, the second in Lima, Peru in May 2007, and the […]
From April 11th to April 17th, 1971 a group of Americans were invited to play ping pong in China. Dubbed ping pong diplomacy, it helped improve U.S.-China relations. In fact, on April 14th of that year the United States announced it would end it's trade embargo with China. One year later Nixon made his infamous […]
(Arial photo of Darfur refugee camp) The conflict in Darfur, the Western province on Sudan is the most protracted of the 21st century. Since 2003, the people of Darfur have sustained violence, genocide, starvation, disease and profound misery. While estimates range, Amnesty International puts the death toll at 300,000 (95,000 killed and more than 200,000 […]
It seems Israel is mulling over a cease-fire offer from Hamas. Earlier in the week, Defense Minister Barak warned Syria and Turkey that Israel had plans to launch a major operation against Hezbollah and Hamas. A few days later, a Hamas spokesman said, "we won't rule out any bid for cease-fire with Israel." This morning, […]