In the annals of "strange bedfellow" political encounters, the recent broadcast in which WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange interviewed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stands out as a remarkable episode. On closer examination, however, the debut episode of Assange's show, "The World Tomorrow," on the Kremlin-funded RT network, which featured Nasrallah as its first guest, in fact makes a lot of sense. more
When the U.S. and Israel announced last week that they had decided to either cancel or postpone the biggest joint military exercise in their history, the news kicked the wheels of the Mideast rumor and speculation machines into high gear. What had started as a determined show of military force and political coordination to send a clear signal to Iran suddenly turned into a mess of mixed messages and confusion. more
The successful launch this week of a Russian spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians may have eased anxieties about the future of U.S. and Russian space programs, but the reprieve is likely temporary. more
China's social contract revolves around the Communist Party delivering the benefits of modernization to the country's citizenry, and not, as Western observers might hope, around the transition to multi-party democracy. Consequently, technocratic failure presents the greatest risk to the party's domestic credibility, as highlighted by the ongoing wave of public anger over the Wenzhou high-speed rail crash. more
The uprising in Libya and the subsequent foreign military intervention
there are providing a significant test for Turkey's stated desire to
create a foreign policy that combines realism with idealism, while also
highlighting the difficulty Ankara is facing in balancing its
aspirations to become a more independent regional leader in the Middle
East with its efforts to maintain its traditional alliances. more
Great powers are sometimes molded by events as much as by grand strategy. Libya might be such a defining moment for China. Recent events have made China bend its principle
of nonintervention. This marks a new departure
for China as a great power, symbolizing Beijing's realization that
respect for national sovereignty sometimes has to be squared with
pragmatic solutions to pressing problems. more
BOMET COUNTY, Kenya -- Last month, when the chief
prosecutor for the ICC requested
summonses for six individuals on charges related to Kenya's 2007-2008
post-election violence, a majority of Kenyans applauded. In a
country with a culture of impunity, many had given
up on domestic justice to deal with those responsible for the violence. Yet here in Kenya's Rift Valley province, public opinion is decidedly more sour. more
The cache of documents known as the "Palestine Papers" have created much
turmoil among Palestinians.
The papers, 1,700 files of correspondence about the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process, were
portrayed as evidence that Palestinian leaders betrayed their people by
making huge concessions to Israel. But what the documents and the
reaction to them really show is something quite different. more
News broke Sunday night that Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier had returned to Haiti after an absence of 25 years.
The dictator's return capped off a difficult year for Haiti, as the
island continues to recover from an earthquake, a hurricane, a cholera
outbreak, and a contested presidential election. The alarm raised by Duvalier's arrival are a reminder that, as bad as things are now in Haiti,
they can still get worse. more
The Middle East and North Africa welcomed the New Year with rare protests in an arc stretching from Algeria to Kuwait, directed against repressive regimes at home rather than a foreign power. Even if they are unlikely to repeat the regime-toppling successes of the velvet revolutions of Eastern Europe, the protests reflect increased chafing at disenfranchisement and lack of opportunity and good governance. more
BEIJING -- China's inept response to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo highlights the wider challenges
facing Chinese society as it enters the information age. The
restricted Internet is only one aspect of a poor domestic
culture of information, and the issue of political rights is just one
in a complex matrix of factors that diminish the quality and
integrity of public and private information in China. more
BEIJING -- China's rise is one of the critical geopolitical variables of
our time, with many in the West fearing the advent of a politically
repressive, secretive new superpower. However, Chinese society is more
open than is commonly believed, and in certain spheres, Chinese citizens
may enjoy greater liberty than their Western counterparts. A more realistic appreciation can help elucidate
the true nature of "the China threat." more
The decision by FIFA to award the 2022
World Cup to Qatar was historic on one key
score: Never before has a global sporting event of such stature been
awarded to a country so clearly stuck in a "bad neighborhood" like the
Persian Gulf. The decision signals the international community's faith in what GCC countries like Qatar have achieved in
promoting economic and network connectivity with the outside world. more
On the stage in Oslo City Hall today, there will be an empty chair for the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo. But in addition to the empty chair on the stage, there will also be
some empty chairs in the audience, in the section reserved for the
diplomatic corps, as other governments heeded Beijing's call for a
boycott of the prize ceremony. This has made for an interesting test of
China's rising international clout. more
NAIROBI, Kenya -- U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, known for his blunt assessment of the country's government
and political elites, could find his ability to champion Kenyan reform efforts hamstrung,
after some 1,400 diplomatic cables originating from his office were
included by Wikileaks in the organization's latest release of
confidential U.S. government documents. more
In backing India's claim to a permanent U.N. Security Council seat, President Barack Obama also made clear that Washington expects a newly empowered New Delhi to speak up on critical global issues. That, in turn, speaks
to a fundamental question that India has yet to answer. For all the talk
of its rise in recent years, India has yet to define clearly what it
stands for as an aspiring global power. more
BEIJING -- The 16th Asian Games, now underway in China, are
the latest in a long line of massive, intensively promoted "mega-events"
organized by the Chinese state to showcase national development. These mega-events have few proven grassroots benefits,
however, and are no replacement for the substantive, fundamental reforms
the Chinese government itself admits are necessary to modernize the
country. more
For a number of reasons, the Obama administration has been notably silent on human rights issues in the run-up to Egypt's Nov. 28 parliamentary elections. But for the U.S., the long-term risks of being perceived as perpetuating
authoritarian rule in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world outweigh the short-term benefits of turning a blind eye to flagrant
human-rights violations and anti-democratic measures. more
The results of the Sept. 18 elections to the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan's
lower house of parliament, will not be known for weeks. But as with many
other aspects of the complex Afghanistan mission, the lack of conclusive
outcomes from the parliamentary voting will allow both advocates and
opponents of the U.S. and coalition strategy to use it to support their
position. more
With little more than 50 days left until elections on Nov. 7, tensions
are rising noticeably in Burma -- the country renamed Myanmar by its
military rulers. The junta that keeps the country in its steely grip is
trying to make sure the election doesn't trigger a new revolt or produce an outcome that would
embarrass the regime or weaken its hold on power. The generals have reason to worry. more
In early August, at the fourth trilateral summit between Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan held in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad urged the leaders of the other two countries to join in an
alliance to counterbalance NATO's growing presence
in Central Asia. Though any such formal alliance is unlikely, the
declaration reflects Tehran's desire to play a larger role in Central
Asia's regional dynamics. more
