Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Grossly unpopular and legally questionable changes to the constitution didn’t do it. Neither did a farcical referendum to secure legitimacy, nor festering resentment over the economic and social woes that plague the Pakistani population. Instead, Pakistanis have united in a vocal groundswell of opposition to President Pervez Musharraf due to the suspension of a judge — a rather routine political technique in Pakistan that has unexpectedly morphed into a nightmare of historic proportions for the leader. It should have been a simple bait and switch. Musharraf’s goal was to remove an authority figure ill-disposed to acquiescence in the general’s leadership […]

OAXACA, Mexico — The grim images of tear gas and street battles that were streaming out of Oaxaca late last year nearly dissuaded Spanish-language student Hermann Ingjaldsson from coming to the southern Mexican state, where a teachers’ strike had descended into a revolt against the governor. “I looked it up on YouTube and it didn’t look good,” the native of Iceland recalled one quiet evening while poring over his notes. At the urging of a Mexican friend, he came anyway and found the reality entirely different from the unfavorable videos shot in the colonial city and state of the same […]

“St. Lucia is a sovereign state; an independent nation; we’re a democratic country, therefore what is the fuss all about? China or Taiwan, which one should it be? Which one should we tie? We must tie-one. I say we must tie-one.” — Edmund Estaphane, St. Lucian MP, speaking to parliament, April 30 SHENZHEN, China — Two different tussles took place in the Caribbean in the months of March and April; both involved the island-nation of St. Lucia to some degree, and both had such an air of inevitability that the final result elicited few gasps of surprise. One was the […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Bloggers United Malaysia 2007, Malaysia’s first national meeting on blogging, will be aimed at promoting blogging with a series of talks and workshops. However, when Malaysia’s tech-savvy meet at Petaling Jaya’s Lake View Club May 19, there is little doubt that the most pressing topic at hand will be how to stave off a government push to crack down on online expression. Blogging has taken Malaysia by storm, rapidly becoming an alternative voice to the state-controlled media. Washington-based Freedom House ranked Malaysia at 150 out of 195 nations surveyed in its latest global survey of press freedom. […]

Editor’s Note: Corridors of Power is written by WPR Editor-at-large Roland Flamini and appears every Monday in World Politics Review. MUSHARRAF GOING? — (See last week’s Corridors for a related item.) While some knowledgeable expatriate Afghans believe President Hamid Karzai may be on the way out, there are now indications that the thinking in Kabul and New Delhi is that it should be Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf who goes. Some Washington sources are wondering whether the continued violent demonstrations against the recent dismissal of the Pakistani chief justice should be seen in this context. Karzai’s government has developed close ties […]

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s newly elected president, takes office on May 16. Not for the French a two-month transition following elections, as in the United States. He will then announce a prime minister and a government that could remain in office for less than a month — if French voters decide to balance a conservative presidency by voting for the Socialist Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections in June. However, the prevailing view in Paris is that Ségolène Royal’s defeat in the presidential run-off has left the socialists bruised and weakened. Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement, therefore, stands […]

PARIS — “If I could get my hands on Sarkozy, I’d kill him.” Thus begins author David Rieff’s article in the New York Times Magazine last month on Nicolas Sarkozy’s relation to the French “banlieues.” Needless to say, it is not David Rieff himself, a fellow of the World Policy Institute in New York, who is proffering the threat. Rather he is quoting one “Mamadou”, a young resident of the Les Bousquets housing project outside Paris. Evidently having succeeded in making an impression on the American visitor, Mamadou continued, “Then I’d go to prison. And when I got out, I’d […]

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — In a bid to quash growing dissent amidst a worsening economic and political situation, Zimbabwe´s Robert Mugabe has ordered the creation of a reserve army made up of war veterans that took part in the country’s liberation struggle in the 1970s. The move comes after thousands of junior soldiers and police deserted or resigned from the government’s security forces over the past few years, disgruntled by poor pay and working conditions, leaving Mugabe short of the manpower that is essential to the maintenance of his oppressive regime. Many have left to seek better paying jobs as private […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A domestic political scandal that has tarnished the reputation of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is undermining support in the U.S. Congress for aid to the United States’ closest ally in Latin America, as well as threatening a proposed U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. Uribe was in Washington last week to lobby for continued U.S. aid and ratification of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) as the so-called “parapolitics” scandal, which implicates some Colombian politicians and high-ranking military officers in dealings with paramilitary groups, continued to gain momentum at home. So far, an investigation into the scandal by the […]

GLASGOW, Scotland — In what some here are calling a throwback to the electoral bedlam that surrounded U.S. President George W. Bush’s controversial win over Al Gore in 2000, Scotland’s recent election proved chaotic, with a divisive outcome that could threaten the future of the whole United Kingdom. As the dust settles around the May 4 vote for a new Scottish Parliament, the Scottish National Party (SNP), which attracted worldwide attention in the months leading up to the election by running on a call for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom, has emerged victorious. Public wrangling over the fate […]

When leaders of the two main rival factions in Palestinian politics signed a unity deal under Saudi auspices in February, the internal violence that had gripped the Palestinian Territories was supposed to come to an end. Instead, what came to an end was international news coverage of a crisis that has turned Palestinian society — particularly in the Gaza Strip — into a Hobbesian picture of lawlessness and despair.<<ad>>The Gaza Strip, which Israelis evacuated almost two years ago, is the scene of almost daily murders, kidnappings and shootouts, for reasons ranging from personal feuds to religious zealotry. Children are dying […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — As the 45 million Filipinos eligible to vote get ready to make a choice in their country’s May 14 mid-term election, the Philippines political landscape has been disturbed by the sound of guns, and filled with a mix of celebrities, rebels and political dynasties. Several actors, a current boxing world champion and a certain “Bin Laden” are among the nearly 87,000 candidates vying for 17,000 national and local positions, which include all of the 250 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. In the meantime, reports indicate that up to 80 […]

BERLIN — The Iranian nuclear issue was a major topic of discussion during this week’s EU-U.S. summit in Washington. The current Western strategy of combining increasingly severe sanctions on Iran with offers of civil nuclear and other assistance has not succeeded in limiting Iran’s progress towards achieving the capacity to manufacture a nuclear bomb. Although European Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned Iranian leaders against trying to divide Europe and the United States, this week’s meeting in Washington suggests that EU and U.S. leaders disagree over the appropriate next steps toward Tehran. Despite years of negotiations and sanctions, President Mahmoud […]

KARZAI GOING? — Are Hamid Karzai’s days numbered as Afghanistan’s president? Knowledgeable Afghan expatriates predict Karzai will probably not last out the year. Initially named interim president at Washington’s insistence in 2001, he ran for the office virtually unopposed in Oct 2004 and was elected for a five-year term. But the Bush administration is losing confidence in his ability to take the necessary steps to halt Afghanistan’s slide back into chaos. Even if NATO forces are successful in containing the Taliban threat this summer, it’s still up to Karzai’s government to regain public confidence by cleaning up corruption, reforming the […]

BANGKOK, Thailand — When Iran looks west, it faces trade sanctions, political hostility and military threats. So now the vilified government is turning to the east, where energy-hungry Asia is embracing it as a regional partner. Trade and investment between Iran and Asia is exploding, with Asia’s booming economies keen to buy Iranian oil and natural gas, and Iran desperate for Asia’s advanced technology. “Asia needs our energy and we need their technology,” said Iran’s ambassador to Thailand Moshen Pakaein, from Iran’s newly expanded $5 million diplomatic compound in Bangkok. Behind the ultra-modern frosted glass and concrete building — which […]

KATMANDU, Nepal — In the thin air of Mount Everest base camp last week, a group of five American activists thumbed their frozen noses at the Chinese Government by holding their own “opening ceremony” on behalf of Tibet. They unfurled a banner that parodied China’s Olympic slogan: “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008,” it read. As a cameraman sent live images via the Internet, the activists even lit their own torch and sang the Tibetan national anthem — minutes before Chinese border guards took them into custody. The stunt was the latest effort to use next year’s Olympic Games […]

Last week’s two-day summit between President George Bush and Shinzo Abe, who was making his first visit to the United States as Japanese prime minister, provided an opportunity to take stock of the profound changes occurring in the bilateral security relationship. Despite Japanese-American differences over several regional security issues, the two countries have continued to strengthen their bilateral defense ties in several dimensions.<<ad>>Under the auspices of their bilateral Security Consultative Committee (SCC), the two governments have engaged in a major effort to restructure their defense alliance. For several years, the SCC has been issuing joint statements articulating the two countries’ […]