Diplomacy & Politics Archive

There is tremendous buzz about Afghanistan’s elections. Open up any op-ed page, and you can find countless articles about votes and democracy and Karzai not instantly winning, and whatever else. But what I don’t get is why anyone cares.Democratic elections usually rest on a few basic principles: a free and fair vote, an uncoerced selection of candidates, and an agreement by all parties to abide by the results. Afghanistan doesn’t quite qualify for any of these. *Take the idea of a free and fair vote. Pajhwok, an internationally-funded independent Afghan news service, has an entire news page set aside for […]

The ongoing security fears every Iraqi grapples with are multiplied for members of the country’s gay community, which is being targeted for punishment by homegrown militias across the country, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. Several hundred men are believed to have lost their lives as a result of a campaign against gays that began in earnest in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City earlier this year and has spread to other cities, according to the report, “They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq.” Punishments carried out by militia members range from beatings […]

In his address during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue late last month in Washington, President Barack Obama personally appealed to the visiting senior Chinese officials for assistance in achieving his nuclear nonproliferation agenda. Based on the speech Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made on Aug. 12 at the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, it appears that his message was only partly received. Yang made clear that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would provide only limited assistance with respect to several of the most important U.S. goals. President Obama stressed the need for concerted action with respect to curbing the […]

We hear a lot of talk nowadays about the structural imbalance in global trade: namely, the West needs to spend less and export more (Germany excluded) and the East needs to export less and spend more (China especially). What we don’t talk about much are the structural deficits that currently stand in the way of rising Asia’s collective ascension to the role of established third pillar of global order. Instead, we place too much hope on China’s unique abilities to scale that mountain on its own, while simultaneously fearing that Beijing’s resulting ambitions will ultimately prove globally destabilizing. Ever since […]

The international rights community is pressuring Russian authorities to end a bloody campaign against journalists, activists and aid workers in Chechnya, following the grisly discovery of activists Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov shot dead in the trunk of a car Tuesday morning in Grozny. “The international community must wake up to the fact that the systematic and continuing failure of the authorities in the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic to investigate effectively the murders of human rights activists or indeed any other human rights violations that have taken place over the past years is a strong indication […]

Will the White House approve even more troops for Afghanistan? As Gen. Stanley McChrystal reevaluates the war strategy, he has reportedly considered as many as 30,000 more, and he’s making a strong case. So much that an interview with the Wall Street Journal resulted in a front page headline declaring the, “Taliban Now Winning.” But the troop numbers don’t tell the whole story. Or, the story doesn’t tell all the troop numbers. Almost all counts circulated these days consist of “boots on the ground” assessments. Only, as a single measure, boots on the ground is only a part of the […]

JALREZ VALLEY, Afghanistan — It’s a chilly summer night in the Jalrez valley, lit well by a three-quarter moon. I’m on a mission with the men of the 4/25 Artillery Battalion, part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, based in the Wardak and Logar provinces. We are weaving through ancient irrigation canals and wading across the numerous small rivers that feed the fertile valley, making our way to a medium sized village nestled into a hillside. Our winding path has been carefully chosen to minimize the chance that we will step on an IED, but […]

MEXICO CITY — Francisco Morelos Borja, the Michoacan president of the governing National Action Party (PAN) shifted from side to side, nervously looking at his aides and then the door of the nondescript restaurant in the town of Quiroga. “If you don’t open the door to [the drug traffickers], no problem. The difficulty comes when you open the door and have relations with them,” he said during our interview back in November 2007. “I can only make sure [members of the PAN] don’t open the door. . . . Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” Nearly two years on, and […]

In September, UNESCO, the Paris-based educational, scientific and cultural subsidiary of the United Nations, will elect a new director general for the next four years; but what started as almost a foregone conclusion has become another typical battle over a hotly contested senior U.N. post. The original front runner to succeed outgoing UNESCO head Koichiro Matsuura was Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s culture minister. According to informal U.N. rules of regional power sharing, the new director should come from the Arab world. But Hosni became a controversial figure following a statement last year that he would “burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries” […]

The convergence last week of Secretary Clinton’s trip to East Africa and the arrest in Australia of four men with links to the Somali al-Shabab movement on terrorism charges serves to highlight al-Shabab’s emergence as an extremist threat. While Secretary Clinton’s support of the Somali Transitional Government may delay al-Shabab’s rise, 18 years of failed statehood suggest that it is time for the United States and its allies to fundamentally reassess their policy towards Somalia. Instead of focusing exclusively on the powerless transitional government, Western nations should recognize and support existing institutions in Somalia to halt the advance of al-Shabab […]

Fatah, the party that dominates the Palestinian Authority, just held its first official gathering in 20 years andsome reportsclaimed the conference produced a strong commitment to peace and reconciliation within a rejuvenated organization. The reality is not quite as rosy. The Fatah that emerged from this event has a chance of strengthening its standing against Hamas, and there is a possibility, however remote, that some of the new faces in the leadership can start the scrubbing required to clean up the party’s reputation as a den of corrupt politicians living the high life on international aid — a reputation highlighted […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities have stepped up border surveillance as more and more potential immigrants and refugees flee war-torn Central Asia and the Middle East, arriving here in search of passage onward to third countries like Australia. Afghans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Tamils from Sri Lanka, Bangladeshis and even some Africans are finding Malaysia an attractive destination. On arrival, most are automatically granted a three-month tourist visa. The influx puts Malaysian authorities in a difficult spot. According to Malaysian law, an Afghan arriving by airplane has committed no offense. But when a cluster of Afghans touch down at KL International, […]

In July, the Israeli navy — a force mostly confined to the eastern Mediterranean — sent three of its most powerful warships through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. A Dolphin-class diesel-powered submarine passed through the canal on July 3. Two Sa’ar 5-class corvettes followed, 10 days later. The ships trained alongside Egyptian forces, then returned to Israel by mid-July. It was the largest long-range naval deployment in recent history for the 5,500-strong Israeli navy, and the first since 2005 for an Israeli sub. The naval deployments are part of a wide range of activities meant to reinforce Israel’s […]

TORONTO — Canada is regarded as a refugee’s paradise. Indeed, the federal government never misses an opportunity to tout the country’s ever increasing immigrant population, thanks to annual record-breaking admittance of foreigners. Last year, 519,722 newcomers were admitted, a 21 percent increase from the previous year’s 429,649. This has been the trend since the turn of the millennium, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. However, a breakdown of the numbers reveals that 247,202 of those admitted last year were landed immigrants, 193,061 were temporary foreign workers and 79,459 were foreign students. Refugee numbers are rarely included in the annual statistics. […]

A Burmese military court pronounced pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of violating terms of her house arrest Tuesday and extended her detention period by an additional 18 months. The verdict drew immediate condemnation from world leaders, human rights advocates and Nobel peace laureates. British Prime Minister Grodon Brown blasted the entire procedure as a “sham trial” and said “the U.N. Security Council — whose will has been flouted — must also now respond resolutely and impose a world wide ban on the sale of arms to the regime.” The United Nations, White House, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — It’s mid-week on a chilly Melbourne morning, and from halfway across the world in London, a call comes in to the Asylum Seeker Resource Center (ASRC). On the other end of the line is a nervous Afghan woman. Pamela Curr, campaign coordinator at the ASRC picks up the message as she arrives for work: Another boat has been seized off Ashmore Reef and diverted to Christmas Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There, the 70-odd Afghans on board will have their claims for asylum processed. Among them is the cousin of the caller from London, […]

TOKYO — After more than half a century of virtually uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japanese voters look poised to opt for a change. With dismal approval ratings and a series of local election losses — most recently in bellwether Tokyo — to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Prime Minister Taro Aso finally dissolved the House of Representatives on July 21, with an early general election now scheduled for Aug. 30. Some say Aso acted now, rather than wait for an obligatory election later in the fall, in large part to resist growing calls to […]