Diplomacy & Politics Archive

One year ago, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made the riskiest move of his presidency. He agreed to enter peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist guerrilla organization that has kept the country at war for half a century in a conflict that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 Colombians. If the talks succeed, Santos will earn a place in history, the undying gratitude of the Colombian people and a second term as president. If they fail, the talks could provide the epitaph to his political career. Today, the negotiations with representatives of […]

Facing dissent from within his own party over his plans to topple the coalition government of Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, Silvio Berlusconi reversed course today and decided to back down from an attempt to bring down the government. Berlusconi, the former prime minister, prompted the vote of confidence in Italy’s Senate by threatening to withdraw his party’s support from Letta’s government. The resulting backlash, and Berlusconi’s decision to back down, have left the former prime minister weakened. His People of Freedom Party, which has dominated the political scene in Italy for the past two decades, could also suffer consequences. […]

In late-August and early September, when the Obama administration was still seeking to generate support for the use of force against Syria after Damascus had crossed the “red line” of large-scale use of chemical weapons, one of the arguments it used was that failure to do so would undermine the credibility of America’s threat to strike Iran if Tehran ever built nuclear weapons. That argument may have been true at the time, but the situation has become more complex since the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons peacefully. By explicitly stating, partly for domestic reasons […]

Newly incumbent Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has signaled the importance he places on Australia’s relations with Indonesia by making Jakarta the destination of his first overseas visit. Abbott said it was his hope “that this visit establishes a convention for all future incoming prime ministers to make Jakarta their first port of call overseas.” But his meetings Monday and Tuesday with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were initially overshadowed by controversy surrounding Australia’s asylum-seeker policy, which has become a hot-button issue in both countries. Indonesia is important to Australia both from a geostrategic and trade perspective. Relations between the […]

In 1897, Mark Twain famously advised the New York Journal that its report of his death was an exaggeration. Recent years have seen a number of reports of al-Qaida’s death. These too have been exaggerations but, unfortunately, dangerous rather than witty ones. Claims of al-Qaida’s demise began in July 2011 when then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the defeat of al-Qaida is “within reach.” In a May 2013 speech at the National Defense University in Washington, President Barack Obama said, “The core of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat.” In an August address at Camp […]

Though Southeast Asia’s economies continue to grow, their regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has struggled to match its economic clout with political credibility. This World Politics Review special report looks at the political and security challenges facing ASEAN and the diverging paths of its member states. ASEAN To Heal Divisions, Brunei Must Take Proactive Role in ASEAN DisputesBy Richard Javad HeydarianJanuary 9, 2013 ASEAN Struggles for Relevance in South China Sea DisputesBy Mark ValenciaApril 26, 2012 Taiwan-Philippines Spat Unlikely to Damage Broader ASEAN RelationshipInterview with Hui-Yi Katherine TsengJune 10, 2013 Myanmar’s Reforms Put Rights Spotlight on ASEANBy […]

During his current visit to South Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will likely discuss long-standing issues on the alliance agenda, including the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control from U.S. to South Korean forces as well as plans for sharing the costs of defending South Korea in coming years. But Hagel’s visit might well be dominated by Seoul’s abrupt decision last week to annul its tender to purchase 60 advanced fighter planes and launch a new one. Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle—an upgraded version of the F-15E, the dominant model in the South Korean Air Force—looked set to […]

When the M23, a Rwanda-backed militia, launched a rebellion last year in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), few could have guessed the fallout it would cause in Kigali. For years, credible reports had documented a host of Rwanda-sponsored abuses in the region, from civilian massacres to the plundering of minerals. Yet Rwanda’s Western backers, wary of undermining a country considered a major development success, generally looked the other way. But when a series of U.N. Group of Experts reports found evidence of systematic Rwandan support for the rebels, including the provision of weapons and troops, and direct Rwandan command […]