Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Greeks head to the polls this Sunday after a split in the ruling far-left Syriza party over Greece’s bailout prompted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resign and call snap elections. A poll released Tuesday shows Syriza neck and neck with the center-right New Democracy party—27.0 percent support to 27.5, respectively—putting into doubt Tsipras’ ability to return as prime minister. Syriza came to power in January on a staunch anti-austerity platform. However, Tsipras was unable to negotiate an end to austerity with Greece’s creditors—the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Throughout the spring Greece faced the […]

In early September, Serbia, an aspiring European Union member, conducted a military drill with two people on the EU’s bad list: Russia and Belarus. In Novorossiysk, Russia, in an exercise known as “Slavic Brotherhood,” paratroopers from the three countries played war games and practiced crushing a Maidan-style revolt. “Who can lecture us?” said Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, responding to questions about what impact the drill would have on his country’s image in Brussels. “The European Union is not a military bloc. Let them mind their own business.” The EU was not impressed, given the diplomatic energy it has expended […]

One of the defining declarations of Barack Obama’s 2008 run for the White House was his pledge not only to end the war in Iraq, but also to change the mindset that got America involved in that disastrous war in the first place. In fits and starts, he has adopted that approach as president, particularly in his second term. Unfortunately it appears that Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state and now the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, still hasn’t gotten the memo. Last week Clinton ventured to Washington’s Brookings Institution to talk about her views on the Iran […]

On Saturday, Tunisians flocked to Avenue Habib Bourguiba, in Tunis, to protest a draft law on “economic reconciliation,” which parliament approved in July. The initiative—strongly backed by President Beji Caid Essebsi’s Nidaa Tounes party—would freeze prosecutions of officials and businessmen from ousted President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s era who are being investigated for corruption, and create a special committee to which they would reveal their assets. Those funds would then, the government says, be injected into Tunisia’s flailing economy. Critics point to the evident impunity the law would grant to those guilty of corruption or embezzlement, further undermining Tunisia’s […]

In the first half of August this year, something snapped inside Ban Ki-moon. The secretary-general of the United Nations demanded that the leader of the U.N. operation in the Central African Republic (CAR), Senegalese Gen. Babacar Gaye, should resign. The mission, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, was buckling under the weight of stories about sexual abuse by U.N. troops. “Enough is enough,” Ban told the press. Gaye did not go quietly. He had, he pointed out in his resignation letter, insisted on a “zero tolerance” policy toward the abuse. He previously served the U.N. in the Democratic Republic of […]

YANGON, Myanmar—Beginning in the early 2000s, China’s rise buoyed commodities markets and improved the fortunes of many resource-rich countries. Myanmar was no exception: Bilateral trade has expanded considerably, with China now accounting for approximately 40 percent of Myanmar’s imports and 15 percent of its exports. Although estimates vary significantly, data provided by Myanmar authorities to the World Trade Organization indicate that China, including Hong Kong, made up nearly 60 percent of approved investments in its southwestern neighbor between 2005 and 2012. Cumulative Chinese foreign direct investment in Myanmar has since exceeded $14 billion, with much of that bound for the […]

The lingering misgivings among some in the U.S. Congress about the nuclear agreement with Iran have already generated calls for new sanctions against Iran, just as Tehran and many of its trading partners are gearing up for a post-sanctions environment, with corporate leaders booking flights to scope out prospects for trade and investment. Meanwhile sanctions against Russia for its seizure of Crimea continue to disrupt economic relations between Russia and major European countries, costing the latter tens of billions of euros in lost trade. The widespread use of sanctions speaks to the more prominent role of economics in foreign policymaking, […]

Germany has never been an entirely comfortable power at the United Nations. The Security Council is, as Russian diplomats like to note, still run by the countries that defeated Hitler in 1945. East and West Germany did not even join the U.N. until 1973. Nevertheless, Berlin now pays over 7 percent of the U.N. budget, while Britain and France cover less than 6 percent each. At regular intervals, the Germans launch quixotic campaigns to win a permanent seat on the Security Council. Time and again, these plow into the sand. Despite these bids for a bigger role, German diplomats often […]

After months of peaceful protests, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina was stripped of immunity and forced to step down last week. He now faces charges of illicit association, customs fraud and bribery for his alleged role in a massive corruption scheme. A judge has ordered that he remain in jail until his trial in December. Over a dozen public officials, including former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, Cabinet members and government ministers, have been arrested and put on trial for their participation in the criminal network. The corruption scandals uncovered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the U.N.-led International Commission against […]

Earlier this month, left-leaning opposition parties in the Faeroe Islands announced they would form a coalition after the Javnadarflokkurin party won 8 out of 33 seats in the parliamentary elections, upsetting the ruling Prime Minister Kaj Leo Johannesen’s right-leaning Sambandsflokkurin party, which has been in power since 2008. In an email interview, Maria Ackrén, an associate professor at the University of Greenland, discussed politics in the Faeroe Islands. WPR: What are the main factors that led to the defeat of the right-wing Sambandsflokkurin party in the Faeroe Islands? Maria Ackrén: It is impossible to identify any particular factor or factors […]

The Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen began as a war waged from the skies, but as it drags on, it is increasingly moving to the ground. In the past week, Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have deployed more soldiers to Yemen, capped by 1,000 ground troops from Qatar. Egypt reportedly sent 800 of its own soldiers, after rumors last spring of its willingness to join a potential ground war to drive the Houthis out of territory they have seized in Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. The Qatari and Egyptian troops join a 3,500-strong battalion of soldiers from […]

The trial of Hissene Habre, the former leader of Chad, on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture has begun in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, is accused of presiding over a network of secret police known by its French acronym, the DDS, which carried out systematic torture and disappearances during his rule. A Chadian truth commission in the 1990s established that there could have been as many as 40,000 victims. The reopening of the trial at the Palace of Justice in Dakar on Monday was a media spectacle—amid chaotic scenes, […]

Today the world is riveted by the tragic migrant flows from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe. Driven by conflict in their homelands, hundreds of thousands of refugees have risked—and sometimes lost—everything in search of security and opportunity far from their troubled nations. While addressing this humanitarian crisis is the most pressing concern for Europe, the United States and the rest of the world community, political leaders must also look further into the future: Today’s migrant crisis is the bow wave of tomorrow’s security challenges. In the contemporary security environment, a peace settlement or the removal of a […]

Last week, Azerbaijan sentenced Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist and anti-corruption campaigner, to seven-and-a-half years in prison for illegal entrepreneurship and tax evasion. Her conviction comes three weeks after prominent human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus were sentenced to eight-and-a-half and seven years, respectively, for fraud, tax evasion and treason. The United Nations, the European Union, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, among others, have all condemned the arrest, trial and sentencing of these and other human rights advocates and anti-corruption campaigners in Azerbaijan. The U.S. State Department released a statement saying it “is deeply troubled” by Ismayilova’s conviction […]

The governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, arguably the Arab world’s two most influential states, continue to express their determination to strengthen an alliance that has grown under Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. In late July, el-Sisi and Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman signed a deal they called the Cairo Declaration, a strategic blueprint to advance bilateral cooperation in a host of areas, especially defense and the economy. Since 2013, Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states have helped keep el-Sisi’s regime afloat, with billions in economic aid. Egypt, in turn, has been a partner in […]

When the collapse of the Chinese stock market signaled a slowdown in China’s breakneck pace of economic growth, one could easily identify a long list of countries already showing symptoms of suffering a cold from China’s sneeze. Within that list, one country stands out, one where the impact will have potentially significant geopolitical consequences: Russia. When it comes to Russia, China’s challenges will have global implications. The only question is how severe that impact will be. The Chinese slowdown, to be sure, creates new problems for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his plans to rely on stronger links with Beijing […]

Belarus will hold a presidential election on Oct. 11, but one needn’t bother staying up for the result: The incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s so-called last dictator, traditionally claims 80 to 90 percent of ballots, with the result fixed both beforehand by mass early voting and afterward via a completely invisible counting process. But in a region gripped by the turmoil caused by Russia’s proxy war in Ukraine, Belarus’ election still matters. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994. The last election in 2010 culminated in mass protests against election fraud and almost 700 arrests. That isn’t likely to be the […]