Domestic Politics Archive

TOKYO — Despite having denied newspaper reports that it is planning to drop its efforts to acquire the F-22 Raptor, the Japanese government seems no closer to securing an order of the stealth fighter in the face of an American export ban. The U.S. is said to be wary of lifting the ban because of a well-publicized data leak concerning the U.S.-developed Aegis defense system by a Japanese officer in 2007. The approach has left some Japanese policymakers and U.S. analysts frustrated. “I find the U.S. policy in this case incomprehensible,” said James Auer, director of the Center for U.S.-Japan […]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – It is uncertain what effect last week’s arrest of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel leader Laurent Nkunda will have on peace prospects in Africa’s third largest country, where more than 5 million people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since internal fighting began a decade ago. While some people have hailed it as the biggest step yet toward ending one of Africa’s worst civil wars ever, others suggest that any celebration must wait until the new-found alliance between Rwanda and Congo proves durable. Nkunda, a 41-year-old former DRC army general who has led […]

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Voters in Bolivia decisively approved a new constitution yesterday, handing a major victory to President Evo Morales and laying the foundations for the world’s first modern indigenous state. Supporters say the charter will empower Bolivia’s long-excluded indigenous majority, which comprises roughly 60 percent of the population. Its text creates autonomous indigenous zones governed by traditional authorities and communal justice systems, which will elect representatives to Congress through customary procedures such as tribal councils. “Finally we have a constitution that leaves racism and hatred aside, because indigenous people are included,” said Adolfo Chavez, president of the Confederation […]

Last of a three-part series. Part I can be found here. Part II can be found here. Audio Reporter’s Notebook: Don Duncan discusses how recent resettlement efforts have affected Bhutanese refugees left behind in the camps, and the implications for the militant groups in their midst. (Trouble listening with the above flash player? Download the audio.) THIMPHU, Bhutan — The banners, portraits and flags marking the Bhutanese monarchy’s centenary in 2008, are slowly being taken down in Thimphu’s main streets, as the country eases itself into the new year. But while the rest of the world braces itself for 2009, […]

While the United States and most of the world celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama, the people of Zimbabwe were once again being pushed to the brink. Talks between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai have broken down over several key issues, prompting Tsvangarai to say: “For us as the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), this is probably the darkest day of our lives, for the whole nation is waiting.” At the heart of the dispute is control of key ministries in the power-sharing arrangement being pushed by the South African Development Community (SADC) and its chief mediator, […]

A great deal of the fascination Barack Obama elicits in Europe is rooted in the acknowledgment that Europe lags behind the U.S. in the integration and political representation of its ethnic and religious minorities. Although a fifth of Germany’s residents are of foreign descent, for instance, less than 10 of the Bundestag’s 600-plus seats are occupied by ethnic minorities; the house of representatives of Vienna, Austria — where 25 percent of the city’s 2 million citizens originate from abroad — has only three. There are many causes of this lamentable state. Unlike America, which identifies as an immigrant country, national […]

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ended 2008 on a roll. The party, which had ruled Mexico for 71 years until losing power in 2000, overwhelmingly swept local and legislative elections in five of the six states holding them last year. On the federal level, its federal lawmakers achieved legislative success in a divided Congress by brokering deals on such matters as reforms to the criminal justice system, public security and the petroleum industry. Public opinion polls now list the PRI as the most popular of Mexico’s three major parties, and no longer — as in the recent […]

Second of a three-part series. Part I can be found here. Part II: Border Antics JAIGON, India — In the Indian town of Jaigon on the border with Bhutan, a day’s journey from the refugee camp in Nepal that he now calls home, 47-year-old refugee N.B. Giri waits silently in a small hotel room for his old friend, Gopal. Like Giri, Gopal is an ethnic Nepalese who claims Bhutanese citizenship. But after the expulsions of 1991 that caused Giri to leave, Gopal was one of an estimated 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who remained in Bhutan. N.B. Giri stands outside his hut […]

ISRAEL MIGHT FIGHT FIRST, VOTE LATER — Even with the faint prospect of a ceasefire in the offing, there is talk of postponing Israel’s Feb. 10 national elections. For one thing, none of the parties has been campaigning; the public has been distracted (though not unduly dismayed: a recent poll showed only 10 percent of Israelis are against the Gaza incursion, and 82 percent believe Israel has not “gone too far”); and then there is the rather pious argument that a postponement would prevent resolution of the conflict from becoming a political issue. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is flying […]

In recent weeks there has been a notable — and positive — political event in Africa that does not involve the disaster zones of Somalia, Sudan, or Zimbabwe. On Jan. 7th, John Atta Mills, the candidate from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, was inaugurated as Ghana’s president. He won a Dec. 28 runoff with 50.23 percent of the vote, beating Nana Akufo-Addo, representing the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), who won 49.77 percent. This election was clear evidence that Ghana’s democracy continues to mature. Despite the razor-thin win by the opposition candidate, there was no eruption of political […]

Israel’s attack on Hamas continued through the weekend, despite Egyptian and French efforts to broker a ceasefire. With Israeli ground forces now poised on the outskirts of Gaza City, and with an expansion of the operation into the urban battlefields that represent Hamas’ greatest tactical opportunity for exacting losses on the IDF still a possibility, it is difficult to speak decisively about the military outcome of the ongoing fighting. But according to several American experts on Arab politics, while Israel might very well succeed — at least temporarily — in depleting Hamas’ military wing, so long as Hamas is still […]

Just over a decade ago, a sea of supporters dressed in red and lining the streets of Caracas celebrated Hugo Chávez’s landslide election victory in Venezuela, marking a watershed in the Latin American political landscape and signaling the emergence of the so-called populist left in the region. Chávez was subsequently followed by a wave of left-wing leaders elected across the continent — Lula in Brazil (2002), Néstor Kirchner in Argentina (2003), Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay (2004), Evo Morales in Bolivia (2005), and a year later Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Rafael Correa in Ecuador — leaving roughly 75 per cent […]

The outcome of recent parliamentary elections in Bangladesh has not only paved the way for the return of parliamentary democracy, but has also demonstrated that the highly religious but moderate Muslim nation of 144 million is unwilling to embrace divisive Islamist political parties. The elections, initially scheduled for 2007 and the first since 2001, followed the lifting of a state of emergency last month. Led by Sheikh Hasina of Awami League, the secular Grand Alliance — or Mohajat — swept the elections, decimating former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islam, and sending a clear […]

The current dispute between Russia and Ukraine over 2009 gas prices marks the fourth time since the Orange Revolution that Moscow and Kiev have tried to sign a contract. Each time, the process has been trumped by a hydra of hidden agendas and political intrigues, with far-reaching implications for consumers. Gazprom prices, scaled to its customers, are pegged to a basket of oil prices with a six-month lag. Embedded in the price for Ukraine, however, are transit fees for downstream exports to Europe. When concessions are made for the transit rate, calculated per 100 km of 1,000 cubic meters of […]

Slovenia’s decision to effectively block Croatia’s entry to the E.U. on the basis of an unresolved border dispute represents a dangerous precedent that, if copied, could damage or destroy the chances of other accession hopefuls in southeast Europe. Because of the Slovenian veto in late December, Croatia was able to open only one new “chapter” — representing a policy area in which it must prove that it meets EU norms — out of an expected 10, and close three, instead of the five foreseen, in the latest round of its ongoing accession negotiations. It is not the first time an […]

LONDON — There wasn’t much good cheer for Prime Minister Gordon Brown coming from Britain’s Anglican bishops this Christmas. One prelate after another used his seasonal message to denounce what the Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, called the Labour government’s “morally corrupt” strategy for economic recovery. Before the holidays, Brown encouraged consumers to take advantage of slashed prices in the stores to keep the economy going. For the bishops, encouraging a spending spree was the wrong approach. Bishop Stephen Lowe of Hulme lamented that “the government isn’t telling people who are already deep in debt to stop overextending themselves, but […]

It is almost a year since Kenya erupted into violence following contested presidential elections. Up until then, it had been considered a beacon of stability in a troubled region of Africa. That is the case no longer. In the aftermath of the violence have emerged accusations and counter-accusations as to who was ultimately responsible. Members of Parliament, the media, the police force and even local government administrations have all been implicated at some stage, as Kenyans have tried to make sense of a crisis that reflected simmering ethnic tensions, driven by deep social grievances. Following the successful implementation of a […]