Domestic Politics Archive

BEIJING — Following recent declines in headline inflation, weak power generation in October and deepening financial losses for power companies, speculation has once again picked up regarding potential coal and electricity pricing reform in China. While some form of price adjustment looks imminent, structural reforms to pricing mechanisms affect multiple domestic interest groups and are proving hard to manage for the party-state. Beyond pricing, many broader reforms are already delayed, and the struggle to build consensus looks likely to cause further disruption. China’s ambition to wean itself off coal is well-documented. Draft versions of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) outlined […]

Vote counting is underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even as some people are still waiting to cast ballots.

Hundreds of Malaysian lawyers and rights activists have staged a rare protest march in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital, demanding that the government abandon plans to pass a new law they say would stifle the freedom of public assembly.

Clashes between protesters and military forces have seen at least 30 killed and 2,000 injured as citizens demand the interim ruling council holds elections.

If the phenomenon of nuclear renaissance has a true believer, it is India. In the next decade, India envisages monumental growth in its nuclear energy production. Today, nuclear energy contributes only 3 percent of the country’s total energy mix — a meager 4,200 megawatts. By 2020, India plans to increase nuclear energy production tenfold, to 40,000 MW. But the question now facing New Delhi is whether hostile public opinion will scuttle India’s nuclear energy expansion. Massive anti-nuclear protests in India have brought progress on the Koodankulam nuclear power plant to a grinding halt. Before that, the Jaitapur nuclear project ran […]

CAIRO — On Jan. 28, the Egyptian revolution’s “Day of Anger,” revolutionary protesters drove security forces loyal to the ruling regime from Cairo’s streets. As Egyptian army tanks rolled into Tahrir Square to fill the security vacuum, thousands cheered the arrival of what they saw as stability amid the chaos of the uprising. And when then-President Hosni Mubarak finally abdicated power on Feb. 11, most Egyptians were relieved to see the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), a body of military leaders normally headed by the president, take control. “During the Egyptian revolution, you had a sense of the […]

An explosion at the Alghadir missile base in Iran on Saturday killed the architect of the Iranian missile program. In an email interview, Bruno Gruselle, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research, discussed Iran’s missile capabilities. WPR: What is the current size of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal? Bruno Gruselle: Iran possesses a large ballistic missile arsenal, but there are huge differences between its short- and medium-range capabilities. Iran is not known to possess any operational missiles with a range in excess of 1,250 miles. But it is suspected of working on a longer-range missile and has in […]

Police in Brazil recently purchased several unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor environmental crimes such as deforestation and illegal fishing. In an email interview, Tyler Wall, a professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky University, discussed the nonmilitary uses of drones. WPR: What are some of the potential nonmilitary applications of drones? Tyler Wall: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS) are being deployed in a variety of nonmilitary spheres, albeit in limited capacities. Examples include the use of drones for domestic policing and border patrol; natural-disaster assistance; and monitoring wildlife, crops and the weather. WPR: To what degree are these potential uses being […]

Successive British governments have stressed strategic continuity, and there appears to be general political support for this among the electorate. But over the past 10 years, and particularly over the past two years, the U.K. has struggled to find the resources necessary to maintain the capabilities that would ensure strategic continuity. It has also found itself forced to reassess its position on a number of key international issues that determine how other powers respond to the U.K. as a global power. As a result, the United Kingdom’s position in the current international system is generally ambiguous. When the Conservative-Liberal coalition […]

On Oct. 31, the global population was estimated to have reached the 7 billion mark. On the eve of that momentous day, Li Bin, director of China’s State Population and Family Planning Commission, announced that China would retain its one-child fertility policy to do its part to slow world population growth. This news will have come as a bitter disappointment to the Chinese demographers and policymakers who have been calling for a relaxation of the one-child policy for several years. Wang Yuqing, the deputy director of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Committee on Population, Natural Resources and the Environment, […]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has faced growing criticism from the Iranian parliament regarding an ongoing banking scandal. In an email interview, Farideh Farhi, a researcher on Iran at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, discussed the Iranian banking scandal. WPR: What is the background of the ongoing Iranian banking scandal? Farideh Farhi: The background to the banking scandal is a combination of outright fraudulent activities, policies that have encouraged loose lending practices and speculation, and political cronyism that has allowed the use of borrowed money to gain control of recently privatized companies. The scandal came to light when it was […]

Highly respected economist Mario Monti has been installed as Italian prime minister following the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi.

For many, Veterans Day will bring parades honoring those who have served as well as a chance to pause and reflect upon those who are willing to pay, and have paid, the ultimate cost of service to the nation. This year, however, a disturbing trend should also be noted: For the second year in a row, however, more U.S. troops were lost to suicide throughout the force than to combat in Afghanistan or Iraq. A new report (.pdf) by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) highlights the severity of this troubling problem: – An active service member takes […]

The military crackdown on protesters has continued this week in Syria, where activists claim 25 people were killed on Thursday. There are claims that three of those killed were defectors from the Syrian Army who refused to fire live ammunition at crowds of demonstrators.

During a time of turmoil in many of the world’s regions, one corner of the globe is receiving little attention — a sign that things are going rather well there despite the audible commotion elsewhere. South America, a continent that for decades made unwelcome news, has settled into a steady, if not exactly sedate pace of progress. To be sure, the Southern Cone is not free of problems — far from it. But compared to the atmosphere of crisis stalking the developed West, or the political upheaval battering the Middle East, it looks downright placid and, dare we say, promisingly […]

A hostage situation at Venezuela’s Tocuyito prison ended last month when authorities agreed to transfer hundreds of prisoners to another facility. In an email interview, Chris Birkbeck, a specialist in criminal justice in Latin America at the University of Salford, discussed South America’s prison systems. WPR: Broadly speaking, what are the major problems facing the prison systems in South America? Chris Birkbeck: The biggest problem is the lack of control over inmates inside each establishment. Internal, often coercive, control is in the hands of prisoners, in some cases with the tacit recognition of the administration, but it is often contested […]

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived for a state visit to Washington in October in time to celebrate the passage by the U.S. Congress of the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama. But back home in South Korea, the bill continues to face spirited opposition, with the current debate revealing potential cracks lurking beneath apparently healthy U.S.-South Korea relations. In fact, due to political changes in South Korea, the friction over the FTA could be just the first sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries. South Korean opposition parties have come together to vigorously oppose […]