Domestic Politics Archive

Moqtada al-Sadr, the populist Iraqi Shiite cleric, has returned to Iraq from Iran once more, ready to take on a prominent role in mainstream politics. For Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia was responsible for some of the bloodiest violence during the U.S. occupation, it is the latest of several evolutions since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Matthew Duss, director of Middle East Progress at the Center for American Progress, told Trend Lines that Sadr will have his work cut out for him moving forward. “Here is this firebrand who very effectively exploited popular anger at the American occupation, […]

Romania’s plunge into political crisis is the last thing the country needs. Still deeply scarred by Stalinist dictatorship, it is one of the European Union’s poorest member states and has been hit hard by a recent recession. Its rulers have long been criticized for corruption, remoteness and authoritarianism, and now they stand accused of tearing the country apart. The EU is seriously considering sanctions on Romania this week as the new government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta appears reluctant to back down on the moves it has taken to gain control of key institutions of state. Meanwhile, the government’s attempt […]

Preliminary results of Libya’s landmark elections suggest that the National Forces Alliance, a broad coalition of parties rallied under the banner of wartime prime minister Mahmud Jibril, will leave Islamist parties in the dust. World News Videos by NewsLook

Last week, I made the argument that the crisis in civil-military relations in the United States is not actually much of a crisis after all. By any reasonable measure, civil-military relations in the United States are actually remarkably healthy. This week, though, I will highlight those areas where there are problems — and propose ways forward. To begin, both political parties have contributed to the problems the United States faces with respect to civil-military relations, as have both the U.S. military and the civilians it serves. In other words, all sides deserve some of the blame for several disturbing trends. […]

In El Salvador, a dispute between the Constitutional Court and the National Assembly has led to two separate groups of judges claiming to be the country’s lawful Supreme Court. In an email interview, Linda Garrett, a senior policy analyst for El Salvador at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, discussed El Salvador’s constitutional crisis. WPR: What is the immediate background to El Salvador’s constitutional crisis? Linda Garrett: The confrontation between the Constitutional Court and a majority coalition in the legislature is as political as it is institutional, a reflection of the deep polarization that still divides El Salvador 20 […]

Fears of violence are rising in Libya on the eve of the country’s first free election in more than 50 years. Saturday’s National Assembly elections could determine whether Libya continues to suffer discord along ethnic and regional lines or consolidates its moves toward becoming a new, democratic state. “It is important to keep in mind that in a postconflict election like [this one], the main concern is usually about credibility,” Ayman Ayoub, regional director for Western Asia and North Africa at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, told Trend Lines. “What really matters is that the elections are […]

Continuing violence in Libya has raised fears about security in the first national elections after 42 years of dictatorship under Muammar Gaddafi. World News Videos by NewsLook

An activist in Korea who advocates unification was arrested by officials from the South in front of a chanting crowd of North Koreans at the border. World News Videos by NewsLook

NAIROBI, Kenya — In Kenya, a country with a history of institutionalized impunity for politicians, the attempt last week by parliament to pass legislation seemingly designed to safeguard incumbency might be considered par for the course. The proposed bill, which among other things mandated that members of parliament have university degrees, highlighted the challenges facing political reform efforts two years after the passage of what was hailed as arguably the most progressive constitution on the continent. Significantly, however, the move by parliament was greeted with popular outrage and criticized by media outlets and prominent officials alike. Sensing the political fallout, […]

Though largely overlooked amid the coverage of Mexico’s deteriorating security situation over the past six years, outgoing President Felipe Calderón made noteworthy gains in Mexican foreign policy during his tenure. With the victory in Sunday’s presidential election of Enrique Peña Nieto marking the return to power of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 12 years, some might expect a shift in the country’s foreign policy agenda. In considering what Mexico and the world might expect from the incoming Peña Nieto administration, however, it helps to look first at the important developments under Calderón. Calderón’s first foreign policy challenge was repairing […]

In the past few decades, Latin America has emerged as the world’s unlikely laboratory for democracy. No other region has produced the sheer diversity of democratic configurations and permutations, including some that at times appear to undermine the very essence of democratic principles. The region that for so many years made news due to violence and authoritarianism is now an active workshop, tinkering with and sometimes transforming the shape of democracy. Latin America became the stage for the rise of iconic figures such as former Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to name just […]

Yasser Arafat’s body may be exhumed to allow for more testing of the causes of his death, the Palestinian president said Wednesday, after a lab said it found elevated levels of a radioactive isotope in belongings said to have used in his final days. World News Videos by NewsLook

Ichiro Ozawa, who helped bring the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to power three years ago, resigned from the party Monday over a proposed tax increase. In doing so, Ozawa and the 49 other members who followed him in the exodus weakened the parliamentary majority of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was trying to push through a bill that would double the national sales tax to 10 percent by 2015. Ian Neary, a professor of Japanese politics and director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at Oxford University, told Trend Lines that the cost of this latest round […]

The presidential election win by Mexico’s former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, has given birth to a vibrant youth movement opposing the new government. World News Videos by NewsLook

When the U.S. approached eight countries with the idea to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it did not invite its North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, along. The exclusion of the two countries from what is being touted as potentially the most important economic bloc in the Pacific Rim was deliberate. The TPP seeks to liberalize trade by completely removing tariffs and other trade barriers, while also strengthening measures to protect intellectual property, two moves that Canada particularly had resisted within NAFTA. However, when the U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam join founding members Brunei, Chile, […]

On June 16, students at the University of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, began protesting against austerity measures enacted by the government of President Omar al-Bashir. Now staging near-daily protests, the students, along with their fellow demonstrators, are calling for the fall of Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, and his National Congress Party (NCP). Sudanese security forces have responded forcefully to the protests, drawing international concern. Observers inside and outside Sudan, meanwhile, wonder whether the protests might force Bashir to step down. Whether or not Bashir endures these protests, their intensity demonstrates the unsustainability of the political […]

Having done all the right things at last week’s European Union summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel found herself blamed, even attacked, in Germany for the summit’s outcome. Merkel helped prevent Spain — and, further down the line, Italy — from going bankrupt, thereby protecting German industries from the potential consequences. Yet, she faced an outcry back home that she had effectively allowed Germany to be blackmailed at the summit by a hostile alliance of French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. This gap between what might be the first step toward a […]