Editor’s note: Corridors of Power is written by veteran foreign correspondent and WPR editor-at-large Roland Flamini, and appears every Monday. AFTER WOLFOWITZ — A senior World Bank staffer says that while the squalor of Paul Wolfowitz’s arrangements on behalf of his innamorata got all the publicity, it wasn’t the main grievance inside the agency. “The bank is not Sodom and Gomorrah, but it’s not monastic either,” the source said, “and it has its share of romantic relationships.” What riled the staff more was (1) Wolfowitz’s reliance on a team of close political advisers whom he brought in from the Bush [...]
BERLIN — During the past few months, leading members of the major political parties comprising the German coalition government have expressed widely divergent views on the key foreign policy issues facing Germany. Senior representatives from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have made conflicting statements on the ballistic missile defense (BMD) issue, how to curb Iran’s nuclear program, Germany’s role in the war in Afghanistan, and other topics. At some point, these foreign-policy divergences, combined with differences over other policy areas, could lead to the coalition’s collapse before its scheduled dissolution at [...]
Editor’s Note: Corridors of Power is written by WPR Editor-at-large Roland Flamini and appears every Monday in World Politics Review. MUSHARRAF GOING? — (See last week’s Corridors for a related item.) While some knowledgeable expatriate Afghans believe President Hamid Karzai may be on the way out, there are now indications that the thinking in Kabul and New Delhi is that it should be Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf who goes. Some Washington sources are wondering whether the continued violent demonstrations against the recent dismissal of the Pakistani chief justice should be seen in this context. Karzai’s government has developed close ties [...]
