Briefing Archive

Hopes for reform in Turkmenistan after the death of its megalomaniacal dictator have faded fast as political machinations in the country appear geared toward a continuance of strict one-party domination. Less than a week after self-proclaimed “father of the Turkmen” Sapurmurat Niyazov died of reported heart failure on Dec. 21, Turkmenistan’s politicians moved to amend the constitution, install pre-selected candidates for upcoming presidential elections, and arrest hundreds of potential political opponents. “Sadly Niyzaov’s passing has been followed by a complete lack of democratic signs and there is yet to be any basis for reasonable optimism,” says Erika Dailey, Director of […]

Recent prominent changes in the Bush administration’s war leaders and Iraq policy have overshadowed an important personnel shift in the Department of Energy (DOE). On Jan. 4, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced his decision to dismiss Ambassador Linton Brooks as head of the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Congress established the NNSA in 2000 as a semi-autonomous agency within the DOE charged with managing the use of U.S. nuclear energy for military purposes. Its responsibilities include maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons, countering nuclear proliferation, developing nuclear propulsion systems for the U.S. Navy, and responding […]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — For the cool price of $555, Lan Kosal will escort a client to a remote location in the Cambodian countryside to blow up a cow with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a grizzly form of entertainment popular among some backpackers visiting this poor Southeast Asian nation. The use of the Soviet-era launcher and its artillery is the relatively inexpensive part of the package, said Lan. “The real cost is the cow. You have to buy it before we let you kill it,” he explained matter-of-factly. Many tourists, he noted, aren’t interested in firing bazookas at bovines or […]

WILL SHIITE CHURCHMAN OPPOSE SURGE? — Aside from Democratic opposition at home, President Bush’s troop increase for Baghdad is “greatly vulnerable” to rejection by a powerful figure in Iraq itself — the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, whose charisma and towering influence over the majority of Shiite Muslims remains as undisputable as ever. A well-informed Western source in Iraq says the chances are that the aged, reclusive cleric could come out against the surge unless the Bush administration has privately prepared the ground with him in advance, which doesn’t seem to have happened. He is said to feel that the military […]

Our destination is on a high plain some 120 kilometers south of Kabul: a barren area that the native population calls simply “Dasht”: desert. About ten minutes earlier we turned off the main road and now we are advancing with difficulty over sand and gravel. It is a bright, beautiful day. The sunlight is like mica glistening out of a steely blue sky. The car must be somewhere out in front of us: a white Toyota Corolla that is supposed to take us to our scheduled meeting. Our investigations are almost completed. We have been waiting for days for this […]

At a Dec. 16, 2006, meeting in Beijing, the Chinese government awarded U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Corporation a multi-billion dollar contract to supply China with its next generation of nuclear reactors. The Westinghouse deal represents the single largest international nuclear power transaction in history. During the next few months, the two countries will negotiate a framework agreement to govern the sale. After that, Westinghouse and China National Nuclear will sign a detailed sales contract for the four 1,000-megawatt reactors. Chinese and American companies will build two of the four reactor units at Sanmen in Zhejiang Province and two at Yangjiang in […]

MANCHESTER, England — In this gritty northern city once famous for its textile exports, two bus companies have had their operating licenses suspended for employing Polish drivers who cannot read English road signs. In the Romanian capital of Bucharest, a new bus station opened this week to cater for yet more people keen to travel to Eastern Europe’s favorite destination. As both Romania and Bulgaria became the European Union’s newest members on Jan. 1, Britain braced for a new wave of immigration. After the EU expanded eastwards in 2004, the London government hopelessly miscalculated the number of likely economic migrants […]

“Osama bin Laden Captured” is a headline that wasn’t written in 2006: the same with “Zawahiri Caught,” a reference to al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. A year is the sum total of its failures, as well as its successes; and before going too far into January, it might be sobering to take a quick backward glance at what didn’t happen last year. Iraq, of course, offers dozens of unfulfilled hopes and expectations. The Bush administration likes to boast of its role in bringing free elections to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. But free elections, it turns out, don’t guarantee democracy. To get […]

TEHRAN, Iran — A bravura performance by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his own hanging has transformed him into a martyr in the eyes of secular and religious Sunni Muslim nationalists throughout the Arab World and may have sharpened Sunni-Shiite tensions beyond the point of no return. Defiant to the end, Saddam stood with a noose around his neck and expended his last words condemning America and Iran. It was a skillful manipulation of many Arabs’ fears that — with Arab nationalist strongman Saddam gone — a resurgent Iran will dislodge traditional regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and […]

BANGKOK, Thailand — In an effort to bolster its armed forces, Myanmar’s ruling junta continues to diversify the sources of its military hardware, finding willing suppliers in countries that are eager to gain access to the Southeast Asian nation’s abundant energy resources. Although China remains the principal dealer of military equipment to Myanmar, India has recently offered a multi-million dollar military assistance package to the junta’s leaders. According to the New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch, the assistance package, presented by Indian air force chief S.P. Tyagi on a visit to Myanmar’s new administrative capitol at Naypyidaw in late November, […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Right up to the very end, the farm community near the town of Massoudiyye in northern Lebanon was untouched by this summer’s Israeli invasion. Its Lebanese farmers and their migrant Syrian workers, ironically, had even briefly benefited — demand for their produce increased as supply in the south waned under Israeli air attacks. Then, two days before the Aug. 14 ceasefire, an Israeli jet aimed a bomb at one of the community’s small road bridges — and missed. Residents came outside to see what had happened. That’s when the Israeli jet dropped a second bomb, killing 11 […]

The resurgent strength of the euro in the international currency market could, ironically, be the agent of its demise in 2007. Problems caused by the lack of fiscal maneuverability that the “one-currency-fits-all” approach imposes saw Italy considering a return to the lira just last year. But in October, when French car manufacturing output dropped to 14 percent for the year, with the country’s monthly trade deficit running at a staggering $2.7 billion, and economic growth shuddering to a standstill, it left one of the EU’s biggest guns warning of possible withdrawal — a move which would signal the end for […]

One year from now we will pause to look back at 2007, the year that was. Historians and journalists will shuffle through their files and ponder what transpired. They will look at events and personalities and try to jump ahead of future historians, deciding what about the waning year will be remembered by posterity. The best minds will emphasize happenings that looked like isolated events, but in fact were turning points or signs of important new trends — thresholds into a new era. Trust no one claiming to have specific knowledge of what the future will bring. And yet, who […]