Briefing Archive

U.S. President Barack Obama’s debut NATO summit at the Franco-German border over the weekend was a triumph of style over substance. Although allies put on a public face of unity, they were unable to agree on any of the major problems facing trans-Atlantic security. As NATO marks its 60th birthday, the alliance is mired in a profound identity crisis offering little reason to celebrate. The summit was dominated by the problem of Afghanistan and what to do about it. European allies heaped praise on Obama’s new Afghan strategy, which sets benchmarks for progress in fighting al-Qaida and the Taliban in […]

STRASBOURG, France — It’s a virtual certainty that the concerto played by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter at NATO’s 60th anniversary dinner Friday night wasn’t chosen because of its nickname. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 is known as the “Turkish Concerto” because the composer used oriental themes in the final movement. But as it happened, the one discordant note in an otherwise harmonious summit was the down-to-the-wire threat by NATO member Turkey to veto the nomination of former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance’s new secretary general. It took frantic, behind-the-scenes efforts, which delayed the start of the Saturday […]

Perhaps the most significant development coming out of last week’s G-20 summit meeting in London is the news that the world’s leading economies will triple the International Monetary Fund’s lending powers to some $750 billion. The massive investment raises an immediate question: How is influence shifting within the workings of the Fund? To tease out the nuances of these developments, WPR columnist Andrew Bast spoke with Simon Johnson, chief economist of the IMF in 2007 and 2008, and currently a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Many consider Johnson’s blog, The Baseline Scenario, a must-read on the global […]

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Not very long ago, one of Malik Naeem’s favorite pastimes was an afternoon jaunt to McDonald’s with his granddaughters for french fries and a tour of the playground. Islamabad, the Pakistani capital where Naeem lives with his family, seemed sheltered from far-off concerns about growing militancy and insecurity along the Afghan border. That changed in an instant last September, when militants attacked the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, just a few seconds’ drive from the Pakistani Parliament and Supreme Court buildings. The high-profile attack on a popular public establishment in a heavily guarded area meant that no place […]

LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown might have been excused for savoring the sweetest moment of his political career yesterday evening. By the time the final slaps on the back had been delivered and the G-20 world leaders had left London, Brown’s stock had never been higher. It had been his crisis summit. And at first glance, it was a success, as summits go. For 24 hours, Brown had enjoyed what for him has become the unusual comfort of high praise, luxuriating in the warm words of fellow leaders. And none were warmer than those of the undoubted superstar […]

The 2012 London Olympics may still be several years away, but yesterday, the city played host to a different type of games altogether — the G-20 summit on the global economic crisis. This time, the competitors were not the world’s premier athletes but rather political leaders representing the world’s most powerful economies. By the end of the conference, though, no single country emerged atop the podium. Instead, the clearest winner appears to be the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which received another boost in its quest to reassert itself as the protector of global economic stability. Still, if the world’s rising […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Najib Razak was sworn in as Prime Minister of Malaysia today, replacing Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who resigned yesterday in a move that had been widely anticipated for weeks. Razak promised to re-energize national politics and to end a nagging challenge to his party’s long-standing rule by opposition nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim. However, many fear that the arch-conservative former defense minister, who has served as deputy prime minister for the last six years, will crack down on dissent at a time when opinion polls show that many Malaysians are yearning for change. Central to those fears is the […]

DENPASAR, Indonesia — A veil of skepticism has descended over Indonesia’s democracy as the country prepares to vote in legislative elections on April 9. But although votes will be cast under the shadow of serious problems and deficiencies, there is also reason for optimism. Admittedly, none of the 38 national parties have impressed with well-conceived political platforms. Their rallies have been more about handing out goodies and presenting dandugt concerts than debating the country’s many ills. Add to that allegations of vote-buying and the blatant ineptitude of the Election Commission, and what emerges is a depressing picture that has led […]

When the International Criminal Court issued its ground-breaking warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on March 4, human rights activists celebrated the move as a major milestone. The action would not only boost hope in Darfur — Bashir is alleged to have played a key role in the tragic conflict — but it would also help prevent atrocities everywhere. For the first time, a sitting president faced the threat of arrest, forcing other perpetrators and would-be perpetrators of crimes against humanity to consider the trials awaiting them should they follow in Bashir’s footsteps. Less than a month […]

Parliamentary elections in Indonesia, as elsewhere, are usually an ordinary affair as local politicians jockey for position among voters at the grassroots level. Normally voting revolves around homespun issues: a new school library, the local waters works or paved roads. But in the lead-up to legislative elections in Indonesia, campaigning has taken on much broader implications, providing a battleground for separatist forces in the troubled province of Papua, a testing ground for the fragile peace in Aceh and a vibrant backdrop for the presidential poll in July. Keith Loveard, a Jakarta-based security consultant with Concord Security said electoral-related violence in […]

NAIROBI, Kenya — When Kenya welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the first stop of his first tour of sub-Saharan Africa in mid-February, it reflected how Nairobi’s emphasis on bilateral relations with Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries is increasingly overshadowing its ties to traditional Western allies. Beginning in 1963, when Kenya attained independence from Britain, Western countries were routinely accorded a “first amongst equals” status. A military pact signed between Kenya and the United States in 1980, allowing the U.S. Navy use of the local port of Mombasa to monitor the Far East in return for military and economic […]

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — The newly appointed High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina takes office as the country’s finances are on the verge of meltdown, making the need for an arbiter to break the stalemate of the country’s dysfuntional political system more urgent than ever. The 59-year-old Austrian diplomat, Valentin Inzko, is the seventh high representative since the Dayton Peace Agreement created the position 14 years ago. Unlike each of his three immediate predecessors, Inzko was not expected to be the last to exercise the office when he was introduced last Thursday. The acceptance of the continued need for […]

The Obama administration’s emphasis on “smart power” is by now well known. To most observers, that has meant the need to “balance and integrate all elements of our national power” in order to deter and defeat emerging threats, as President Barack Obama himself put it in a speech at National Defense University in Washington on March 12. Many have focused on Obama’s insistence, in the same speech, that “we cannot continue to push the burden on to our military alone” and his commitment to “comprehensive engagement with the world.” What has gotten less attention is the central role Obama foresees […]