If the 2008 Olympics were China’s big coming-out party, and 2009 the year that Beijing merely managed to save global capitalism with its rapid — and accurate — stimulus package, then one might assume 2010 holds even better things in store for the People’s Republic. After all, just about everybody now recognizes the “superiority” of China’s authoritarian capitalism over the West’s free market variety. And yet, already the backpressure is building, as evidenced by the “Google wars” over Internet freedom, Western resentment over Beijing’s perceived bullying at the Copenhagen climate change conference, the Obama administration’s determination to follow through on [...]
President Barack Obama is under increasing public pressure to alter his strategy on Iran. Instead of diplomatic engagement with the current regime to end the nuclear stand-off, many feel he should encourage its collapse — or at least its fundamental modification — at the hands of the Green Movement. According to this line of reasoning, it makes no sense for Washington to negotiate with a government that might be on the verge of being overthrown altogether. The risk of the alternative approach, of course, is that Iran might cross the nuclear finish line before the regime has been forced to [...]
PRAGUE, Czech Republic — With all eyes on London and the high-profile Afghanistan Conference, a quieter gathering that took place this week in Prague might have shed more light on the opportunities, challenges and uncertainty that lie ahead for the war-torn country. The conference, co-sponsored by the Prague Security Studies Institute and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, brought together military and civilian practitioners of reconstruction and development work in Afghanistan, ostensibly to discuss the future of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan. But the wide-ranging panel discussions also addressed the broader challenges of reconstruction, as well as the urgent need for overcoming [...]
