Q & A Archive

Delegations from India and Brazil toured South Africa’s defense industry in November to explore possibilities for defense cooperation among the three IBSA countries. In an email interview, Daniel Flemes, a researcher in the Institute of Latin American Studies at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, discussed IBSA defense cooperation. WPR: What is the recent history of defense cooperation within IBSA in terms of defense industry collaboration and military-to-military cooperation? Daniel Flemes: As yet, most of IBSA’s ambitious agenda for defense cooperation has not been put into action. Increasing military personnel exchanges and joint exercises have been the most […]

At the end of November, the European Union approved the launch of free trade talks with Morocco as part of an effort to upgrade existing agreements with southern Mediterranean countries. In an email interview, Susi Dennison, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, discussed the EU’s economic relationship with its southern neighbors. WPR: What is driving the EU to seek upgraded free trade agreements with Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt? Susi Dennison: After the revolutions in North Africa in early 2011, and the ensuing criticism of the EU’s failure to challenge the previous autocratic regimes, the EU […]

Park Geun-hye, the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, was elected president of South Korea on Wednesday, defeating her liberal opponent, Moon Jae-in, and becoming the first female leader of the country. While the campaigns of Park, of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party, and Moon, of the progressive opposition Democratic Unity Party, focused mainly on the slowing economy and other domestic economic issues, the candidates took significantly different lines on foreign policy, particularly when it came to North Korea. “The main foreign policy difference that came out of the campaign was the pace and conceptual approach in dealing with North […]

The State Department announced on Friday that the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, Ambassador Eric Goosby, will lead the new Office of Global Health Diplomacy while continuing to head the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The appointment follows up on a plan announced earlier this year, when the administration shut down its Global Health Initiative (GHI), a program launched only in 2009. The global health community has had mixed reactions to the creation of the Office of Global Health Diplomacy, which is tasked with providing diplomatic support for the implementation of global health objectives and principles. “This is not […]

Syrian government forces have resorted to firing Scud ballistic missiles against rebel forces in recent weeks, according to media reports. In an email interview, Sean O’Connor, a contributor to IHS Jane’s and an expert in air defenses and strategic warfare, discussed Syria’s missile arsenal. WPR: What is the extent of Syria’s current missile arsenal, and what are its capabilities in terms of range and accuracy? Sean O’Connor: Prior to the beginning of hostilities within its borders, Syria maintained a well-stocked, if technologically limited, missile force. Syria obtained its first Scud-B missiles from the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s. At present, […]

The New Patriotic Party, the Ghanaian opposition party whose candidate lost to incumbent President John Dramani Mahama in presidential elections held last Friday, said this week it plans to challenge the results of the poll. While international observers deemed the elections free and fair, the opposition insists the ruling party rigged the vote. This has led to fears that the opposition’s failure to concede defeat could destabilize one of West Africa’s secure democracies. “What this election means for Ghanaian democracy depends largely on whether the NPP is able to provide hard evidence to back up its allegations of deliberate electoral […]

An African Union treaty to protect internally displaced persons, known as the Kampala Convention, came into effect last week following its ratification by a 15th state. In an email interview, Megan Bradley, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, discussed the convention. WPR: What are the Kampala Convention’s main provisions? Megan Bradley: As the world’s first binding agreement on internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Kampala Convention is a human rights milestone. It takes a comprehensive approach, addressing multiple causes of displacement, such as conflict, human rights violations, natural disasters and development projects such as dams. Its provisions tackle […]

Soldiers who carried out a coup in Mali earlier this year ousted Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra on Tuesday, placing Diarra under house arrest and forcing his resignation. While the interim president has named a new prime minister, this abrupt change in leadership has drawn international attention to the military’s continuing grip on the country and called into question plans for an intervention to retake northern Mali from radical Islamists. In an email interview, Paul Melly, an associate fellow in the Africa Program at Chatham House, told Trend Lines the ouster “undermines the constitutional legitimacy and political cover for intervention” […]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently issued a partial veto for a bill that would distribute a greater share of oil revenues to Brazilian states that are not oil producers. In an email interview, Fernando Antonio Slaibe Postali, a professor of economics at the University of São Paulo, discussed Brazil’s oil revenue distribution policy. WPR: What is at stake in the efforts to craft revenue-sharing legislation in Brazil? Fernando Antonio Slaibe Postali: When the current rules where designed, in the mid-1990s, the revenues involved were small, because oil prices were low and the Brazilian exchange rate was fixed. (Oil royalties are […]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez flew to Cuba on Monday for his fourth cancer surgery after announcing over the weekend that he had designated his vice president, Nicolas Maduro, as his desired political successor. The announcement marked the first time Chávez, who has publicly battled the disease for more than a year, has suggested that his health could keep him from continuing in office. “Venezuela will never be the same again,” Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas and editor of Americas Quarterly, told Trend Lines. “There is no going back. The Chávez […]

The British government withheld a $34 million aid payment to Rwanda at the end of November, citing charges in a U.N. report that Rwanda is backing rebels in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. In an email interview, Pamela Abbott, the acting director of research at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research in Rwanda, reviewed the state of development aid to Rwanda. WPR: Who are Rwanda’s main aid partners, and how steady has this been over the years? Pamela Abbott: Rwanda’s main aid partners are the World Bank, the U.S., the Global Fund, the European Union, the U.K., Belgium, […]

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, the country’s main opposition party, is likely to sweep Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan in the general election scheduled for Dec. 16, according to polls released yesterday. The projected LDP win would install Shinzo Abe as the country’s prime minister for the second time. Sheila Smith, senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and William Grimes, chairman of the Department of International Relations at Boston University, told Trend Lines these elections have major implications for Japan, particularly in foreign policy. “This election could be a turning point for […]

Meeting with Enrique Peña Nieto in Ottawa shortly before the new Mexican president’s inauguration, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to work to reverse a sensitive visa requirement for Mexicans visiting Canada. In an email interview, Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, discussed Canada-Mexico relations.* WPR: What was the trajectory of Mexico-Canada relations under Mexican President Felipe Calderon? Duncan Wood: At the beginning of 2006 relations were at a relative high point. Canada had identified Mexico as a strategic partner; the Canada-Mexico Partnership had just been founded; and the language, at […]

Israel is not backing down from a settlement expansion plan, announced following the United Nations vote providing Palestine with nonvoting observer-state status, despite a loud protest over the plan from five European Union countries. On Monday, the U.K., France, Sweden, Denmark and Spain all summoned Israel’s ambassadors to their countries in protest of Israel’s decision to construct 3,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to begin planning for a long-frozen development project in a particularly sensitive area of the West Bank known as E1.* Sharon Pardo, Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies and a senior […]

Editor’s note: Catherine Cheney reported on German policymaking as part of the German-American Fulbright Commission’s Berlin Capital Program, which is funded by the German Foreign Office. BERLIN — The Betreuungsgeld, a policy that will provide a monthly allowance to parents who keep their toddlers out of public daycare programs, is at the center of an emotional debate on family politics in Germany. Approved last month and scheduled to go into effect next year, the subsidy is an attempt to make it easier for parents, in most cases women, to care for children ages one to three on their own. Critics […]