WPR Blog Archive

Two major stories, two major symbols: Fidel Castro and Kosovo. I think it’s obvious how Castro’s retirement represents the disappearance of the last vestiges of the 20th century. Sure, there’s still N. Korea, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could qualify as well. But the least you can say about the latter two is that, while anchored in the geopolitical realities of the last century, they still managed to evolve in recent years. Kim Jong-Il has a warhead, after all, the Palestinians have an Authority, and an optimist might still hold out hope that there’s a way forward on both fronts. Castro […]

Castro’s resignation letter published in Granma: Message from the Commander in Chief Dear compatriots: Last Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this now is rather a message. The moment has come to nominate and elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and Secretary. For many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95% of the people with the right to cast a […]

Municipal elections are upcoming in France in the next weeks. A front-page headline on the subject in the weekend edition (Feb. 17-18) of the daily Le Monde would undoubtedly shock many readers of traditional English-language new sources. “Municipal Elections,” it reads, “Banlieues on the Right, Downtown on the Left.” Banlieues on the Right? The very word “banlieues” became widely-known to English speakers last year not only on account of the violence with which the outskirts of France’s major urban centers are regularly afflicted, but also because of the supposed hatred of their residents for the presidential candidate of the French […]

From the State Department: U.S. Recognizes Kosovo as Independent StateSecretary Condoleezza RiceWashington, DCFebruary 18, 2008 The United States has today formally recognized Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state. We congratulate the people of Kosovo on this historic occasion. President Bush has responded affirmatively to a request from Kosovo to establish diplomatic relations between our two countries. The establishment of these relations will reaffirm the special ties of friendship that have linked together the people of the United States and Kosovo. Nine years ago, the international community, led by NATO, acted to end brutal attacks on the Kosovar Albanian population. […]

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo, the separatist province of Serbia, is making nervous preparations for adeclaration of independence on Sunday: “Independence is ready,” says a government poster. Sunday is thought the most likely delcaration day because it is followed by a national holiday in the United States to mark President’s Day. This timing could stop Russia, which opposes independence, from immediately calling an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council in New York, which it would have to do within an unofficial three-hour time limit. Such immediate high-level opposition could easily fuel disorder and violence, with the Albanian majority eager to […]

Michael Martens, reporting from Pristina in Tuesday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, writes the following on the International Civilian Office (ICO) with which the EU is hoping to replace the current U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK): It will be the task of the office to oversee the implementation of the Ahtisaari Plan for Kosovo independence, even if Western diplomats are attempting to minimize the significance of the ICO: the time of the international protectorate is supposed to be past and, according to the official interpretation in Brussels, the Kosovars are supposed to govern alone. In fact, however, the head of the ICO […]

From the University of Maryland’s WorldPublicOpinion.org: A majority of Pakistanis (64%) say that stability and security in Pakistan would get better “if President Musharraf were to resign now,” according to a new poll conducted by GlobeScan for BBC Urdu. One in four (25%) respondents believes that security would get “worse” if he were to resign. Nearly a third (29%) of respondents regard Pervez Musharraf’s election as President last November as “valid”; while around half (49%) say it is “invalid” (22% did not provide an answer). Almost two out of three Pakistanis (63%) agree that the “National Assembly should seek to […]

Wired’s Danger Room has the scoop and links galore. As Danger Room notes, a key question is: Will China view this as a response to their January 2007 anti-satellite test? A related question: How might this affect recent joint Russian and Chinese efforts to restrict the deployment of weapons in space. WPR contributor Richard Weitz recently examined those Russian-Chinese initiatives. Here’s an excerpt: The publication of an unclassified version of the new U.S. National Space Policy in October 2006 evoked deep concern in Moscow and Beijing. Although the policy acknowledges the value of international cooperation in space and the right […]

Rumors that Lousiana Gov. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal could be on Sen. John McCain’s short list for vice president have set the press in India abuzz. The Times of India reported Feb. 12 that “interested parties from India ever ready to drum up an Indian-American success story” have latched on to the idea of Jindal as Republican VP candidate. Right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh was apparently the first to float Jindal’s name, remarking on on his Feb. 8 show that Jindal could be the “next Ronald Reagan.” According to Limbaugh, Jindal would be a stellar choice for VP and could […]

Two stories involving Russia from this morning’s Media Roundup caught our eye. First, Russia and Ukraine avoided a confrontation over gas, but the former Soviet republic’s flirtation with NATO caused Vladimir Putin to threaten targeting the country with nuclear missiles. Meanwhile, the LA Times reports that the “Pentagon is trying to assess whether a low-level flight by a Russian bomber over American warships in the Pacific Ocean last weekend was a sign that Moscow is returning to a worrisome ‘Cold War mind-set.’” The LA Times article mentions tensions over the U.S. missile defense system and Washington’s “strengthened relations with Ukraine, […]

Ehud Olmert visited Berlin this week, and the Jerusalem Post used the occasion to publish an analysis on a key source of tension between Germany and Israel: the former’s economic relations with Iran. The Post quoted a World Politics Review piece by John Rosenthal at length in its analysis: . . . Olmert’s visit, and the pressing threat of a nuclear-armed Teheran, exposed the fault lines in German-Israel relations. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is Germany’s solid economic relationship with the mullahs. Perhaps in an effort to blunt the damage caused by Germany’s technological and material support for the […]

Editor’s Note: The following photos are a supplement to Anastasia Moloney’s Feb. 7 report on the anti-FARC march in Bogotá. All photos by Anastasia Moloney. Effigies of FARC leaders. This marcher’s sign says FARC stands for “Ferocious Assassin Rat Cowards” There was widespread anti-Hugo Chávez sentiment on display. More anti-Chavez sentiment: this time FARC stands for “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Chávez” Among the posters of FARC kidnap victims that lined the march route were pictures of the three American contractors who remain in FARC custody.

In a recent report on the German media’s coverage of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ letter to the German defense minister, John Rosenthal noted that one German Green Party officials said Gates’ letter “represented a ‘relapse’ to the ‘Rumsfeld period.’” Fred Kaplan’s must-read profile of Gates in Sunday’s New York Times magazine makes it clear just how inapt that comparison is. The traits that “distinguish Gates from his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld,” according to Kaplan, are “caution as opposed to brashness, attention more to particulars than to grand theory and a view of history as a set of warning bells, not an […]

Did French forces participate in the defense of N’Djamena against the rebel forces that attacked the Chadian capital earlier this month? The title of an article in last Friday’s edition of Le Monde suggests that they did not: “Chad: Paris Decided Not to Intervene.” But the details of the article indicate exactly the opposite. The article cites unnamed French government sources, at least one of whom is supposed to have taken part in the government’s deliberations. Here a translation of the key paragraph: Confronted by the attack of the Chadian rebels, the French President chose at first to stick to […]

The reactions of German politicians and media commentators to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s request for troop support in southern Afghanistan are striking not only for the virtual unanimity with which the request has been rejected, but above all for their virulence. The reactions were sparked by two reports that appeared on the same day (Jan. 31) in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and in the Spiegel. The reports referred to a letter from Gates to German Minister of Defense Franz Josef Jung. Whereas the Sueddeutsche Zeitung described the tone of Gates’s letter as “unusually sharp,” unnamed “Ministry of Defense circles” […]