WPR Blog Archive

In the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in May, I described China’s press management as controlled transparency, and mentioned that the cautious manner in which it allowed the world to see its domestic tragedy reflected a lot about how comfortable China was, or wasn’t, with its newfound status. The same obviously goes for the upcoming Olympic Games, and by every indication, China still has some ground to cover. With the opening of the Games just days away, the news has now leaked that Beijing has backtracked on its commitment to press freedom, restricting access to Internet websites ranging from the […]

Meanwhile, you gotta hand it to him. When Vlad talks, people listen.

Finally, something we can agree about with the Russians.

Whether or not the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran “backed” Iran’s nuclear program (the joint declaration adopted at the summit’s end simply “. . .reaffirmed the basic and inalienable right of all states, to develop research, production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.”), the fact that the meeting took place in Tehran did send me back to this quote from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent interview with Brian Williams: Well, the world — the doors rather of the larger world are not closed to us. This is a great and mighty country, a great nation with a great […]

Turkey was awash in rumors yesterday, as news leaked of a secret meeting last Sunday between President Abdullah Gul and PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the home of an AKP lawmaker. The unprecedented meeting provoked speculation that the two had been tipped off to an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling and were planning the AKP’s response. Instead, the Court announced today that the ruling AKP party narrowly survived a case that could have resulted in it being closed and its prominent members (including PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan) banned from holding office. Significantly, the Court actually voted in favor of closure, six […]

Matthew Yglesias calls John McCain’s refusal to commit to ordering a U.S. strike on Osama bin Laden in Pakistan were we to have actionable intelligence on his whereabouts bizarre. It’s also inconsistent with these comments McCain made in an interview with the editors of Defense News last October: Q: Does the U.S. have any options with regard to al-Qaida and reputed al-Qaida strongholds in the federally unregulated areas in Pakistan? Other than what seems to be sort of a status quo of waiting for them to come over the border, the Pakistani Army occasionally launching a strike to — well, […]

Kevin Drum’s got a smart post on the likelihood of President Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki reaching a deal on a status of forces agreement that was recently believed to be dead in the water. Here’s the key quote from the WSJ article Kevin flags: Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national-security adviser, said the recent agreement between Washington and Baghdad on a withdrawal time horizon is pushing the talks along. “That mutual understanding has been very beneficial,” he said. “Neither of us can deal with open-ended uncertainty.” The Iraqis are still pushing for a 2010 date, in line with Barack Obama’s […]

My previous post on Obama’s Berlin crowd numbers has been discussed on many blogs and internet forums.In such discussions,the most common response of those defending the widely-cited 200,000 number is that it comes, after all, from the Berlin police department and the latter can hardly be suspected of colluding with the Obama campaign. (See, for instance, the lengthy discussion on Michelle Malkin’s blog here and the numerous comments of one “chapoutier.”) In German, this sort of attitude is called Autoritätsgläubigkeit — faith in authority — and in German history, it has not always led to the best consequences. Be that […]

At the final Council of Ministers before the August vacation, Nicolas Sarkozy invited his entire government to share a going away toast in a salon of the Elysée Palace. There, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy offered them each a dedicated copy of her latest CD, which they all prominently displayed before the press upon leaving. Gotta love it. The degree to which France has remained obsessed with Sarkozy is truly fascinating. He’s consistently the cover story of the weekly news magazines, alternately calculatingly omnipotent or hystericaly powerless, but always front and center. But perhaps more fascinating is France’s newfound obsession with Carla Bruni, […]

I’ve been trying to put the weekend’s string of horrible terrorist attacks out of India, Turkey and Iraq into some sort of context, and Daniel Larison’s insightful post on the question of time-based vs. conditions-based withdrawal from Iraq is a good place to start: Meanwhile, the horrific attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk offer a reminder why so-called “conditions-based” withdrawals are forever subject to revision and why timetables that can be revised by such contingencies are meaningless. Tying withdrawal to conditions in Iraq places U.S. policy at the mercy of the worst elements in Iraq, which gives these elements every incentive […]

Via Abu Muqawama, a Stars and Stripes write-up of the firefight that left nine American soldiers dead in Afghanistan two weeks back. It’s a stark reminder of the reality of war, the one that’s fought on the ground. Kip from AM concludes: Counterinsurgency may be a thinking man’s war, but it remains a fighting man’s war. The essence of force remains the same, described by Rupert Smith as “both the physical means of destruction–the bullet, the bayonet–and the body that applies it.” A valiant and successful defense of a position against an overwhelming enemy, executed by brave Americans who have […]

WASHINGTON — Restoring the nuclear non-proliferation regime’s credibility requires a mix of preventative measures and increased enforcement capabilities, witnesses said during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-Proliferation and Trade last Thursday. According to Harvard Professor Graham Allison, a manifestly global demand for low-cost alternative energy has propelled a “nuclear renaissance.” States are investing more resources into nuclear energy research and cooperation pacts at an unprecedented speed, albeit oftentimes to the detriment of nuclear security and safety regulations He said most of the burden to police these new deals should fall upon the IAEA. Increased […]

Yesterday’s explosions in Istanbul that killed 17 people and injured more than 150 others took place in the context of the extremely tense Supreme Court deliberations that could outlaw Turkey’s ruling moderate Islamic AKP party. (The Hurriyet article I flagged points out that the Court has other options at its disposal that range from dismissing the case, as the non-binding court reporter recommended, to simply imposing a fine or removing the party’s public financing.) At the risk of oversimplifying, the case grows out of the longstanding tug of war between Turkey’s increasingly popular religious parties and its “old guard” secular […]

After relatively quick negotiations about the terms and format of the talks, Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe began official talks with MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in South Africa. Terms included that neither party talk to the press, and the time-frame is a surprisingly short two weeks. One reason for the quick turnaround could be that Mugabe’s regime is anxious to sort things out so it can make a case for the lifting of some sanctions. The London-based Guardian and SW Radio Africa both report that the government is running out of the special paper required to print cash. The banknotes […]

The AP via Iran Focus is reporting that Iranian Vice-President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh “signalled” that Tehran would no longer cooperate with the IAEA following his meeting with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei: Investigating such allegations “is outside the domain of the agency,” he said after meeting with ElBaradei. Any further queries on the issue “will be dealt with in another way,” he said, without going into detail. At the same time, according to Alalam News, Aghazadeh expressed optimism regarding the possibility of reaching a negotiated settlement to the issue: “Both sides have received the messages of the other side and are […]

To follow up briefly on Judah’s post on realism vs. idealism in Obama’s policies and character, I just wanted to point out the passage from the Berlin speech that perhaps provides the most cause for worry that an Obama administration might fail to recognize that, as Judah says, now is a moment for restraint in American foreign policy: Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time? Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter […]

Alex Taurel and Shadi Hamid have a CSM op-ed discussing what’s at stake in the upcoming Turkish Supreme Court judgment on the ruling AKP party’s legal status. I agree that a ruling outlawing the extremely popular and effective reformist party would send a horrible message to moderate Islamic parties trying to integrate the democratic process throughout the region. Taurel and Hamid don’t mention it, but it would also come at a very inopportune time, as Turkey is becoming an increasingly active and helpful regional actor. So I hope and imagine that we’re trying to influence the outcome in some way […]