WPR Blog Archive

Earlier this month, I dashed off two posts (here and here) about the risk of counterinsurgency tactics used in Iraq making their way into domestic law enforcement. As I wrote at the time: Without goingoverboard or adopting a paranoid posture, I fear the integration ofcivilian policing with counterinsurgency campaigns will have a levelingeffect on both. That’s better for counterinsurgency campaigns than itis for civilian policing. Here’s Andrew Exum over at Abu Muqawama today: I just read in the newspaper that a fourth Oakland police officerhas died after being taken off of life support. A reader fromCalifornia wrote in a few […]

In many ways, Stephen Metz’s recent Small Wars Journal post is an echo of the ongoing debate over whether the ascendancy of counterinsurgency doctrine in the U.S. military will lead to a strategic shift towards more counterinsurgency wars of choice. COIN practitioners have argued that the enormous costs and complexities of counterinsurgency combined with the limited chances of success argue against widespread use. Their mantra is, Don’t confuse tactics with strategy. Metz, though, gives anecdotal evidence to the effect that the COIN focus on stabilizing states has already crept into the strategic assumptions of military futurists. He questions counterinsurgency not […]

Art Goldhammer also flags French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s double dis at the London G-20 summit: Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have nixed sideline meetings. Here’s Goldhammer: With no promise of domestic improvement, Sarkozy may well covet asplashy international occasion to demonstrate his indispensability, butthe dice haven’t been rolling his way since he stepped down from the EUpresidency. In all fairness to Sarkozy, his prime minister, François Fillon (who probably shouldn’t be left out of the 2012 “presidentiable” sweeptakes) just met with Obama’s vice president, Joseph Biden, yesterday in Washington, and the two presidents are scheduled […]

World Politics Review managing editor Judah Grunstein appeared on France 24’s short-form discussion program, Face Off, to discuss Pakistan and Afghanistan. The English-language segment can be found here. The French-language segment can be found here.

The more the EU digs into the outbreak of last August’s Russia-Georgia War, the worse things look for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. According to Der Spiegel, the paper trail seems to be leading back to Order No. 2, from Aug. 7, which the Russians claim to have intercepted, and which allegedly spoke of re-establishing “constitutional order” in the region. The formula was repeated word for word by a Georgian general, also on Aug. 7. Georgia, meanwhile, refuses to turn over the document in question, calling it a “state secret.” Meanwhile, a few weeks back I wondered whether the lack of […]

Art Goldhammer picks up on my post about a potential realignment in France’s domestic political landscape, adding the important insight that disaffection with French President Nicolas Sarkozy is not limited to his populist constituencies, but extends to his elite constituencies as well. Goldhammer suggests, and rightly so, that the scenario I outlined creates an opening for the French center left, as represented by the market-liberal elements of the Socialist Party. The circumstances of the global financial crisis also play better to a social democrat political agenda: a regulated but nonetheless free market combined with an improved, if not necessarily expanded, […]

MONROVIA, Liberia — While steering us through the melee of downtown traffic yesterday, a Liberian friend who runs a local NGO casually remarked that if the United States were to relax its visa restrictions, everyone in Liberia would pack their bags and head Stateside. I think he was only half-kidding. While there have been some positive signs of development — newly paved roads, more businesses and that most potent sign of economic empowerment, sushi bars — the situation for most Liberians seems pretty precarious. Last Thursday, Ellen Margarethe Løj, the U.N. special representative for Liberia, painted a pretty cautionary picture […]

This DefenseNews write-up of British Defense Minister John Hutton’s speech at the CSIS last week is revealing for a number of reasons. At first glance, Hutton’s prescription for a expansive NATO mission might seem to be at odds with France’s vision for an expansive EU defense mission, and therefore a preview of the battles to come over the alliance’s strategic vision. But what’s interesting is how the British and French broader strategic visions converge on the importance of forward defense (Afghanistan), rapid reaction capacity, and the need for a stronger European voice in its own security: The United States has […]

The NY Times takes a look around and doesn’t like what it sees. The reflexive reaction of protectionism is so obvious, and the globalized arguments against it so counterintuitive, that it’s hard to see where the kill switch is on this one. Part of this has to do with a failure to educate domestic opinion regarding globalization’s advantages during the boom times. But part of it has to do with a tendency among elites to minimize globalization’s very real downsides for a broad cross section of consitutencies. That had a lot to do with what I increasingly think of as […]

Defense Industry Daily has a very informative discussion of the export issues surrounding the controversial F-22 Raptor, all in the context of Japan as a potential purchaser. Now that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has all but put the kibosh on future DOD purchases, it’s only natural that the U.S. Air Force try to find ways of working within the export ban to extend the production run of the stealth fighter. So far the debate over the Raptor has been formulated in terms of what kind of force structure will best respond to America’s threat horizon. But the export question […]

In reading the anti-Sarkozy dossier in this week’s l’Express over the weekend, I was struck by how the peculiarities of the French political landscape make it particularly vulnerable to populist fallout from the financial crisis. There’s a depth of support here on both extremes of the political spectrum — whether the extreme-right of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front party (FN), or the far-left embodied by the eloquent Trotskyite mailman, Olivier Besancenot, and his New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) — that is abhorrent in the former case and aberrant in the latter. What that means in practical terms, though, is that the […]

This is anecdotal, but over the weekend, two friends with years’ worth of experience traveling to the United States mentioned that after the notable unpleasantness that characterized arriving in American airports during the Bush administration, the atmosphere had mellowed considerably on their most recent — i.e., post-Jan. 20 — trips. Both described not only a relaxation of the aggressive posture that for the past eight years bordered on hostility to those visiting the States, but also a welcoming attitude that they’d remembered from previous years. I don’t know if this is the result of my friends’ luck of the draw, […]

Today’s selection kind of sneaks in through the backdoor. It’s got no real association with foreign affairs to speak of, but it does mention two European countries, and it’s sung by the King, Elvis Presley. This performance is from the same 1972 tour that was recorded as a classic live album at Madison Square Garden. And it gives you an idea of the entire record: the funky bass walking all over the power-horn arrangements; the background singers filling in like a mini-choir; the all-over-the-place song selection — Also Sprach Zarathustra (the 2001 Space Odyssey theme) as an intro, Proud Mary, […]

Tom Barnett flags what he calls the U.S. military’s growing “independence,” citing in this case Gen. David Petraeus’ penchant for shaping opinion (once again, the COIN emphasis on narrative): What I find interesting: the trip to Afghanistan is arranged byPetraeus, meaning he generates his own public policy proponents fromoutside the government. That tells you something about how independent our military hasbecome as a result of the Long War: they field their own when it comesto op-ed conflicts. . . . . . [I]t really marks this era’s American military as beingdifferent from other militaries, as well as different from previousAmerican […]

Joshua Foust follows up on my “Afghanistan as Gated Community” remarks with a detailed post worth reading. Essentially, this time my literary deconstruction — typos and all — got closer to the mark. I’d like to take this opportunity to note that I’m aware of the limitations of what I can actually “know” about Afghanistan from reading open-source news and analysis from a distance. So there’s a real value of having someone in Foust’s position, there on the ground, who’s willing to weigh in on how close my impressions come to describing his experiences. Keeping in mind, too, that Foust’s […]

After a series of disputes over export subsidies and trade barriers, China and India agreed to form a working group (via 2point6billion) that will meet every few months to discuss trade issues. Score one for responsible management of trade disputes. Protectionism is not an inevitable response to the economic downturn. Send in anything you see, I’ll flag it.

In his WPR column on Wednesday, David Axe discussed the budding American-Chinese naval rivalry in the South China Sea-Indian Ocean. He called particular attention to the role India plays in American plans to check China’s naval ambitions in the region. Interesting to note, then, that four days after the USNS Impeccable incident off of Hainan Island, the State Dept. informed Congress it would license the sale of eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft to . . . drumroll, please . . . India. The $2.1 billion contract, which I flagged two months ago, is the largest U.S. weapons transfer […]