WPR Blog Archive

Reading through this European Voice article by Richard Gowan and Bruce Jones (it’s sub. req., but Global Dashboard has a write-up here), I can’t help but think that the G-8 would be more relevant if it returned to its exclusive Euro-Atlantic roots, as opposed to the neither/nor affair it has become. As Gowan and Jones explain, U.S.-EU splits prevent any broader agreements from being reached with the emerging powers, while the broader format prevents the U.S. and EU from meaningfully hashing out their differences. They argue for maintaining the current format, while simply doing a better job of organizing it. […]

I somehow overlooked Jim Molan’s outstanding assessment of the state of play in Afghanistan in my daily read of the Interpreter, but luckily caught it the second time around thanks to the gang at SWJ. Molan, a retired Australian general, says everything there is to be said for the time being — namely that, rhetoric and opinion shaping to the contrary, we’re in a holding pattern in Afghanistan. According to his estimates, we’ll need to triple troop levels before we break out of that holding pattern, and the necessary resources will come from the U.S., not NATO. That pretty much […]

Zimbabwean authorities reportedly plan to withdraw the army from the Marange diamond-mining fields following a request by investigators from the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme to suspend production and exports from the area over security and rights concerns. As I noted in a previous post, human rights advocates have charged the army with murder, torture, coercion and endorsing the use of child labor in the area. Rights groups also claim that funds from the sale of Zimbabwean diamonds — estimated to be worth over $200 million a month — routinely make their way into the financial war chest of President Robert […]

This looks like the beginning of the endgame: A highly respected mediator, no redline preconditions and a proposed face-saving measure to at least get Zelaya back into the country (even if it does look a bit like he’s being hung out to dry). Although I’m not convinced the OAS and international stance was the right one, as a friend of mine is fond of reminding me, being right is over-rated. If the situation is resolved through a mutually agreed-upon legal process, then the multilateral consensus — to which the Obama administraiton quickly and resolutely signed on to — served that […]

I mentioned yesterday that President Barack Obama explained the START follow-on agreement in terms of shoring up the credibility of the NPT. That suggests to me that the arms treaty is not a a bargaining chip to get Russia on board for a tougher stance on Iran, but rather a way to address Iran’s accusations that the U.S. applies the obligations of the NPT selectively. On the other hand, I just noticed that in his speech yesterday, Obama directly linked the logic of European-based missile defense with Russia’s willingness to apply meaningful pressure on Iran. That’s as close as anything […]

There are still a lot of question marks surrounding the violence in Xinjiang. Two things, though, seem obvious. First, this is the sort of deferred maintenance China will be facing for quite a while with regards to transforming its inchoate territory into a truly coherent nation. (Tibet is the other obvious flashpoint.) The costs will remain significant in terms of power investsed, both hard (domestically, in terms of security forces) and soft (abroad, in terms of pushing back against international pressure). And it points to the degree to which the risk of violent conflict involved in China’s rise will manifest […]

The Italians can be remarkably thin-skinned when it comes to foreign coverage of their country and leaders. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been battling the international media for years. Most recently, he accused the London Times of attempted character assassination with its stories about his alleged gallivanting with young girls. But it goes further back than Berlusconi. In the late 1970s, the Red Brigades terrorized the country, corruption was widespread, and questions were raised whether Italy was indeed governable. The Economist magazine published a story with the cover headline, “Italy in Agony.” Italians were enraged: they read it as Italy […]

There’s a very strong case to be made for tempering expectations regarding U.S.-Russia relations. Nikolas Gvosdev, in particular, dials in on the key faultline, which has to do with Iran and energy. But the energy in question is gas, not nuclear. Which is why this, from Christian Brose, on the agreement to agree on a START follow-on agreement, misses the point: Obama has just invested a lot of time and effort to secure an agreement to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles to a level that could still annihilate the world several times over. This may be an achievable goal, […]

World Politics Review managing editor Judah Grunstein appeared on Bloggingheads with Will Ferroggiaro of the Fund for Peace, to discuss the use and perception of American power. The full video can be seen here. Below is the segment on European expectations of America:

It used to be said that the one thing an ambassador could always count on while serving in a foreign capital was good housing. For Iceland’s envoys in Washington, New York, London, Ottawa and Tokyo that will no longer apply — and the sooner the better, as far as the government in Reykjavik is concerned. As part of its efforts to repair Iceland’s devastated economy, the government has put the “For Sale” sign on all five embassy residences, in the hopes of raising at least $20 million. The plan to sell the 10-bedroom mansion that serves as the Icelandic residence […]

“Otherstates indicate themselves in their deputies . . . . but the genius ofthe United States is not best or most in its executives orlegislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churchesor parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors . . . but alwaysmost in the common people. Their manners speech dress friendships –the freshness and candor of their physiognomy — the picturesquelooseness of their carriage . . . their deathless attachment to freedom– their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean — thepractical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizensof all […]

World Politics Review will not be publishing tomorrow, July 3. Enjoy the Fourth of July weekend, and check back in on Monday.

Good stuff from Faith Smith at the Washington Note, on what’s at play in Honduras: And so the showdown begins. On one side we have Zelaya backed by theinternational community and on the other is the government of Hondurasbacked by the majority of its 7.5 million citizens; an unfair fight for sure. What’s most fascinating to me about the above is how in and of itself, it leads you to a pretty obvious assumption. Substitute Zimbabwe for Honduras, for instance, and former opposition leader (now prime minister) Morgan Tsvangirai for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and your case makes itself. […]

Chinese bloggers and artists, and rights advocates around the globe, are celebrating Beijing’s postponement of a wildly unpopular plan to mandate the inclusion of filtering software in all computers sold in China as of July 1. The decision to postpone the “Green Dam Youth Escort” program — which Chinese officials described as a concerted effort to address pornography on the Internet — followed weeks of massive domestic and international pressure over concerns the software would serve as a vehicle to increase state censorship. The move may also have been in recognition of the fact that computer companies’ needed more time […]

Found this via Sam Roggeveen at the Interpreter. (For those unfamiliar with the Interpreter, this farewell post by the Lowy Institute’s outgoing executive director is a fine introduction.) For whatever it’s worth, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been making noise about allowing French department stores to open on Sundays for a few years now. He just used Michelle Obama’s experience because he figured she’d make for a good marketing ploy. But he didn’t really think it through, because a great part of the Obama’s appeal is their down-to-earth image. Here, Sarkozy calls some of his VIP pals to get them […]

I think Matthew Yglesias is letting his desire to disagree with Michael Goldfarb get in the way of his judgment, because McDonald’s on the Champs Elysées is not “soft power.” And if “that kind of thing is the real strength of the United States of America,” it is a strength that reflects cultural hegemony, as Goldfarb implies, not influence. This gets to a growing misuse of the idea of “soft power,” which has to do with a nation’s ability to influence through attraction, not coercion. To begin with, the exercise of soft power for the most part resides in statecraft. […]

Brilliant. I wonder how they’ll tackle sexual harassment.