WPR Blog Archive

File this one under B, for Bad timing: Laura Rozen, from her new digs over at Politico (great pencil-drawing portrait!!), reports that the U.S.-UAE 123 nuclear agreement is due to escape congressional limbo in mid-October. The only potential wrench is concern over the UAE’s past history of lax export controls, in particular regarding potential diversion of controlled materials and technology to Iran. In other words, probably not the best time for a China-bound UAE cargo plane, stopping over for refueling in India, to not declare its cargo of arms and explosives. Apparently, the omisison resulted from a “technical error.” The […]

The systematic assault and rape of children in war zones has emerged as a central characteristic of conflict across the globe, and governments must do more to protect minors and punish perpetrators, the United Nations says in a new report (.pdf). The nature of conflict has changed in the last decade, the report charges, creating “new and unprecedented threats to children. In many of the new wars, especially in Asia and Africa, conflict remains internal and takes place in peripheral areas where access is difficult. In particular, children and other vulnerable segments of the civilian population are increasingly becoming the […]

Human rights advocates have applauded a Sept. 1 decision by a Chilean judge to issue arrest warrants for 131 former army soldiers and operatives of the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, on charges of rights violations during the Augusto Pinochet era. At least four dozen of the warrants are related to charges associated with Operation Colombo, a disinformation campaign widely believed to be aimed at hiding human rights abuses, and Operation Condor, a concerted disappearance campaign against dissidents carried out jointly by military regimes in the region. The order from Judge Victor Montiglio is the largest single human rights-related prosecution effort […]

A reader sent me the link to this RFE/RL story on the possibility of an Iranian “cultural revolution” designed to purge the universities of the Western social sciences: Khamenei, in a meeting with professors and Basijstudents on August 30, said that “many of the human sciences are basedon philosophies whose foundations are materialism and disbelief ingodly and Islamic teachings.” Now, the thing is, I don’t think Khamenei’s necessarily wrong on the merits. Maybe “disbelief” is too strong a word, since it’s possible to study human social relations scientifically while still embracing religion-based moral and ethical outcomes as a goal of […]

The news that the State Department has decided to terminate aid to Honduras — aid that had only been suspended previously — essentially translates into formally defining the removal of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as a coup. As Elizabeth Dickinson notes at the FP Passport blog, there are interests on both sides of this debate, and I find the argument of not being odd man out in Latin America right now compelling. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that in tacitly deprioritizing the problematic question of amending constitutions to extend term limits, the Obama administration weakens any efforts […]

This Thomas Rid analysis of the Afghanistan strategic debate has been making the rounds, and rightly so. It gets to the heart of why both sides of the argument are so hard to defend in a way that appeals to my Gemini nature — namely, because neither side is really wrong. Terrorism is simultaneously a global threat with local manifestations, the war against al-Qaida will simultaneously damage it while helping it attract new followers, etc. At best, the only thing we can conclude with certainty is that both approaches come with uncertain benefits and more certain costs, which leads to […]

Roma rights defenders in Europe have long struggled to gain traction against institutionalized discrimination targeting the ethnic group across Europe. Last week during a concert stop in Bucharest, Romania, international pop icon Madonna got a brief taste of what Roma advocates are up against. The “Material Girl,” who is employing Roma musicians and a dancer on her “Sticky and Sweet” tour, punctuated her recent performance in front of 60,000 Romanians with a call to end discrimination against Roma. The Bucharest crowd booed her in response. “It has been brought to my attention . . . that there is a lot […]

Just to clarify a bit on this previous post, the only national security interest in preventing a Taliban victory in Afghanistan is based on the premise that if they could return things to the status quo ante, they would continue to maintain a relationship with al-Qaida. I happen to agree that this is likely if they could “win” to that degree. But I’m not sure they could actually do that, especially if we maintain support to the Afghan National Army. It could also be that the al-Qaida leadership feels safer where they are now, or elsewhere, or a decentralized combination […]

As Richard Weitz mentioned in his WPR column on the IAEA’s Iran report yesterday, although Iran has increased the number of centrifuges in its enrichment facility, the number of centrifuges actually enriching uranium has decreased. So far, the speculative explanations have ranged from scheduled maintenance to technical difficulties to a political decision. This Le Monde article on Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili’s announcement that Iran has prepared a new proposal on its nuclear program and is willing to retsart negotiations with the P5+1, is the first time I’ve seen it suggested that the ambiguous slowdown could in principle be characterized […]

In response to George Will’s call to “offshore” the Afghanistan War, Joshua Foust makes an argument that had been buzzing around in my brain, since it presents quite a challenge to those, like Will but also like myself, who argue for an end to the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan: The trouble is, this describes Afghanistan, circa 1998-2004 or so. Itdidn’t work. In fact, I’ll take it a step further and say it actuallymade us worse off: relying solely on drones and cruise missiles to workfor us, we demonstrated we cannot assemble the necessary intelligencefor effective air strikes from satellites […]

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Poland today, joining other world leaders to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. But her thoughts are likely back here in Germany, where two days ago her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered major setbacks in state elections, possibly undermining Merkel’s hopes for a conservative Grand Coalition. In state elections held Sunday, four weeks before German federal elections, support for the conservative CDU dropped by more than 10 points in Saarland , a state along the French border, and Thuringia, in the former communist east. While the CDU […]