WPR Blog Archive

In case it isn’t obvious, I’ve had some trouble writing about Haiti. Much of what I could possibly say goes without saying, and I don’t feel the urge to add my own version of what everyone is feeling while reading and watching the coverage of this terrible, unfolding tragedy. The scale of the human suffering is staggering. As always, I’m struck by how this natural disaster is exacerbated by so many man-made disasters. And as always, I’m struck by the range of human reactions — from the solidarity and heroism of the rescuers, to the violence and predatory behavior that […]

Here are a few of this week’s highlights from WPR’s video section: – Google has threatened to pull out of China after suspicious cyber-attacks on its products in the country. WSJ breaks down the situation from Hong Kong in this video. – Special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell says peace is possible in the region during this interview with Charlie Rose. – India and Bangladesh are improving relations as Bangladesh cracks down on separatist rebels and India welcomes the Bangladeshi prime minister. Al Jazeera explains in this video. – North Korea’s call for peace talks was swiftly shut […]

Human rights advocates around the globe are cheering an announcement from Google, Inc. that it will no longer censor content in China, following a cyber attack on its infrastructure that originated there. The move could force the company’s withdrawal from the Chinese market. Google believes the goal of the attack was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates. “We can only welcome the courage shown by Google’s executives. A foreign IT company . . . is standing up to the Chinese authorities, who keep clamping down more and more on the Internet,” Reporters Without Borders said in […]

If you’re wondering how to say, “scathing,” in blog-ese, look no further: The Security Crank, at his cranky best, counts the ways in which former ISAF commander Gen. David McKiernan got majorly shafted. (And believe me, there are more than you probably realize.) All of which reminds me of the one-year window of opportunity often referred to last July to turn things around in Afghanistan. Six months later, the information ops campaign, at least, seems to be on track to deliver.

Kari and I have been following the Futenma base issue in the Leading Indicators roundup for a while now. After initially appearing to put the screws on the Hatoyama government now that the issue has become a domestic hornets’ nest, the U.S. appears to be giving Tokyo the breathing room it requires to navigate the wreckage. Tobias Harris explains why this is a smart move, as well as what’s driving Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Asia-centric vision of a renovated U.S.-Japan alliance. The choice isn’t between a close or distant bilateral relationship, but rather between one that is relevant to the […]

In his WPR column a few weeks back, David Axe called attention to South Korea’s promised troop deployment to Afghanistan, and it bears repeating, because I think it’s actually one of the more significant “quiet moves” to emerge recently. For more background on Seoul’s decision in the context of the U.S.-ROK alliance, see this March 2009 WPR briefing by Nirav Patel (itself based on this CNAS report). For a more ROK-centric analysis, there’s also this Asia Foundation article by Michael Finnegan — who notes that the operational capabilities the deployment will provide could have potential applications on the Korean Peninsula […]

Until last week, I was among those who didn’t believe that 9/11 had really “changed everything.” I still don’t think it irrevocably altered global geopolitics, certainly not as much as the U.S. reaction to it did. But in the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day terrorist plot, I was struck by the degree to which 9/11 really did change America. The Yemen frenzy, which seems to be subsiding, nevertheless revealed the extent to which America’s foreign policy and defense posture has gone micro, with engagement conceived of less in terms of actors (i.e., a country’s government and military), and more […]

The global economy wasn’t the only thing that contracted in 2009. Intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists around the world helped make 2009 a “rights recession,” watchdog group Freedom House says in its “Freedom of the World 2010” report. 2009 was the fourth consecutive year of decline, the longest continuous downward slide Freedom House has ever recorded. The group also noted that analysis of data between 2005 and 2009 shows “there have been growing pressures on freedom of expression, including press freedom, as well as on civic activists engaged in promoting political reform and respect for human […]

True story: On Dec. 23, while passing through airport security at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport en route to LA, my 8-year-old son was called over by a French security agent, who asked to see his backpack. I’d let the Lil’ Feller pack his own carry-on that morning, and sure enough, as the X-ray machine had revealed, in there with his markers and pencils, he’d included his brand-new, pointy tipped compass. As the guard examined it, I explained to my son that we’d have to throw it away, while assuring the guard that it was no big deal since we’d […]

I remember catching this one with some high school pals in an all-but-empty Times Square theater back when it was first released. Of course, back then, Times Square was still Times Square, which is to say you could still, um, treat your chemo-related nausea in a movie theater. Contrary to what some of my friends maintain, that does not explain my undying love for this flick. It actually happens to be one of the greatest B-movies ever made — and I’m something of a B-movie buff. There’s at least two doctoral dissertations waiting to be written on it, one on […]

In a WPR Briefing from earlier this week, Nicolas Nagle discussed some of the tensions Germany’s Afghanistan deployment is causing within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new coalition government. This Der Spiegel article offers some further detail, and suggests that there’s essentially open warfare between Foreign Minister Guido Westerwalle, who is hostile to any troop increase, and Defense Minister Theodor zu Guttenberg, who is pushing to add up to 2,000 more troops. This goes a long way to explaining why Germany insisted on waiting until the Afghanistan Conference in London later this month before responding to President Barack Obama’s call for more […]

Instructions: For bracketed text, insert information where needed, or circle what most accurately describes your opinion. (And be forewarned, there is a surprise kicker to this post that you should read only after completing the exercise.) I know so little about [Country X] that I can’t even pretend to be an expert about it. But [Obscure Specialist Y], who blogs at [recently discovered Blog Z], does know a lot about it, and what [s/he] has to say about it jibes with this [Washington think tank] policy paper that I read immediately after I saw the news about [recent national security […]

U.S. President Barack Obama has proclaimed January 2010 to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and called for greater public awareness of the problem. An estimated 27 million people worldwide are trapped as victims of human trafficking, according to Not for Sale, an anti-slavery advocacy group. The black market slave trade is lucrative, worth an estimated $9 billion a year, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “We must join together as a nation and global community to provide . . . safe haven by protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers,” Obama said in the official proclamation, so […]

There is an ongoing dialogue here at WPR centering on subject tags for our stories. The utilitarian function of these tags is so that readers can quickly find content relating to their interests. But as we try to narrow complex issues down to easily searchable one- and two-word topics, we often find ourselves grappling with questions of politics and geopolitics. The question popped up once again today, triggered by Frida Ghitis’ column on Iran sanctions: Should stories on Iran’s nuclear program be placed in the “WMD” category or the “Energy” category? Although the column doesn’t really call for one or […]

If you haven’t read them yet, take a look at Richard Weitz’s WPR column on China’s interest in overseas naval bases and Saurav Jha’s WPR briefing examining China’s “third island chain” strategy. When you’re done, take a second, too, to read Hugh White and Sam Roggeveen, both at the Interpreter, on China’s aircraft carrier ambitions. White argues that China is unlikely to follow the orthodox path to great naval power status, because, as he says, it would be dumb to do so. It’s a cost-intensive move at a time when the naval environment favors denial over control. And Jha’s article […]

Not a good week for European military aircraft. According to a Jean-Dominique Merchet scoop, Brazil’s air force has completed its review of the three fighter jets competing for a 36-plane, $2.5 billion tender. The report, which has not yet been made public, allegedly ranks the French-built Rafale third, behind the Swedish Gripen and the American F-18. That, after Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva all but sealed the deal for the Rafales during French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Brasilia last September. According to Merchet, the tug-of-war between the political and military decision-makers has turned nasty, with the military chiefs […]

I’m glad Graeme Dobell at the Interpreter flagged this Newsweek joint interview with Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger, because it’s a pretty fascinating discussion of the mechanics of the job, sprinkled with a healthy dose of the mental preparation that goes into it as well. One thing that caught my eye was the list of long-term trend lines that Clinton mentioned watching, issues about which regular readers of WPR will be pretty well-informed: food security (here and here, for instance), the geopolitics of the Arctic (here and here), global health governance, and EU energy policy. Nice to see that the […]