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Editor’s note: Ulrike Guérot is on a break. Guest columnist Richard Gowan will be writing the Continentalist while she is gone. A malaise has settled over diplomatic discussions of the Syrian civil war at the United Nations. Last week, there was confusion over whether the U.N. had a replacement for Kofi Annan as envoy to Damascus. Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi had been offered the post, but it was unclear whether he would accept it. While Brahimi eventually agreed to take the job, an anonymous U.N. source briefed that he wanted to get away from the “failed approach” tried by Annan. […]

BEIJING — For China, diversification away from the dollar is a strategic priority that implies more than simply adjusting the currency composition of its foreign reserves. It also involves a wide range of measures aimed at side-stepping the U.S. currency and promoting the use of renminbi (RMB) in trade and investment. Nowhere is this shift more strategically significant than in commodities markets, where Beijing is building out the physical and financial infrastructure required to establish the RMB as the dominant currency for commodities in Asia. China’s efforts to diversify away from the dollar have been multifaceted. It is buying proportionately […]

Late last month, China and South Korea agreed to establish a hotline between their respective defense chiefs. In an email interview, Jaeho Hwang, dean of the Division of International Studies at Hankuk University in South Korea, discussed the South Korea-China military relationship. WPR: What is the extent of the current military relationship between China and South Korea? Jaeho Hwang: Usually military relations are classified into three levels: military exchange, military cooperation and military alliance. The exchange level is the lowest level of military relations and includes the exchange of personnel, mutual exercises, aircraft and naval vessel visits and other less […]

South Korea unveils a new monument on a disputed Pacific island amid rising tensions with Japan. World News Videos by NewsLook

Eight policemen are killed and 15 injured in a suicide bomb attack in Russia’s restive Ingushetia, hours after a shooting in a mosque in neighboring Dagestan. Sunita Rappai reports. World News Videos by NewsLook

The Obama administration took office in 2009 with high hopes that it would be able to break the diplomatic stalemate over Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Now, as the Obama team finishes its fourth summer with no resolution to the nuclear imbroglio in sight, it is a good time to take stock of its efforts. Obama’s national security team wanted to break out of what it saw as a binary choice between having to learn to live with a nuclear Iran or using force to end the Iranian nuclear program. The possibility of a third way beckoned: duplicating the terms of […]

An ongoing standoff in Kenya’s Coast province between the central government and the secessionist Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) could make the region a flashpoint for next year’s elections. Formed in 1999 to address the region’s marginalization, the MRC was designated by the government as an organized criminal group in 2010. Claiming this action unconstitutional, the MRC filed a case with the High Court in Mombasa, which last month ruled in the MRC’s favor. Nevertheless, the MRC has maintained its threats to boycott and otherwise disrupt Kenya’s March 2013 presidential and parliamentary elections if its demands are not met. The polls […]

Regulators in Australia gave approval last month to the $30 billion Browse gas export project in the state of Western Australia. In an email interview, Vlado Vivoda, a research fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute at Griffith University, discussed Australia’s energy security. WPR: What is the breakdown of Australia’s energy consumption, in terms of fuel types and sources, and is there any policy strategy to shift the balance? Vlado Vivoda: Australia is mainly reliant on fossil fuels, which make up 96 percent of its primary energy demand. The largest source of energy is coal, with 40 percent, followed by oil, […]

Nine militants and one soldier were during the gun battle in an attack on one of Pakistan’s largest air bases. World News Videos by NewsLook

South America’s history throughout the 1980s and 1990s is littered with the names of now-defunct currencies, such as the Argentine austral and the Brazilian cruzeiro. Now, an old vulnerability is re-emerging as an economic and political Achilles’ heel for several South American governments: exchange rates. Some are clamping down on citizens’ purchases of U.S. dollars, in attempts to prop up local money and stem capital flight. Others are promoting central bank dollar purchases and sales, or deploying derivatives contracts, to manage volatile exchange rates. Whether deployed to defend currencies, such as the Argentine peso and Venezuelan bolívar, or smooth the […]

In the space of a few short days, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has pulled off a lightning-swift realignment of the country’s political map. On Aug. 12, Morsi assumed powers as vast as those of his predecessor, the deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak. And, incredibly, he did it without immediately triggering either street protests or a countermove by Egypt’s erstwhile all-powerful military. The curiously quiet reaction — a nonreaction, really — from the military suggests the soft coup did not happen in a vacuum: Morsi probably laid the groundwork within some sectors of the armed forces. But if that may explain the […]

After a visit to Beijing earlier this week by Chang Song Taek, a high-ranking North Korean official seen as a key influence on his nephew and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, China and North Korea announced that they had signed a number of agreements to enhance economic cooperation. According to the BBC, the two countries signed deals on the development of two special economic zones as well as on electricity supply and agricultural cooperation. For Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, the deals reflect the fact that China […]

In early July, Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), assembled Syrian Kurdish leaders in Irbil, Iraq, to broker a deal to unite Kurdish groups against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. By the end of the conference, the Supreme Kurdish National Council was born to represent Kurds in a post-Bashar al-Assad Syria. Turkey, which did not participate in the conference, initially welcomed the Kurdish unity: With the fall of Assad as the group’s primary goal, one that Turkey shares, unified Kurdish opposition would only hasten the end of the Syrian regime. However, Turkey’s perception of […]

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited France last month in an effort to improve the two countries’ strained bilateral relationship. In an email interview, Dorothée Schmid, head of the Turkey program at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), discussed France-Turkey relations. WPR: What explains the deterioration of Franco-Turkish relations over the past several years? Dorothée Schmid: Three main issues became contentious between France and Turkey over the past decade. In chronological order, the recognition of the Armenian genocide came first: The French Parliament passed a bill in 2001 officially calling the events of 1915 a genocide, triggering an immediate […]

A new television show in the United States called “Stars Earn Stripes” puts various B-grade “celebrities” through military training in order to illustrate what it’s like to serve in the most elite units in the U.S. military. This show might not have been a bad idea immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, when it seemed as if most Americans were largely ignorant of the roles and responsibilities of their military and its elite units. Such a show might have prompted more Americans to enlist in the military rather than follow the advice of their president and shop at the […]

For the first time in several decades, Iraq reclaimed its place as the second-largest OPEC oil producer in July. Iraq produced more than 3 million barrels per day (bpd) over the month, surpassing Iran, whose production fell to 2.9 million bpd. The development resulted from a combination of Iraq’s gradually increasing oil output and Iran’s decreasing production due to the growing impact of international sanctions on Iran’s energy production sector. During the past five years, Iran’s oil production has decreased by about 1 million bpd due to various multinational and unilateral sanctions on its commercial activities. Meanwhile, Iraq’s output has […]

Volunteer doctors have converted a hostel near the Turkey-Syria border into a makeshift clinic to treat those fleeing violence in Syria. World News Videos by NewsLook