Diplomacy & Politics Archive

French President Nicolas Sarkozy once made headlines with the remark, “If Turkey were Europe, we would know it.” In July, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso gave voice to similar European sentiments in a Greek newspaper interview: “Let’s be honest,” he said, “Turkey is not ready to become an EU member and the EU is not ready to accept Turkey as a member. Neither tomorrow, nor the next day.” Despite the overwhelmingly positive European response to Erdogan’s recent triumph at the polls, and calls to revamp Turkey’s political and economic reforms by European leaders, one fact remains clear: Turkey’s membership […]

The majority of the English-language media outside of India have been notably tentative about accepting the obvious premise that the recent mob attack on eight Indians in the eastern German town of Mügeln was a racist attack. (See the earlier WPR report here.) To the extent they have, however, virtually all have framed the issue of racism and xenophobia in Germany as a specifically “East German problem.” CNN, for example, noted that “since German re-unification in 1990, racist violence has broken out sporadically in the poorer east of the country.” A Reuters report used a similar formula: “Eastern Germany has […]

DENPASAR Indonesia — The long overdue reform of the murky Indonesian intelligence service, Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN), could be spurred by revelations emerging in the trial of the alleged killer of the country’s top human right activist. Munir Said Thalib, known simply as Munir, died from arsenic poisoning while on a flight on Garuda, Indonesia’s national airline, from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore on Sept. 7, 2004. Pollycarpus Budi Priyanto, an off-duty pilot who travelled on the same flight to Singapore, was first jailed for the murder, but then acquitted in October 2006 by the Supreme Court due to lack […]

Whatever consequences might ensue from the election of Abdullah Gul as Turkey’s new president, a change of direction in Turkey’s relations with Russia is unlikely to be one of them. Since the government, led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) took office in 2002, Turkey has been drifting eastward — but not toward the Islamic world. Ankara’s disputes with European countries over Turkey’s proposed entry into the European Union and with Washington over U.S. policies toward northern Iraq have weakened Turkey’s traditional westward orientation. In the east, however, the AKP government has been more eager to cultivate relations with […]

LONDON — Advocates of a global overhaul of efforts to meet the needs of the world’s 850 million chronically hungry people have received a boost with the decision by CARE, a top U.S. aid organization, to walk away from tens of millions of dollars in annual U.S. federal financing. In opting out of the mechanism by which donated U.S. food aid is transported overseas and sold in local markets to fund anti-poverty programs — a decades-old process known as monetization — CARE joins a growing number of international non-governmental and governmental groups demanding an end to a policy they say […]

For several years, Iranian officials have sought to strengthen their ties with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Iran became a formal observer nation at the July 2005 SCO summit, but the country’s leaders have continued to pursue full membership. In April 2007, the Iranian Foreign Ministry submitted an official application to this effect. Even before the seventh annual SCO summit convened in Bishkek on Aug. 16, however, the existing SCO full members announced that they would indefinitely postpone accepting new members. In the case of the SCO, a primary Iranian objective has been to keep other Eurasian countries from aligning […]

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad paid his first official visit to northern neighbor Azerbaijan last week (Aug.21-22), aiming to counter growing U.S. influence in the oil-rich country and forestall further advances on a move to allow American use of the Russian-operated Gabala Radar Station in Azerbaijan. Ahmedinajad and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev emphasized the ethnic, religious and economic ties between the two nations on the Caspian Sea, but security and defense issues were the focus of the talks. During the visit, during which five bilateral agreements were signed, both sides attempted to highlight the positive aspects of their […]

WASHINGTON — Recent changes in the leadership of two of the closest allies of the United States are altering the dynamic of the trans-Atlantic relationship in ways that would have seemed highly improbable a year ago. The election in early May of the pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy as president of the French Republic has rekindled relations between Paris and Washington, previously soured by differences over Iraq. At the same time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair in late June, used a U.S. trip to put new distance between his government and the Bush administration. The traditional close ties between […]

EARLY LAME DUCK — The resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday has reinforced the impression among foreign governments that with 15 months to go, the Bush administration is already in lame duck mode. Aside from Iraq, “nothing much is going on, not even for Afghanistan,” privately admits a senior U.S. official. Meanwhile, a Western diplomat said Karl Rove’s departure has triggered an exodus from the White House and the National Security Council. As a result, he said, “There are now more holes in the administration than in Swiss cheese.” Experienced foreign diplomats, accustomed to the lack of continuity from […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Forty-six days after leaving his native Pasto, Gustavo Moncayo arrived in Bogotá with nothing more than a white t-shirt bearing a picture of his son, a metal chain draped across his chest and a walking stick. Together with his two daughters, Moncayo walked over 1,000 kilometers to raise awareness and pressure the Colombian government and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to negotiate the release of his son and hundreds of other victims kidnapped by the guerrillas. Many FARC hostages have been held for years, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. SCHOLAR FREED ON BAIL; FUTURE UNCERTAIN — Iranian authorities released Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari Aug. 21 after securing more than $300,000 in bail, ending her 100 days in solitary confinement. Esfandiari, who is one of four dual citizens currently facing legal difficulties in Iran, will face legal proceedings at some point based on authorities’ charge that she endangered Iran’s national security by encouraging a “velvet revolution” to topple the current government, though Iranian authorities have […]

Just when life looked like it could not get any worse for the people of Gaza, the lights went out. With temperatures soaring into the mid-90s earlier this week, the power company supplying electricity to as many as half of the strip’s 1.4 million people ran out of fuel for several days. As with just about everything that happens in the Middle East, the problem boiled down to politics. Surprisingly, however, the decision leading to the cutoff of fuel shipments came from the European Union, shining a broiling hot spotlight on one of the dilemmas confronting the international community as […]

Before the United States and India can consummate their nuclear pact, a major hurdle remains: The guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) prohibit nuclear export to countries that, like India, lack full-scope safeguards. Many expected that, at Washington’s behest, the NSG would rubber stamp an exception for India — until Beijing hinted again this week that it might block such a rules change. The Nuclear Suppliers Group, a cartel of 45 nuclear fuel producing countries that coordinate export controls to non-nuclear-weapon states, is little known outside of nonproliferation circles but plays a critical role in limiting access to uranium […]

Asmaa Abdol-Hamid has made clear what she thinks of the Danish soldiers stationed in Iraq: They are occupying Iraq exactly like the Nazis occupied Denmark in the Second World War. Those who fight against them are, consequently, not terrorists, but freedom fighters, and their combat is absolutely justified. Abdol Hamid, who only appears in public with head and hair carefully veiled, is a candidate on the unified list formed by Socialists and Greens for the upcoming Danish Parliamentary elections. Her remarks in late July had immediate and wide-ranging consequences: The conservative politician Rasmus Jarlov filed charges against her for treason. […]

TOKYO — In a desperate attempt to jump-start the ruling party’s fortunes after a recent electoral drubbing, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to announce a reshuffle of his Cabinet next week. But it’s going to take more than that if he wants to breathe life into his premiership. Last month, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in the House of Councilors, which is now led by a member for the opposition for the first time in 50 years. The loss was hardly a surprise — the government’s poll numbers had been on the slide almost since […]

BAKU, Azerbaijan — In its latest effort to wean itself from dependence on the Middle East for its energy needs and to counter rival Russia’s influence in resource-rich Central Asia, the United States has signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to examine the feasibility of expanding the so-called Trans-Caspian Pipeline project to transport oil and gas from the region. The remote and isolated nations of Central Asia are the new playing field in the battle for control of the world’s dwindling resources of natural gas and crude oil, and Azerbaijan, wedged between Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea, is a […]

The Arab world is watching in disbelief — and growing concern — the recent spate of undiplomatic mudslinging between Syria and Saudi Arabia. Damascus and Riyadh have had tense relations for some time now, but the latest outburst, initiated by Damascus, left many looking towards Iran as the most plausible explanation for the renewed acrimony between these two Arab countries. It all began when Farouk al-Shara, the current Syrian vice president and former long-time foreign minister, gave a speech at Damascus University. Unexpectedly, al-Shara launched a scathing critique of Saudi Arabia’s influence in the Arab world, describing the Kingdom as […]