Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Iraq’s refugees tell heartbreaking accounts of suffering, displacement, and shattered dreams, but these refugees represent more than mere human interest stories. Collectively, the outpouring of millions of Iraqi refugees into a very small number of neighboring countries poses a dramatic security threat to the Middle East, and there is no sign that threat is going away. In the lead up to the Iraq war, most of the U.S. government discussion about refugees assumed that refugee flows would be sudden, massive and brief. When more than a million Kurds fled Iraq into Turkey and Iran in 1991 to avoid Saddam’s wrath, […]

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — As the third day of a military crackdown on protestors begins in Burma, the mass movement is at a critical juncture. Following the arrests of hundreds of monks in the past two days, the demonstrations that had reached a peek participation of around 100,000 earlier in the week have simmered down, though tens of thousands are still marching. Meanwhile, reports on the ground indicate Burmese military forces are massing in Yangon and the administrative capital at Naypyidaw. Government crackdowns against protesters escalated early Thursday when large-scale pre-dawn raids on Buddhist monasteries throughout Yangon were carried out […]

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may have surprised many within his own Liberal Democratic Party with his decision to resign, but the party showed it was capable of pulling off a surprise of its own by choosing veteran lawmaker Yasuo Fukuda as its new leader. Most observers had expected former Foreign Minister Taro Aso to succeed Abe, including the financial markets, which actually saw a jump in the stock prices of manga-related firms in expectation that manga fan Aso was set to take over. But Aso’s closeness to Abe, and his determination to stand by the embattled prime […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Ever since Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stepped in to act as a mediator between rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government, hopes have been raised about the possibility of brokering a deal to secure the release of high-profile hostages held by the guerrilla group. But difficult obstacles to an agreement remain. Chavez’s active role has been enthusiastically welcomed by the international community, the Colombian government and by the FARC. “President Chávez’s . . . ability, his shrewdness, and the prestige he has gained on the continent will help to resolve the […]

When I heard the news that protesting Buddhist monks in Burma had managed to reach the home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week, a wave of cold dread washed over me. My mind traveled back to the time a few years ago when I tried to reach Suu Kyi’s home on University Avenue in Rangoon (now named Yangon by the brutal military rulers of Burma, itself renamed Myanmar by the same illegitimate government). My thoughts then moved further back in time, to 1988, when street protests led by the astonishing Suu Kyi ended in tragedy. By some […]

AT THE UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK — The fanfare that opens the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session is played on the sirens of New York police cars trying to clear a path through Manhattan traffic for the motorcades of visiting world leaders. New Yorkers are resigned to this autumnal ritual that causes midtown streets to be closed and fills the city’s hotels to capacity — at prices inflated for the occasion. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where President Bush overnighted Monday while in town to deliver the inaugural address the following morning became a fortress, surrounded by hundreds of New York’s […]

MADRID, Spain — Let justice takes its course: A fine phrase to cap an argument, but not one you’re likely to hear from Europeans in a state of high moral dudgeon over terrorists being confined in cages at Guantanamo. From the objectionists, expect no more than a glare in reply to the question, “Well, then, what would you do to keep terrorists from killing more innocent people?” A minority, however, will sometimes make a profession of faith in civilized Europe’s instruments and institutions for administering justice, based on due process and humane and corrective sanctions for the guilty. That is […]

Recent weeks have seen intense interest displayed in the English-language media to signs of a potential reorientation of French foreign policy under new President Nicolas Sarkozy. Following the publication earlier this month of former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine’s report to the President on France and “Globalization” — which, as the extensive extracts published on World Politics Review show, was largely misinterpreted by the media as a plea for change — some seemingly improvised remarks by current French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner gave renewed impetus to such discussions. During an hour-long interview on the French talk show “Grand Jury” on […]

Since taking office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has articulated a new paradigm to structure Western engagement with Africa. This paradigm dispels the idea that Africa is a sick and helpless continent for the West to rescue and instead calls for robust European-African partnerships to manage Africa’s genuine challenges of violence, poverty, and corruption. True to his reputation as a man of action, Sarkozy has already transformed these ideas into practical policies, and the result has been a flurry of promising and innovative diplomatic initiatives concerning Africa over the past two months, especially vis-à-vis the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. If one […]

CAMBODIA CHARGES SENIOR KHMER ROUGE OFFICIAL — Cambodian authorities have arrested the Khmer Rouge’s ideological chief, Nuon Chea, to answer charges at a United Nations-backed tribunal that he planned and helped execute the murders of up to 1.7 million people. Chea, the most senior surviving member of Pol Pot’s murderous regime, was arrested Sept. 19 and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The move comes less than two months after the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) issued formal charges on July 31 against Kaing Guek Eav (better known by his alias, Duch) who ran S-21, […]

In his role as national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie is one of the key figures in the Iraqi government. Shortly before General David H. Petraeus presented his Iraq report to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 10, reporter Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche met with Rubaie at his home in Baghdad. In a 90-minute interview, the British-trained neurologist spoke about progress in Iraq, continuing challenges, and the consequences of a withdrawal of American troops. World Politics Review presents this wide-ranging interview for the first time in English. -o- Next week will be a crucial moment for Iraq. General […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — President Evo Morales wants to “refound Bolivia.” His Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa wants to “correct the barbarities committed by the party-ocracy.” Their chosen method — like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez before them — is a new constitution. Ecuador will elect a Constituent Assembly on Sept. 30; Bolivia’s version has been deliberating since June 2006. Meanwhile, Chávez himself is trying to reform the 1999 constitution that he promulgated, including provisions for a new six-hour week and a much-publicized change in the country’s time zone. The moves are far from unprecedented. For Latin American constitutions, life has often been nasty, […]

TEL AVIV, Israel — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East this week, and while her stay in the region may be short, her to-do list is very, very long. Just two months before a Mideast peace conference is scheduled to be held in Washington, the meeting’s exact purpose, agenda, and list of participants remains the subject of much speculation. Indeed, recent rumor even has it that the November conference might not take place at all, because the Palestinians are doubtful about its prospects. Palestinian reticence to attend the conference may still turn out to be a […]

LONDON — Pomp, pagentry and the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas accompanied Ethiopia’s celebration of its entry into the third millennium, seven years after the rest of the world but in line with the Coptic calendar of the Horn of Africa nation. But with the exchange of fiery rhetoric threatening to upset a fragile peace with neighbor Eritrea, new broadsides in the internal conflict raging in the Ogaden region on the country’s border with Somalia, and dissatisfaction with progress toward improved social welfare, Ethiopia has entered the 21st century much the way it wrapped up the 20th: divided and poor. […]

JERUSALEM — The people who write books about what has come to be known as “asymmetrical warfare” could fill many chapters by examining Israeli frustration with Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns. One full chapter could be written about what happened this Wednesday, when the Israeli government decided on a new set of measures to try to stop the rocket fire, only to find their decision to name Gaza an “enemy entity” managed to upset just about everyone, from Palestinians to Israelis, along every point on the political spectrum. Almost every day Palestinians have been firing Qassam rockets into Israeli […]

Last week’s testy public exchange between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush could foreshadow continued security tensions between Washington and Seoul even as the negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program move towards a denouement. Bush and Roh held a one-hour private meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, Australia. Afterwards, they conducted a joint media appearance. Both leaders delivered formal statements to reporters outlining their assessment of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In his subsequent comments, Roh remarked that he had not heard Bush explicitly affirm […]

MEMORIES AND MEMOIRS — At a farewell dinner for departing British ambassador Sir David Manning in Washington Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly recalled how she and Manning had worked together during the Iraq war: Rice as national security adviser to President Bush, and the ambassador as her counterpart at 10 Downing Street. But this harmonious picture doesn’t quite match the one Manning painted in the New Statesman magazine, claiming that the Bush administration sometimes failed to inform Prime Minister Tony Blair of key decisions on Iraq, or failed to take into account British objections. For example, Manning insists […]