Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Meeting in Sydney earlier this month, the foreign and defense ministers of Australia and Japan pledged closer defense cooperation. In an email interview, Thomas Wilkins, a senior lecturer at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, discussed the strategic relationship between Australia and Japan. WPR: What are the top priorities on the bilateral agenda between Australia and Japan? Thomas Wilkins: There is no single stand-out issue for the annual Australia-Japan “2 + 2” Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting talks, but rather a consolidation of relations around the issues of security cooperation, trade liberalization, energy security, climate […]

U.S. pundits commenting on the wave of protests that have swept across the Middle East this past week have tended to focus on “finger-pointing and partisan sniping,” as Greg Scoblete notes, with conservatives vaguely calling for Washington to show more “strength” and liberals advocating more “outreach.” Few have wanted to deal with a far more unpleasant reality: The de facto coalition of Turkey, Israel and “moderate” Sunni Arab states that for decades worked to advance U.S. interests in the region is disintegrating. The aftermath of the Iraq War and the outbreak of the Arab Spring were just the first tremors […]

In India, a growing number of political leaders are threatening to withdraw their support for the governing coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the face of new economic measures that, among other changes, allow for greater foreign investment by global retail giants in India’s heretofore protected domestic retail sector.* The New York Times reported Wednesday that Mamata Banerjee, the populist chief minister of West Bengal, announced that her party, the Trinamool Congress, would formally leave the government. Meanwhile, Kunal Ghosh, a member of the Indian Parliament from the same party, suggested that Singh should resign. “India is passing through […]

One hot day last July, India — one of the world’s largest, fastest-growing economies — suddenly and unexpectedly ground to a halt. Unable to handle soaring electricity demand, much of the country’s electrical grid collapsed, leaving more than 600 million people without power. Observers abroad reacted in disbelief. At home, exasperated residents responded in a manner that tells us much about what electrical service has come to signify in emerging economies. A common joke asked, What do you call a power failure in Delhi? Answer: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In other words, an electrical failure is a power failure — […]

As Turkey’s once-hailed approach to foreign policy flounders in the Middle East, the spirit of “zero problems” continues to consolidate gains in other neighboring areas, notably the Caucasus. Georgia, though lacking many of the national bonds that mortar Turkish ties with Azerbaijan, has become a particular beneficiary of Turkey’s Caucasus strategy. For Turkey, Georgia is a fundamental part of its regional energy strategy and an important buffer between it and historical rival Russia. For Georgia, Turkey is a trade partner, a window to the Euro-Atlantic and a powerful regional advocate. Over the past decade, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero […]

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey would not extradite Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who was sentenced to death in absentia by an Iraqi court. As BBC News reported, Hashemi dismissed the charges against him as “politically motivated.” The most senior Sunni official in Iraq’s predominantly Shiite government, Hashemi was accused of running Sunni death squads. The incident was the latest in a series of recent flare-ups between Ankara and Baghdad. Henri Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University, mentioned a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Kirkuk, Iraq, last month […]

U.S. strategy in the Islamic world is teetering on collapse. Angry, often violent crowds from Morocco to Afghanistan attacked anything associated with the United States or the West during the past week, from embassies and schools to fast food restaurants. All indications are that the protests accurately reflect a deep and persistent anger toward the United States, one that can be easily manipulated for nefarious purposes. For decades, the United States was concerned with little but stability in the Islamic world, building partnerships with a sordid cast of monarchs, civilian dictators and military despots. While this approach continues to be […]

Cyberspace is often credited with having helped end decades of authoritarian rule in the Middle East. Some dubbed the Arab Spring the “Twitter Revolution” after protesters, particularly in Tunisia and Egypt, used the micro-blogging platform to coordinate action and broadcast reports, both among themselves and to the world. Just 18 months later, content posted to another social media platform has ostensibly driven large crowds into the streets throughout the Muslim world, this time to protest a movie depicting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in an insulting light. In some cases, protesters formed into violent mobs, directing their ire at the […]

Despite its relatively small size, Azerbaijan has frequently been the focus of foreign attention since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is in large part due to Azerbaijan’s sizable energy resources and pivotal location, which provides the only viable pipeline route for Caspian Basin oil and gas to reach the West without passing through Russia or Iran. Azerbaijan’s leaders have tried to exploit these geopolitical assets to help manage the challenges presented by the country’s volatile neighborhood, which include a number of disputes over Caspian energy reserves, heavy interference by outside powers and the potential […]

The past year has witnessed a high-profile disagreement between Moscow and Washington over the civil war in Syria and the broader direction of political change in the Arab world. Some Russians have even revealed a degree of schadenfreude over the latest anti-U.S. violence in Libya, where Russian President Vladimir Putin likened last year’s NATO intervention to a medieval crusade. But though Washington and Moscow differ on rhetoric and tactics, when it comes to core U.S. interests in the Middle East, such as managing the rise of political Islam, constraining Iran’s nuclear program and ensuring the welfare of the state of […]

Egypt’s petroleum minister announced last week that British Gas plans to invest $3 billion to $5 billion in development projects in Egypt. In an email interview, Gawdat Bahgat, a professor of national security affairs at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Study, discussed the state of Egypt’s oil and gas industry. WPR: Where have the events of the past two years left Egypt’s oil and gas industry? Gawdat Bahgat: Unlike its North African neighbors Libya and Algeria, Egypt has never been a major oil producing and exporting country. It is not a member of OPEC […]

The large-scale anti-Japanese protests that swept across China over the weekend are likely to reach a crescendo today, as Sept. 18 marks the official Chinese anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China in 1931. The wave of public demonstrations was triggered by Tokyo’s announcement last week that it would purchase the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, from a private Japanese owner. The islands are claimed by China and Taiwan but controlled by Japan. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is on a week-long tour in Asia, and other American officials have expressed concern that the escalating dispute between […]

While in Japan on Monday to start off a three-nation tour of Asia, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the United States and Japan had reached an agreement to deploy a second missile defense radar installation on Japanese soil. Panetta, who continued on to Beijing, China, following his stopover in Tokyo, said the agreement would enhance the Japanese-American alliance, improve Japanese defense and protect the U.S. from the threat of North Korea’s ballistic missile program. While Panetta insisted that the move does not target China, Beijing responded angrily to the announcement, which came amid heightened tensions between China and […]

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, recently warned of atrocities committed on both sides of the conflict in Syria in an effort to draw attention to the conflict. In an email interview, Hurst Hannum, a professor of international law at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, discussed the high commissioner’s role and capabilities. WPR: What is the role of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights within the landscape of U.N. agencies, such as the Human Rights Commission? Hurst Hannum: The U.N. high commissioner for human rights (HCHR) is the highest-ranking U.N. official specifically concerned […]

In the not-too-distant future, should a continent-spanning republic ever emerge in Europe, historians will probably point to Sept. 12, 2012, as one of the game-changing days in the historic march toward such a goal: The German Constitutional Court effectively accepted the European Stability Mechanism (ESM); the European Commission made public its far-reaching plans for a European banking union; European Commission President José Mario Barroso declared that “the EU must strive to become a federation of nations states” in his State of the Union speech before the European Parliament; and finally, Dutch voters strengthened the country’s pro-European center, while paring back […]

Some commentators have argued that last week’s attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia will strengthen the radical and anti-Western Islamic factions in those countries. However, a number of political and economic realities suggest that the violent attacks might instead marginalize the extremists and strengthen these countries’ moderate Islamists. In Tunisia and Egypt, recent elections resulted in governing coalitions led by moderate Islamist parties. But gaining control of the executive branch has made moderate Islamists responsible for dealing with the mounting economic and social problems that have plagued both countries since the 2011 uprisings. Indeed, in both countries, […]

Dozens of protesters torched a U.S. flag in Turkey — a key U.S. alley — over the weekend as anger over a film mocking the Prophet Mohammed continued to spread. Video News by NewsLook