Briefing Archive

Earlier this year, a significant fact went largely unnoticed in the media: Crude oil imports from sub-Saharan Africa (excluding the Arab North African producers of Algeria and Libya) to the United States surpassed those from the Middle East. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States imported 1.736 million barrels per day (b/d) from Sub-Saharan Africa in February 2007 — the bulk from Nigeria and Angola but also from Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This amount was slightly greater than imports from the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and a small […]

Investigators for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) have concluded that, due primarily to a lack of effective centralized training and coordination, DOD personnel involved in previous counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations may have violated Americans’ civil liberties when reviewing their financial and other personal records. According to documents recently released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the department has issued 455 national security letters — subpoenas that allow authorized government officials to examine, without court order, the personal data of American citizens suspected of involvement in espionage, terrorism, and other activities that threaten the security of the United States […]

Editor’s Note: In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. In late October, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he accompanied a Darfur rebel group. The diary of his trip was published on the NZZ Online in German, and World Politics […]

After the Sept. 16 Blackwater scandal, which drew unprecedented attention to the role played by private security contractors (PSCs) in Iraq, these firms have increasingly come under scrutiny in other theaters of war, such as Afghanistan. But while efforts in Afghanistan to rein in PSCs seem to parallel those in Iraq, they are driven by different dynamics — and have very different implications. Earlier this month, the Afghan parliament, emboldened by the Iraq legislature’s attempt to assert jurisdiction over contractors, drafted a law that could curb operations by private security contractors. Then last week Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior (MOI) […]

WASHINGTON — Much of the controversy surrounding a congressional committee’s approval of a resolution condemning as genocide the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire has focused on the action’s geopolitical ramifications. But a key question remains unanswered: How did the world’s most powerful body of lawmakers come to feel compelled to register a position on an event that happened almost a century ago? By some accounts, the answer is simple: lobbying. Others, however, contend that the power of the Armenian lobby in the United States has been exaggerated and that the genocide resolution has gotten traction […]

Just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Pakistani authorities arrested two atomic scientists suspected of having aided the terror network al-Qaida in efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. One year earlier, they had founded a humanitarian aid agency for Afghanistan: the “Reconstruction of the Muslim Umma.” But for the two Taliban sympathizers, the aim of constructing a new Muslim community was not only a matter of economic and political solidarity with the faithful around the world. In their opinion, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, which they had helped to develop, were also the “property […]

Editor’s Note: In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. In late October, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he accompanied a Darfur rebel group. The diary of his trip was published on the NZZ Online in German, and World Politics […]

AMSTERDAM — Is it possible that NATO, probably the mightiest, certainly the wealthiest, military alliance the world has even seen, could leave Afghanistan defeated by the Taliban, a band of religious fanatics with an ideology harking back to the 7th century? During two days of talks just completed in the Dutch resort of Noordwijk along the North Sea coast, defense ministers from NATO countries discussed the future of the mission in Afghanistan in tones that betrayed a sense of urgency bordering on despair. In the Netherlands, whose troops are fighting in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan, the mission is […]

In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. Last week, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he is now accompanying a Darfur rebel group. His daily dispatches on his journey are being published in German on the NZZ Online here. Starting […]

CONGOLESE WARLORD IN THE DOCK — Democratic Republic of Congo general and former militia leader Germain Katanga made his first appearance in front of the International Criminal Court at The Hague Oct. 22, where he will face nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Katanga, also known as Simba, stands accused of — among other things — organizing the massacre of 200 civilians, conscripting children for use as soldiers and sexually enslaving survivors of the brutal attack on the village of Bogoro in February 2003. “The victims of these crimes deserve to see justice for their suffering,” Param-Preet […]

Evgenii Kiselyov, the host of the weekly news analysis program “Vlast” (Power) that airs on RTVI, an international Russian-language cable station, scarcely bothered to conceal his disdain for President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Tehran for the Caspian Summit. On his Oct. 19 show, Kiselev bluntly described the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as “odious,” and the regime he heads as “theocratic.” Addressing his guest, the prominent Russian journalist Fyodor Lukyanov, Kiselyov demanded to know why it was necessary for Putin to visit Iran at all. Lukyanov, however, failed to take the bait, coolly noting that of the major world powers […]

NEW YORK — Within minutes of the decision by Turkey’s parliament Oct. 17 to approve a potential Turkish military action against members of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, hordes of Iraqi Kurds poured into the streets in protest. The vote drew sharp criticism from Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), who said the Kurds of Northern Iraq were prepared to fight should Turkish soldiers set foot onto their soil. In an interview with Northern Iraq’s Bahdinan Radio, Barzani added “Saddam Hussein could not even finish the Kurds, so how does Turkey expect to finish […]

Sudan may be preparing to host the largest peacekeeping force in the world, but that hasn’t deterred the country from fueling more conflict in its war-weary western region, Darfur, and reigniting tension in its southern swath, which was wracked by war for more than two decades. Sudan’s proclivity for conflict continues to frustrate all international efforts to pacify war-torn Darfur, where besieged displaced people are dying daily as the war gets uglier by the hour. Relief organizations say malnutrition levels are climbing in the hundreds of refugee camps that dot the region and access for aid workers has worsened due […]

RAIPUR, India — To reverse military setbacks in key backcountry areas, India’s Maoist insurgents have adopted a new strategy that favors coordinated mass attacks over hit-and-run guerilla warfare, and they have stepped up their recruitment efforts on the Internet. Pro-Maoist spokesmen say the move towards larger, less-frequent strikes is the result of recent setbacks in states like Andhra Pradesh, where police forces have killed hundreds of fighters and arrested top leaders since peace talks collapsed in late 2004. But they cite the spread of activities to more states as a sign the movement is down but far from out. “The […]

On Oct. 18, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a one-day jaunt to Moscow for “a last-minute, urgent meeting” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader had just returned from Tehran, where he had defended Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy while reaffirming Moscow’s commitment to nuclear nonproliferation. Three topics apparently dominated the three-hour private meeting. First, according to Miri Eisin, the prime minister’s spokesperson, Olmert urged Putin to support stronger diplomatic and economic sanctions against Iran at the U.N. Security Council. Olmert argued that the international community needs more effective measures to check Tehran’s nuclear aspirations, which […]

BANGKOK, Thailand — As the United States and the European Union consider tightening economic sanctions against the Burmese military regime, U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is touring Asia to promote the idea of giving the repressive generals “incentives” to change their ways. Gambari is spinning the idea of some form of financial help to address the economic mess Burma has descended into under prolonged dictatorship. It was financial desperation among a population of 54 million, most living on the breadline, that triggered last month’s monk-led mass protests over fuel price rises of up to 500 percent. Gambari is talking vaguely […]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that he will submit the EU “Reform” Treaty agreed upon in Lisbon last week to the French parliament for ratification. In so doing, is he proposing to ratify a treaty that is essentially identical to the “Constitutional” Treaty that French voters rejected in a referendum in 2005? French constitutional law scholar Anne-Marie Le Pourhiet says yes — and outlines the drastic consequences of such an action. -o- On Oct. 5, the proposed European “Amending Treaty” — commonly known as the “Reform” Treaty — was made public. Upon reading the text, one understands why its […]