WPR Blog Archive

The following articles were the most-read on World Politics Review last month: 1. France and the Middle East: Nicolas Sarkozy’s Nuclear Option2. Corruption and Organized Crime in Kosovo: An Interview with Avni Zogiani3. Spy Satellite’s Scheduled Destruction Raises Concerns About Diplomatic Fallout4. ‘Who Killed Benazir?’: An Interview with Fatima Bhutto5. Can the U.S. Military Sustain Focus on Stability Operations?6. Who Killed Terrorist Mastermind Imad Moughniyah?7. Rights & Wrongs: Feb. 5 Edition8. Kosovo Independence: Making a Bad Situation Worse9. The United Nations’ Unscientific War on Biotechnology10. Beijing and Moscow to Propose Joint Space Treaty

A quick word to Huffington Post readers: The Sam Brannen article Arianna cited is here. The blog post she got the quote from is here. Hope that helps.

This didn’t get much notice, but it strikes me as significant that the Iran sanctions resolution was passed as the first order of business under Russia’s presidency of the UN Security council, given recent signals of a hardening of Russia’s posture towards Iran. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how Moscow plans to address the Kosovo dossier, which was included among priority items by Russia’s UN envoy.

Funny how on the same day that the Pentagon released its annual China Military Report, the Chinese announced plans to raise defense spending by 17% next year. Here’s the takeaway from the Executive Summary of the Pentagon report: China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance remains limited but, as noted in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review Report, it “has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages.” China’s near-term focus on preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait, including the possibility of […]

Recent developments out of South America seem to confirm the Army’s 2008 posture statement: Persistent conflict and change characterize the strategic environment. We have looked at the future and expect a future of protracted confrontation among state, non-state, and individual actors who will use violence to achieve political, religious, and other ideological ends. Of course, Colombia has been in a state of war for decades, something of a throwback to the last era of persistent conflict. But the alarming escalation between it and its neighbors on either side, Ecuador and Colombia, seem to suggest that folks who took Hugo Chavez […]

This article over at Rue89 (French language) shows the degree to which America’s emphasis on information mining as a counter-terrorism tool is more than just a domestic issue. In return for a more favorable visa waiver program, the Czech Republic has signed a Memorandum of Understanding that offers American authorities access to far more passenger information than the EU is comfortable with. Significantly, the Czechs went ahead and signed the agreement in the face of pressure from the EU to wait for the articulation of a common European position. Said Ivan Langer, the Czech Interior Minister, “A man whose belly […]

There’s been a lot of reaction to yesterday’s WaPo article about a technical presention to diplomatic representatives of IAEA member states that followed up on the IAEA’s Iran report. Some have interpreted the presentation, which revealed documentary evidence of Iranian weaponization efforts up to and slightly after 2003, as a vindication of IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei, who had previously been accused of carrying Tehran’s water. So I thought I’d point out that last week, a well-informed source I spoke to following the delivery of the report flagged the presentation — which significantly was given by Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s head […]

In this cleverly snide blog post at Harper’s magazine, Ken Silverstein points out the irony in President Bush criticizing Democratic presidential candidates for offering to talk to tyrants, given some of the autocrats that Bush has met with in the oval office. WPR has no position on the question of meeting with the likes of Ahmadinejad, Castro or others. We would only point out that there is the possibility of a happy medium, depending on the situation, between glad-handing in the Oval Office and closing off all diplomatic channels. And yet, as the photo evidence indicates, African heads of state, […]

It’s still anyone’s guess whether Dmitri Medvedev comes with Putin-strings attached to his wrists and ankles. But one thing worth mentioning is that the country he’ll be governing, while certainly resurgent relative to its position ten years ago, has some clouds looming on its economic horizon. Which is just what Lee Hudson Teslik does in this CFR piece. But he kind of glosses over Russia’s failure to invest in its energy infrastructure. This Center for European Policy Studies analysis (.pdf) by Alan Riley, while a bit dated (2006), is still informative. We’re used to hearing about Europe’s dependence on Russian […]

The irony did not go unnoticed last week when President Bush said of the Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, “The Turks need to move, move quickly, achieve their objectives and get out.” Do as I say, in other words, not as I do. Well, the Turks did just that, and I thought their handling of the PKK crisis over the course of the past year and culminating in last week’s incursion deserved a brief wrap-up. (So did the Jamestown Foundation.) Last spring, when the PKK mounted an attack on Turkish forces that resulted in a skirmish and a dozen or […]

A quick word to Huffington Post readers: The Sam Brannen article Arianna cited is here. The blog post she got the quote from is here. Hope that helps.

To get a sense of what’s going on in Gaza right now, just go read Laura Rozen. She’s got all the essential links and analysis. One thing, though, that I haven’t seen mentioned yet among all the talk of possible local brushfires (Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, etc.) is the impact Hamas-Israel and Hezbollah-Israel conflicts might have on Iran’s activity in Iraq. The Iranians have already demonstrated how much they can contribute to improving the security situation there. A three-front war between Israel, Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah would seem like the kind of scenario they would use to demonstrate how […]

A quick word on the EADS tanker contract that’s getting so much blog attention. (Kevin here, Art here, Danger Room here and here.) Some mention was made of EADS’ promise to build the aircraft in Alabama as a way to placate Congress. It’s important, though, to point out that as early as last December, EADS was floating suggestions of outsourcing operations to Alabama as a way of counteracting the collapse of the dollar to third-world currency status correction in the dollar’s exchange value. So while the move might make for some good Stateside p.r., it makes for some even better […]