WPR Blog Archive

Before the Russia-Georgia war, the Discovery Institute’s Real Russia Project, which relative to most members of the U.S. foreign policy commentariat provides a decidedly contrarian view of Russia, wrote a short pamphlet called “10 Reasons Americans Should Care About Russia.” According to the project’s Yuri Mamchur, the report remains valid. “Perhaps as tempers cool, people of good will can consider what is at stake; what there is to gain, and what there is to lose,” he writes. Here’s the full report, and here’s a list of the 10 reasons: 1. Russia is the world’s largest country, straddling Europe, China and […]

The to-do list of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for this week includes another short trip to the Middle East in pursuit of the goal set at last winter’s Annapolis meeting — a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of 2008. Few people may think that this is a realistic goal, but the current round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is actually based on the idea that it is worthwhile to try to reach an agreement even if it will be difficult to implement all of it anytime in the near future. Such a “shelf agreement” may be […]

A must-read from the New York Times (via the WPR Media Roundup). U.S. politicians wont to demagogue big oil should take note.

To continue a theme I’ve touched on in a few recent posts, Daniel Drezner’s comments (via the 8th Circle) on Georgia, Russia and NATO expansion are worth reading. Drezner cautions against believing that encroachment of Western influence and institutions like NATO and the EU is the primary cause of Russian coercion of its near abroad: . . . I’m not sure that realist opposition to NATO expansion is vindicated by the Georgia invasion. I presume their argument is that NATO expansion somehow triggered the security dilemma, which led to Russia’s current revanchism. The thing is, I wrote half a book […]

Well, I thought I’d be able to sneak in a week of pre-vacation and still manage some sporadic posting, but obviously I was kidding myself. Truth be told, it’s really impossible to maintain the kind of reading it takes to feed the blog with only one eye on the screen. Now I’m heading off on a real two-week vacation for some much-needed R&R and to spend some quality time with my seven year-old son. I’ll be completely offline and will even do my best to resist the temptation to buy the IHT print edition each day, so with any luck […]

Three senior fellows of the Center for a New American Security, John Nagl, Colin Kahl, and Shawn Brimley, held a press briefing Aug. 13 at the center’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, in which they recounted their observations on a recent trip to Iraq. The three traveled to Iraq on the invitation of Gen. David Petraeus, received high-level briefings, visited multiple Iraqi provinces, and spoke with a number of Iraqi politicians and citizens, according to CNAS. Although the three experts differed on certain points, there was somewhat of a consensus about the reality of two parallel phenomena: 1) security […]

Following up on my post about McCain’s response to the Georgia war, Andrew Sullivan more elegantly makes the point that I was clumsily attempting to make in referencing that Belgravia Dispatch post on Wednesday. Here’s Sullivan: No one should doubt that McCain’s heart is in the right place. McCain long championed the persecuted people of Iraq; and he came to the defense of the beleaguered Bosnians. He is passionate about Burma and Darfur. You name a lost cause and he will rally to it. . . . His position on Georgia makes much more sense if you see it in […]

Gregory Djerejian at his satisfyingly ornery Belgravia Dispatch blog takes John McCain to task for his incredibly poor reasoning regarding NATO expansion to include Georgia. It’s a must-read. I have to say, somewhat regretfully, the pattern that is developing here whereby McCain’s answer to every foreign policy dilemma seems to be more bluster, a harder line, a transparent attempt to out-cowboy Bush, is increasingly disturbing.

Jeez. I figured that the opening of the Olympic Games meant I could sneak in a week of intermittent posting, and instead war breaks out in Europe. Obviously, with resident Russia specialist Richard Weitz around, I assumed WPR readers would be well informed, and I wasn’t wrong. Setting aside the actual issues at dispute in the Russian-Georgian conflict, when I saw the first reports of the fighting, I couldn’t help but think that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashivili had done the Russians an enormous favor in provoking an armed conflict, and this paragraph from Richard’s piece explains why: By punishing Georgia […]

For those looking to make sense of the Russia-Georgia conflict, we’ve published three commentary/analysis pieces on the subject today. —Richard Weitz looks at Moscow’s motives; —Frida Ghitis says Russia is sending a message; and —Peter Doran says Moscow has been allowed to play both mediator and spoiler.

Hats off to Joshua Paltrow for two WaPo pieces describing six days trekking through the Ecuadoran rainforest with an Ecuadoran Army patrol in search of FARC guerillas along the Colombian border. I spent some time in the Ecuadoran rainforest, but unlike Paltrow (who was advised by an Ecuadoran colonel, “Don’t worry about the snakes. Worry about the guerrillas.”), all I had to worry about was the jungle. And the soldier Paltrow cites pretty much sums it up: “The jungle is beautiful,” one soldier remarked. “But everything bites.” Another thing that resonated for me was the soldier, a rainforest Indian, who […]

Arif Rafiq at The Pakistan Policy Blog on the announcement that the Pakistani governing coalition will seek impeachment proceedings against Pervez Musharraf: Though the declaration was clear, many questions remain: – Will the governing coalition follow through on its promises? All of them or just some?– Has there been a compromise on the judges issue?– Do they have enough votes to impeach?– How long will the process take?– Impeachment is akin to a trial. What will Musharraf be charged with?– Will Musharraf resign before or during the impeachment proceedings? Or will he fight? What weapons will he use? Article 58(2)B. […]

Marc Lynch at Abu Aardvark and Dr. iRak at Abu Muqawama (the latter just back from a visit to Iraq) both take a look at the Iraqi parliament’s failure to pass the provincial elections law. The upshot? We’re not out of the woods yet. So once again the good news out of Iraq is balanced out by the threat of potential pitfalls ahead, which oddly enough is used by advocates for both continued military engagement and withdrawal to justify their arguments. One thing, too, is painfully obvious. President Bush really wanted these elections to take place on his watch, and […]

Rather than linking to each of his half-dozen or so insightful posts on the coup in Mauritania, I’ll just recommend you click through and check out Kal’s coverage over at the Moor Next Door. You’ll find everything from the internal dynamics behind the coup, to regional and global reactions. As Kal puts it, things are moving fast, and he’s keeping a close eye on them.

I’ve been developing the case for listening to what the Iranians are saying recently, and I think the aftermath of the recent Geneva talks are a perfect example. The P5+1 expected an up or down response to their proposal, a proposal that offered significant incentives — including a very serious American gesture of goodwill — in return for Iran freezing its nuclear enrichment program. In that context, the actual Iranian response, which Hurriyet got a copy of, is of course disappointing. So off we go for another round of sanctions, neither guaranteed to be passed nor likely to be very […]

With Russia locking up all of the natural gas supplies that could possibly feed the EU’s Nabucco pipeline project, the logical alternative from a supply perspective is Iran’s immense reserves. Of course, that presents some political hurdles at the moment. But in the event no grand bargain is reached with Tehran, the Turkish Daily News gives us an idea of the form a workaround would probably take: Meanwhile Iran and Turkey have worked out the details, including the pricing, of a deal to produce natural gas in the Islamic Republic and export it to Turkey, senior Turkish and Iranian officials […]

While an outspoken critic of both the logic and conduct of the Iraq War, I’m always happy to flag good news when it arrives. And the steady reduction in violence in Iraq, while fragile, is obviously good news. I’m just never convinced by the arguments of causality used to explain it by advocates of the war. On the other hand, if Moqtada al-Sadr’s decision to disarm his militia plays out the way this Guardian article (also via today’s WPR Media Roundup) is reporting it, it is not only very good news. It is the most positive outcome to date that […]