WPR Blog Archive

Interesting item in the Gulf Newsthat illustrates the extent to which not all is as it seems in theRussia-Ukraine gas dispute. Specifically, the ways in which the pricedispute masks the impending collapse of natural gas prices, at a timewhen Gazprom desperately needs cash to invest in infrastructureupgrades. Also this (which ought to, but probably won’t, takea couple point-sizes off the screaming headlines about Gazprom’sinhuman decision to shut the tap on downstream customers last week): Warmer-than-normalweather in October and November allowed Italy, Germany and neighboringcountries to pump record amounts of gas into underground storage. Halfwaythrough the heating season, Europe’s natural-gas stockpiles […]

Salim Hamdam, the man known as Osama Bin Laden’s driver, was released by Yemen after serving out the rest of his sentence following his transfer from Gitmo last year. Hamdam’s case was profiled in a WPR feature article by Brian Glyn Williams, who testified as an expert witness for the defense in Hamdan’s military commission proceeding. Williams’ expertise on the 055 Brigade, al-Qaida’s paramilitary force in Afghanistan, helped convince the commission that Hamdan was a lawful combattant, entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, and not a terrorist.

The folks at Real Clear World go through a lot of world news every day to provide the kind of wide-ranging and quality aggregation they offer. So it’s a real honor to know that WPR stood out enough to be included in their Top Five International News Sites for 2008. Especially when the other four outlets on the list are Der Spiegel, Al Jazeera, China Post and Japan Times. Not exactly a bunch of Mom and Pop operations. But in thanking the gang at RCW for their kind words, I’d like to also call your attention to the original coverage […]

For anyone who enters the site through the blog, I recommend checking out the new WPR feature issue on South America, titled The Emerging Continent. It includes articles by Shannon O’Neil of the Council on Foreign Relations on the past and future of regional integration; WPR Contributing Editor Anastasia Moloney on the origins of and potential for the South American populist left; and Peter Kingstone of the University of Connecticut on whether or not the continent’s sleeping giant, Brazil, has finally woken up for good. A lot has changed in South America over the course of a decade when America’s […]

Not surprisingly, at the same time that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud declared that Israel was “getting close to achieving the goals it set for itself,” it chose to signal a distinct pause in its Gaza operation. That’s because it also, coincidentally, happened to be getting close to entering Gaza, which would represent a point of no return for both sides in the conflict. Now, you can’t get water from a stone, so if there’s simply no way to get international guarantees for the ceasefire terms that both sides need to silence the guns, this conflict will expand and escalate, with […]

This post by James Lamond at Democracy Arsenal breaks the mold of EU criticism by foregoing the derision and simply . . . presenting a useful analysis of some of the obstacles the EU faces with regards to formulating a coherent and effective foreign policy. That said, I think Lamond — and EU critics in general — places a bit too much emphasis on the “speaking with two voices” and “divergent interests” problems, and fails to give the “ability to deliver” problem its due. The fifty states, after all, have divergent interests, which explains the wide range of American opinion […]

I’ve seen quite a few headlines recently trumpeting the Sri Lankan government’s victory in its counterinsurgency against the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) terorist/guerilla insurgency. That comes on the heels of the military’s capture of the LTTE’s “capital” of Kilinochchi. But the news out of Sri Lanka today about the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, an anti-government newspaper editor, made me feel like Brian Calvert’s fascinating, three-part series (here, here and here) on the information war that is part and parcel of the government’s counterinsurgency was worth a second look. Especially Part II, which begins as follows: No one understands the importance of […]

If you haven’t checked out our video section lately (or ever), now might be a good time. We have been featuring videos from Agence France-Presse for a while, and we’re happy to announce we will now regularly feature videos produced by Worldfocus, the excellent new nightly news program produced by WNET in New York and hosted by Martin Savidge. We’ll be featuring several Worldfocus “signature videos” — reports from around the world — in our video section every month. You can watch our first Worldfocus-produced video here. Check back to our video section regularly for new reports, and stay tuned […]

Talk about plummeting oil prices. Three cents on the dollar? Still, $3 mil on a Friday night brings one thing and one thing only to mind: Looks like it’s going to be a hot time in the Puntland tonight.

I’m not sure how much weight I give the Larijani and Hamas comments on the UN resolution, and to a lesser extent the ceasefire proposal, that Petra referenced earlier. It’s been pointed out elsewhere that the Damascus-based, Meshaal-led wing of Hamas is more militant than the Haniyeh-led wing on the ground (read: in harm’s way) in Gaza, and the latter has signalled more of a willingness to reach a tacit modus vivendi with Israel. Plus, at this point, what matters is what’s being said at the negotiating table in Cairo, and if the proposal was really a non-starter, the Hamas […]

Even before the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 1860 Thursday that “stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire leading to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” it was clear that one of the parties calling the shots (literally) was firmly opposed to the proposals that had been put forward to end the fighting in Gaza: Ali Larijani, the influential speaker of the Iranian parliament, described the proposals on Thursday as “honey injected with poison.” The night before, Larijani had met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and several high-level officials from Hamas at […]

A rule of thumb in Chinese medicine is that it takes a month of healing for every year of illness. The implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be obvious, but if they aren’t, this Economist piece titled “The Hundred Years’ War” ought to make things clear. There are examples from recent history of reconciliation between warring nations and peoples. I’m thinking of the rehabilitation of Germany in Europe, and more recently still, the still-astonishing, post-apartheid transition in South Africa. But it takes time, and that’s something the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rarely seems to offer peace efforts. That said, and keeping in […]

Not long ago, Sam Roggeveen took me to task via email for saying, “. . . the Bushadministration viewed India predominantly through the lens of Chinapolicy.” I was contrasting that with the Obama administration’s rollout of a “regional approach” that seemed to view India more through the lens of Afghanistan-Pakistan policy. Sam’s two-word admonition? Evidence, please! I think this, via the Times of India, might count as evidence. According to DefenseNews, the P-8 is a long-range maritime recon aircraft, and the ones India just signed with Boeing for will be fitted with “sonar buoys, torpedoes and aerial depth-charge bombs.” That, […]

The Washington Times, citing the Nelson Report, reports that Barack Obama has selected Dennis Ross to coordinate the administration’s policy toward Iran. The Ross pick is not surprising given that Ross was one of Obama’s top foreign policy advisers during the campaign, and often spoke about Iran policy. So what does the pick say about the administration’s likely approach to Iran? Ross laid out his approach to Iran at a June panel at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. I live-blogged the event, and you can read my post here. In a nutshell, Ross said he favored […]

Once you get past the obligatory extra heapings of ridicule, criticism of the EU usually falls into one of two categories. The first is hostile to idea of an institutionally strong, global actor; the second is skeptical that one can emerge. Judy Dempsey’s IHT column on the efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire doesn’t disappoint, beginning with a caricatural description of the “competing” European diplomatic missions to the Middle East, before breaking towards the latter category. Dempsey presents some compelling shortcomings of the EU’s Middle East policy, as well as some convincing internal obstacles to resolving them. But what’s interesting […]

For obvious reasons, this lede from Keith Bradsher’s IHT piece describing how the Chinese are cooling to U.S. government debt got me clicking through to the Merriam-Webster definition of the word, “crisis”: China has bought more than $1 trillion in American debt, but as theglobal downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more ofits money at home — a shift that could pose some challenges to the U.S.government in the near future but eventually may even produce salutaryeffects on the worldeconomy. Theword has its roots in medical usage, and me being the optimist that Iam, I’d identified it with […]

Shadi Hamid pursues the debate about democracies and foreign policy, pointing out, among other things, that he didn’t describe the foreign policy of democracies as “more stable” (my description) than that of dictatorships, but rather as “stronger, more effective and more predictable.”While he concedes that there’s an implication of stability, he’s also right to point out the distinction. But keeping that distinction in mind, who fits Hamid’s description better over the past eight years, the U.S. or China? Reaching backwards historically, the Soviet Union, too, had a strong, effective and utterly predictable foreign policy. Among Middle Eastern countries, I’d propose […]