WPR Blog Archive

Dozens of countries, including the United States, continue to abduct and detain terrorism suspects in secret detention centers despite clear prohibitions against such practices under international law, according to a new report from United Nations expert investigators. Algeria, China, Russia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Poland and Pakistan are also among the countries charged with using or colluding in the use of these detention practices. “In spite of these unequivocal norms, the practice of secret detention in the context of countering terrorism is widespread and has been reinvigorated by the so-called global war on terror. . . . If resorted to in […]

Most of the comments I’ve seen on the draft QDR that Defense News obtained have focused on the so-called demise of the two-war force construct. But that seems to be more a question of semantic shift than fundamental change. What I found more interesting is the priority upgrade given to operating in anti-access environments. Certainly Iran would qualify under that rubric, and even more so if they ever actually receive the S300 air defense systems they signed a contract with Russia for. But anti-access is pretty much another way of saying China. So it’s no surprise that the section devoted […]

With the exception of a few details, it’s safe to say that the London conference on Afghanistan hit all the right notes, by which I mean the politically necessary ones. Afghanization will continue apace, regardless of the Afghans’ actual capacity to shoulder it, and negotiating with the Taliban has gotten the formal seal of approval, regardless of the Taliban’s actual willingness to negotiate. NATO can announce member states’ increased troop commitments, regardless of member states’ intentions of following through, while Western governments can simultaneous announce troop drawdowns over the course of 2011, regardless of whether the security situation permits them. […]

Has Washington removed the restraints on India’s response to future terror attacks originating from Pakistan? That’s what Ajai Shukla suggests in parsing a statement made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates during his recent visit to India. More significantly, says Shukla, Gates repeated the formula almost word for word days later in Pakistan, instead of walking it back for the Pakistani viewing audience. Was Washington merely waving the India stick to nudge Islamabad towardgreater cooperation in the Af-Pak war? Or, is the U.S. starting tobelieve that Islamabad is a lost cause, and that India can be used –not just politically and […]

I must say, it really cracked me up that this (courtesy of SWJ) was the first thing I read after finishing my write-up of the Prague PRT conference: In exchange for their support, American commanders agreed to channel $1million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders andbypass the local Afghan government, which is widely seen as corrupt. Contrast that with this, from Prague: Dereck Hogan, senior governance adviser to Richard Holbrooke, describedPresident Barack Obama as being “seized by sub-national government,”and defined U.S. objectives as helping to make local government morevisible, accountable and capable. He outlined an impressive package ofprojects […]

Just a quick note to explain the light posting this week. I just got back from Prague, where I attended a “pre-London” conference on PRTs in Afghanistan organized by the Prague Security Studies Institute and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. It was a very informative few days, with the panel presenters and audience made up almost exclusively of ground-level actors working in Afghanistan. I’ll be writing it up for the WPR front page tomorrow, so I don’t want to go into too much detail. But I’ll just note two initial impressions. First, when we hear about the lack of “unity of […]

Here are a few of this week’s highlights from WPR’s video section: – Minister Mizuho Fukushima, leader of Japan’s small Social Democratic Party, has rejected plansto build a new U.S. Marine base on the island of Okinawa. This video explains what ramifications this could have for Hatoyama’s coalition government. – Youth in Southern Sudan are taking up arms to protect their villages from cross-border attacks. This video shows how the young soldiers are fighting the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army. – A New America Foundation conversation with author Steven Hill discusses how Europe’s innovation has led to a more supportive, ecologically […]

There’s been a lot of speculation about the mid- to long-term impact on U.S. foreign policy of the Haiti earthquake and America’s response to it. I was surprised to see how quickly the assumptions turned sour. Already last Friday, I participated in a France 24 program in which one analyst had already identified Haiti as a long-term — and major — problem for President Barack Obama, along the lines of waging the Afghanistan war and winding down the Iraq war. My sense is that this is a bit overblown. The unfolding operation in Haiti is a stability operation, not a […]

The increasing ability of human rights defenders and organizations to effectively push for protections resulted in a concerted campaign by abusive governments in 2009 to attack the rights movement, Human Rights Watch says in its 2010 annual report. “Today, activists are capable of exposing abuses most anywhere in the world, shining an intense spotlight of shame on those responsible, rallying concerned governments and institutions to use their influence on behalf of victims, and in severe cases, persuading international prosecutors to bring abusers to justice,” HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth wrote in the report’s introduction. But although such attacks could be […]

As expected, the sense of urgency in Europe over full-body scanners is not quite the same as in the U.S. As expected, too, the question facing the EU is whether to reach a unified position, as desired by the Spanish EU presidency, or move ahead in an ad hoc fashion, as is already happening. And as expected, three, the U.S., according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, isn’t necessarily holding out for a unified EU position. And as expected, four, the Lisbon Treaty still leaves quite a few things unchanged in terms of how the EU operates.

Not long ago, I wrote about the ways in which 9/11 affected U.S. foreign policy, and in particular, how our approach has “gone micro, with engagement conceived of lessin terms of actors (i.e., a country’s government and military), andmore in terms of fields (i.e., its society).” The following day, I came across a report by Matt Armstrong (via Small Wars Journal) on how to redesign the State Department to better meet contemporary foreign policy challenges. It’s a very smart argument for going macro, and reworking the department’s bureaucratic hierarchy to prioritize regional approaches. Essentially, that would mean aligning State’s regional […]

With 2009 and its year-end Top 10 lists comfortably packed away, the Carnegie Council held an event last week to usher in the New Year with a list of what to worry about in 2010. Panelists included Eurasia Group president — and WPR contributor — Ian Bremmer; the executive director of the U.N. Global Compact, Georg Kell; the editor in chief of strategy+business, Art Kleiner; and the executive director of the World Policy Institute, Michele Wucker. Bremmer kicked things off with highlights from his recently published Eurasia Group report. Here’s a sample from his overall list, with each risk weighted […]

I mentioned last week that any attempts to close airport security loopholes in light of the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing also had to address overseas airport security if they are to be effective. Looks like that’s happening. At the same time, the tolerance gap between the U.S. and Europe in terms of intrusiveness vs. privacy does not look like it’s going to disappear anytime soon. And as Richard Weitz pointed out in a recent WPR column, because of qualified majority voting under the Lisbon Treaty, measures designed to constrain security intrusiveness based of those privacy concerns will be harder […]

In an illustration of the power of inertia in international relations, reports indicate that India will go ahead and ink a $1.2 billion deal for 29 Russian-made MiG-29s. The two relevant storylines here are the decline of Russia’s defense industry and India’s budding strategic (and security) relationship with the U.S. Neither was enough to derail a deal that will also create its own inertial pull well into the future. This is worth keeping in mind when contemplating scenarios involving major shifts in strategic orientations, of the kind I tend to be fascinated by — a U.S.-Iran rapprochement, an autonomous European […]

By all indications, Guinea has pulled back from the edge of what some warned could have been a bloody internal power struggle among various factions in the military junta now ruling the country. Interestingly, the exit strategy, at least in its first steps, resembles a game of “hot potato” — devolving power to the civilian opposition, rather than contesting it, at the risk of civil war, within the military. That reflects a certain degree of wisdom, but also the effective international response to the crisis so far — a combination of pressure from regional and global multinational groupings as well […]

President Barack Obama’s decision to send 10,000 U.S. troops to provide muscle for the relief effort in chaotic, quake-ravaged Haiti was perhaps inevitable, but does not come without risks for the United States. From all accounts, public despair continues to mount as the distribution effort, hampered by destroyed roads and communications, lags behind the build-up of relief supplies. Hunger, thirst, and the spread of disease could easily bring out the machetes, tipping the scale into rioting and civil disorder. The island certainly has a history of it. If that happens, with Haitian security forces in disarray, the challenge of restoring […]

Russian legislators voted on Jan. 15 in support of a reform package aimed at streamlining cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Human rights advocates welcomed the move, which comes after years of Russian opposition had stymied the process. “This is a long-awaited and positive move. Now more people in Russia and all of Europe will have better access to justice through the European Court,” Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Director Holly Cartner said in a press release. The “Protocol 14” reform measure will streamline and expedite the process for hearing cases before the Strasbourg-based court, in […]