WPR Blog Archive

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group met today in a closed meeting to discuss the current state of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In an e-mail interview, Thomas de Waal, senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, explains where negotiations stand today. WPR: What are the principle issues that still need to be resolved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? De Waal: The fundamental unresolved issue in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the same one that triggered the conflict back in Soviet times in the Gorbachev era in February 1988: the status of the disputed territory […]

I once again had the pleasure of appearing on France 24’s week-in-review program last Friday, “The World This Week,” along with IHT Executive Editor Alison Smales, RFI’s Philip Turle and the Sunday Telegraph’s Anne-Elizabeth Moutet. The subjects were the U.K. election, the Greek Debt Crisis, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to China. Part one can be found here. Part two can be found here. I’ll also, once again, take the opportunity to add some subsequent thoughts that the discussion triggered. With regard to the British elections, I can’t make any predictions […]

Rights advocates marked World Press Freedom Day yesterday, emphasizing the ways in which media freedom remains a contentious issue in many parts of the world, as journalists continue to risk their liberty and lives in the pursuit of their profession. Even as the Internet has increased the ability of individuals to sidestep official controls and disseminate information to a wider audience, harassment and attacks on the media continue worldwide. In releasing its annual “Predators of Press Freedom” list, Reporters Without Borders added the names of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and […]

Walter Russell Mead is worth reading on the Greek debt crisis, here and here. Nice to see I’m not the only one who thinks the EU response ultimately produced the most potentially effective, if still uncertain, outcome. But I still seem to be the only who thinks that, and that the EU will get by with some added economic governance along the edges. The Lisbon Treaty was an institutional tweak from which people expected miracles. Once we get past the post-messianic letdown, things won’t seem that bad. Oh, and by the way, for everyone going on about Angela Merkel’s “failure […]

– If you’re wondering about the nuclear liability legislation that’s holding up implementation of the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, Pragati has a great backgrounder. – Ajai Shukla’s got a gem on how Pakistan is busy protecting itself in the NWFP from extremist militants that New Delhi is convinced are targeting India: Longstanding linkages still remain between the Pakistan Army and the jihadis it midwifed. And where both sides find a convergence of interests, they can still work together. But only in India does the belief still run strong that the Pakistani establishment controls and directs the jihadis in a meaningful way. […]

The commanding officer of Japan’s counterpiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden recently announced that Japan would be building a base in Djibouti for the forces serving on the mission. In an e-mail interview, Ayako Doi, associate fellow of the Asia Society, explained the significance of what the AFP called Japan’s first overseas military base. WPR: What does this move respond to? Doi: Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) began its anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia last March, with a dispatch of two navy destroyers equipped with a set of patrol helicopters and carrying about 400 sailors. The mission was […]