This Leila Fadel article about tensions among Iraq’s Kurds highlights how our contingency planning in Iraq takes Kurdish solidarity and stability for granted. In fact, both are pretty recent developments, and, counterintuitively, could be undermined by further stabilization of Iraq’s national political landscape. For all its stability, Iraq’s Kurdish region has made little progress in terms of democratic governance or rule of law. So as stability becomes more nationally widespread, and therefore less locally urgent, and as the Kurds begin to pursue their interests within the context of Iraq’s national politics, as opposed to in opposition to Baghdad, internal faultlines [...]
In answer to an inquiry from a reader, my take on the Greece crisis is that the politics vs. economics dilemma is pretty thorny for everyone involved. (See Nicolas Nagle’s WPR briefing today for a great background on that.) But the stakes are too high to let Greece or the euro fail, and so eventually, everyone is going to have to bite at least part of the bullet to seal a deal. Everything going on right now is brinksmanship, with everyone trying to get the best deal possible for their particular interests. But a neglected part of the story here [...]
To the extent that Gazprom represents a Russian tool for waging politics by other means, the emerging shift in European attitudes toward the company’s Nord Stream and South Stream pipeline projects signals that when it comes to energy security, the EU has adopted an “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach. Yesterday, during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Paris, French energy giant GDF Suez announced it would be taking a 9 percent stake in the Nord Stream project in order to secure increased Russian deliveries from 2015. And today, the EU’s energy commissioner said that the South Stream [...]
