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JERUSALEM — One of the many strange features of the Sept. 6 event involving Israeli overflights of Syrian airspace is the peculiar route through which the world has gradually discovered what happened — or what might have happened — on that possibly fateful night. Normally, one would expect Israeli reporters, the ones with the best contacts, sources and understanding of Israeli operations, to uncover and report details about such a secretive operation. Not this time. The much-discussed operation, now described by Israeli journalists in half-mocking tone as “The alleged air strike that the IDF did or did not carry out […]

Iraq’s refugees tell heartbreaking accounts of suffering, displacement, and shattered dreams, but these refugees represent more than mere human interest stories. Collectively, the outpouring of millions of Iraqi refugees into a very small number of neighboring countries poses a dramatic security threat to the Middle East, and there is no sign that threat is going away. In the lead up to the Iraq war, most of the U.S. government discussion about refugees assumed that refugee flows would be sudden, massive and brief. When more than a million Kurds fled Iraq into Turkey and Iran in 1991 to avoid Saddam’s wrath, […]

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — As the third day of a military crackdown on protestors begins in Burma, the mass movement is at a critical juncture. Following the arrests of hundreds of monks in the past two days, the demonstrations that had reached a peek participation of around 100,000 earlier in the week have simmered down, though tens of thousands are still marching. Meanwhile, reports on the ground indicate Burmese military forces are massing in Yangon and the administrative capital at Naypyidaw. Government crackdowns against protesters escalated early Thursday when large-scale pre-dawn raids on Buddhist monasteries throughout Yangon were carried out […]

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may have surprised many within his own Liberal Democratic Party with his decision to resign, but the party showed it was capable of pulling off a surprise of its own by choosing veteran lawmaker Yasuo Fukuda as its new leader. Most observers had expected former Foreign Minister Taro Aso to succeed Abe, including the financial markets, which actually saw a jump in the stock prices of manga-related firms in expectation that manga fan Aso was set to take over. But Aso’s closeness to Abe, and his determination to stand by the embattled prime […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Ever since Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stepped in to act as a mediator between rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government, hopes have been raised about the possibility of brokering a deal to secure the release of high-profile hostages held by the guerrilla group. But difficult obstacles to an agreement remain. Chavez’s active role has been enthusiastically welcomed by the international community, the Colombian government and by the FARC. “President Chávez’s . . . ability, his shrewdness, and the prestige he has gained on the continent will help to resolve the […]

Every Monday at 10 p.m. for the past several weeks, millions of Iranians have been hunkering down in front of the “Bearded Box” — as Iranians like to call Iran’s state-controlled television, since bearded clerics are so often all there is to see on it. They are tuning in, however, not in order to listen to yet another representative of the state clergy, but rather to follow a TV series on the persecution of the Jews in the 1940s. Even the Wall Street Journal has enthusiastically reported on the series: underscoring thereby that Iran’s state-controlled television — unlike the President […]

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization last week announced that it is contemplating scaling back its highly publicized NATO Response Force, the Alliance’s rapid reaction military force and its catalyst for military transformation. As is often the case for NATO, the real world intruded on its military ambitions. “There is an examination underway” within NATO to see how to sustain the response force, which requires a steady state of 25,000 troops trained and ready to deploy, said spokesman James Appathurai at a press briefing in Brussels. “We could have an NRF that is not always at 25,000” he postulated, “rather than […]

When I heard the news that protesting Buddhist monks in Burma had managed to reach the home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week, a wave of cold dread washed over me. My mind traveled back to the time a few years ago when I tried to reach Suu Kyi’s home on University Avenue in Rangoon (now named Yangon by the brutal military rulers of Burma, itself renamed Myanmar by the same illegitimate government). My thoughts then moved further back in time, to 1988, when street protests led by the astonishing Suu Kyi ended in tragedy. By some […]

AT THE UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK — The fanfare that opens the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session is played on the sirens of New York police cars trying to clear a path through Manhattan traffic for the motorcades of visiting world leaders. New Yorkers are resigned to this autumnal ritual that causes midtown streets to be closed and fills the city’s hotels to capacity — at prices inflated for the occasion. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where President Bush overnighted Monday while in town to deliver the inaugural address the following morning became a fortress, surrounded by hundreds of New York’s […]

For approximately 36 hours last month, the U.S. Air Force lost track of half a dozen nuclear weapons. Although Air Force leaders characterize the event as a unique occurrence, the incident will likely encourage opposition to the Bush administration’s Prompt Global Strike plan, which aims give the United States the option of using nuclear and non-nuclear weapons on the same delivery systems. On Aug. 30, the crew of an Air Force B-52H Stratofortress unknowingly carried six nuclear-tipped AGM-129 cruise missiles while flying from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Throughout the three-and-a-half-hour […]

MADRID, Spain — Let justice takes its course: A fine phrase to cap an argument, but not one you’re likely to hear from Europeans in a state of high moral dudgeon over terrorists being confined in cages at Guantanamo. From the objectionists, expect no more than a glare in reply to the question, “Well, then, what would you do to keep terrorists from killing more innocent people?” A minority, however, will sometimes make a profession of faith in civilized Europe’s instruments and institutions for administering justice, based on due process and humane and corrective sanctions for the guilty. That is […]

Recent weeks have seen intense interest displayed in the English-language media to signs of a potential reorientation of French foreign policy under new President Nicolas Sarkozy. Following the publication earlier this month of former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine’s report to the President on France and “Globalization” — which, as the extensive extracts published on World Politics Review show, was largely misinterpreted by the media as a plea for change — some seemingly improvised remarks by current French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner gave renewed impetus to such discussions. During an hour-long interview on the French talk show “Grand Jury” on […]

Since taking office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has articulated a new paradigm to structure Western engagement with Africa. This paradigm dispels the idea that Africa is a sick and helpless continent for the West to rescue and instead calls for robust European-African partnerships to manage Africa’s genuine challenges of violence, poverty, and corruption. True to his reputation as a man of action, Sarkozy has already transformed these ideas into practical policies, and the result has been a flurry of promising and innovative diplomatic initiatives concerning Africa over the past two months, especially vis-à-vis the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. If one […]

CAMBODIA CHARGES SENIOR KHMER ROUGE OFFICIAL — Cambodian authorities have arrested the Khmer Rouge’s ideological chief, Nuon Chea, to answer charges at a United Nations-backed tribunal that he planned and helped execute the murders of up to 1.7 million people. Chea, the most senior surviving member of Pol Pot’s murderous regime, was arrested Sept. 19 and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The move comes less than two months after the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) issued formal charges on July 31 against Kaing Guek Eav (better known by his alias, Duch) who ran S-21, […]

In his role as national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie is one of the key figures in the Iraqi government. Shortly before General David H. Petraeus presented his Iraq report to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 10, reporter Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche met with Rubaie at his home in Baghdad. In a 90-minute interview, the British-trained neurologist spoke about progress in Iraq, continuing challenges, and the consequences of a withdrawal of American troops. World Politics Review presents this wide-ranging interview for the first time in English. -o- Next week will be a crucial moment for Iraq. General […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — President Evo Morales wants to “refound Bolivia.” His Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa wants to “correct the barbarities committed by the party-ocracy.” Their chosen method — like Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez before them — is a new constitution. Ecuador will elect a Constituent Assembly on Sept. 30; Bolivia’s version has been deliberating since June 2006. Meanwhile, Chávez himself is trying to reform the 1999 constitution that he promulgated, including provisions for a new six-hour week and a much-publicized change in the country’s time zone. The moves are far from unprecedented. For Latin American constitutions, life has often been nasty, […]

TEL AVIV, Israel — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East this week, and while her stay in the region may be short, her to-do list is very, very long. Just two months before a Mideast peace conference is scheduled to be held in Washington, the meeting’s exact purpose, agenda, and list of participants remains the subject of much speculation. Indeed, recent rumor even has it that the November conference might not take place at all, because the Palestinians are doubtful about its prospects. Palestinian reticence to attend the conference may still turn out to be a […]