Does NATO membership serve a strategic purpose?

Iraq’s PM re-affirms Iraq’s commitment to the U. S. withdrawal date in the Status of Forces Agreement.

A capsule look at the world situation as 2010 draws to a close.

The latest Wikileaks leak is a list of foreign infrastructure sites deemed vital to U. S. security.

James Rubin at The New Republic complains that Wikileaks’s document drop of U. S. diplomatic communications doesn’t further the cabal’s own objectives: By and large, the hard left in America and around the world would prefer to see the peaceful resolution of disputes rather than the use of military force. World peace, however, is a [...]

The major outlets that received document drops from Wikileaks are covering the story in different and interesting ways.

The diplomatic ramifications of the latest Wikileaks leaks are just starting to emerge and may place some countries in very embarrassing positions.

What sort of response is required to Pyongyang’s ratcheting up of tensions on the Korean Peninsula?

The finger-pointing about the global economy continues.

Terrorism risk assessment: Russia at “Extreme Risk”, Greece at “High Risk”, U. S. at “Medium Risk”, Canada and Germany at “Low Risk”.

Food prices are rising in China. For us higher food prices mean we get fat a little more slowly; for a poor Chinese family it means starvation stalks a little closer.

The cholera outbreak in Haiti continues unabated; riots against UN peacekeepers have broken out.

We’ve been talking about the 2010 elections since, oh, the day after the 2008 elections.   Now, it’s time for final predictions.

It’s unlikely that the Chinese yuan will replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency any time soon.

The disaster that began last Monday in Hungary continues to unfold.

Is there a quiet cyberwar going on and we are just starting to notice it?

As a kind of footnote to James’s post, I wanted to draw some attention to a thought exercise that has been conducted at the blog Chicago Boyz. They have asked for and received a number of predictions of what Afghanistan might look like in forty years, all of which have been posted there. The posts [...]

There isn’t much doubt that China is manipulating its currency for competitive advantage. What can be done about it?

Four news items and articles about China that have caught my eye.

The United States has promised $150 million in aid to flood-ravaged Pakistan. Should we have?

What do the critics mean when they say that the United States should be more like Germany?

A verdict has been announced in the trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on a host of charges relating to his alleged attempts to sell the Senate seat formerly held by now-President Barack Obama. He’s been found guilty of a single count: making a false statement or representation. At this point few additional details [...]

The title says it all.

This year’s Zogby poll of public opinion in the Middle East exhibits a marked shift on the Obama Administration, Iran.

Does anybody here know anything about slide or film scanners or 8mm conversion?

I see that Tom Friedman has come around to the position on Afghanistan I’ve held since late in 2001: We should limit our presence and goals in Afghanistan to the bare minimum required to make sure that turmoil there doesn’t spill over into Pakistan or allow Al Qaeda to return. 8+ years ain’t bad for [...]

Three different ways they’re viewing the leaked “war logs” across the Pond.

Now we’re doubling down on the Karzai government.

We need to ask ourselves some tough questions on Afghanistan.

Do we care about lithium reserves in Afghanistan?

Since the announcement of the interdiction of the flotilla of aid headed for Gaza from Turkey and the attendant loss of life, I have wondered whether the widespread declamations that the Israelis’ actions were clear violations of international law and, consequently, those on the boats were fully justified in defending themselves were right or not. [...]

Should we be worried about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Yes. Should BP take whatever steps are necessary to stop the spill, remediate the harm done to the environment, reimburse those who’ve suffered losses as a consequence of the spill, and have their feet held to the fire until they do? Hell, [...]

David Sanger, writing in the New York Times, notes the familiar and deadly cycle of North Korean provocation: USUALLY, there is a familiar cycle to Korea crises. Like a street gang showing off its power to run amok in a well-heeled neighborhood, the North Koreans launch a missile over Japan or set off a nuclear [...]

To echo Brad DeLong, why, oh why, don’t we have a better pundit class? There is a similarity between the economy of China and that of France. Matt Yglesias doesn’t know anything about either one of them.

Tensions continue to rise on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel ROKS Cheonan by a North Korean torpedo on March 26, 2010 with the loss of the lives of 46 South Korean sailors. When the attack, presumably by a North Korean miniature submarine, occurred, the South [...]

The latest episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by recent OTB addition Doug Mataconis and The Oil Drum‘s “Heading Out,” aka Dr. David Summers, recently elevated to Emeritus status after 32 years teaching at Missouri S&T’s Rock Mechanics and [...]

. . . and call it peace. The Chinese have called for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula: North Korean ally China on Tuesday called for restraint amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, but again declined to endorse Seoul’s claim that Pyongyang sunk one of its warships. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said [...]

As I’ve observed here before I opposed the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 largely on prudential grounds and because I foresaw a situation not unlike the one we face now: the difficulty of achieving and maintaining a worthwhile objective by invading at a cost and in a timeframe that the American people will accept. Along [...]

Yesterday President Obama addressed the graduating cadets at West Point. The full transcript is here. As was proper and should have been expected, Afghanistan occupied a prominent place in the speech: This is the ninth consecutive commencement that has taken place at West Point with our nation at war. This time of war began in [...]

Oscar Wilde once wrote “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language”. I’ve got to admit that I just love the way our British cousins use our allegedly common tongue. Take this snippet of polemic from Scottish columnist Gerald Warner in the Daily Telegraph (AKA Torygraph): Do you see [...]

Joseph Nye (the gentleman who coined the term “soft power”) has written one of the best things I’ve read on China in a long time for the Financial Times. Here’s a snippet: In 1974, Deng Xiaoping told the United Nations General Assembly: “China is not a superpower, nor will it ever seek to be one.” [...]

You can choose any two. That’s economist Dani Rodrik’s take-away from the Greek debt crisis that is roiling the Eurozone right now: CAMBRIDGE — The $140 billion support package that the Greek government has finally received from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund gives it the breathing space needed to undertake the [...]

I’ve been stewing about this post for some time. Try as I might I can’t come up with a comprehensible explanation of our Afghanistan policy as a policy. George Will’s most recent column is as good a place to start as any in thinking about this: The ticking clock does not disturb the preternatural serenity [...]

Rodina Scenario, Rosy’s Greek cousin, is alive, well, and proposing solutions to the Greek debt crisis: The Greek government and the European Union (EU) leadership, prodded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are finally becoming realistic about the dire economic situation in Greece. They have abandoned previous rounds of optimistic forecasts and have now admitted [...]

Tyler Durden explains why the IMF is unlikely to dig Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain (the PIIGS) out of the hole they’ve been digging: Total PIIGS funding needs (defined as the sum of debt maturities and budget deficits) over the next 3 years amount to $2 trillion. Total PIIGS funding needs in 2010 alone [...]

UPDATE:  WE’RE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.  WE HOPE TO START THE SHOW AT 6. A special Thursday episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Megan McArdle, the business and economics editor of The Atlantic and the world’s tallest [...]

We haven’t posted much about it here but it’s certainly receiving a lot of attention on the other side of the pond. The ongoing fiscal problems of a number of the members of the European Union—Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, not so affectionately being referred to as “the PIIGS”—appear to be reaching the boiling [...]

It isn’t a single election that makes a country democratic but durable, persistent democratic institutions and the peaceful turning over of power as the result of a democratic election. Iraq under Saddam had elections; everybody always knew what the outcome would be. Tomorrow Iraqis return to the polls to elect a new national government. This [...]

Is education really the key to a bright economic future? That may not be the case in China: Reporting from Beijing – Six months after graduating from university, Guan Jian was unemployed and living in an 8-by-8-foot rented room on the fringes of this sprawling capital. His quarters were so hastily built that the landlord [...]

Don’t expect a “Green Revolution” to save us from having to face the challenges posed by the Iranian regime. Although some, like Gerald Seib, remain optimistic: Yet slowly, things appear to be changing. For one thing, the world increasingly views Iran’s mistreatment of its own dissidents as a problem on a par with its nuclear [...]