Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
If a report from Reuters is to be believed, Kim Jong Un will not have the same power over the DPRK that his father and grandfather did, at least not for the time being: (Reuters) – North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week’s death of Kim Jong-il, although [...]
The protests that resulted in the effective takeover of a Chinese fishing village by protesters upset with their local government have come to an end: WUKAN, China — Villagers who had carried out a prominent protest against what they called land seizures by officials and business people agreed on Wednesday to halt their demonstrations after [...]
It didn’t take very long after the removal of American troops, for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki to begin trying to consolidate power: BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Sunni vice president denied charges he ran a hit squad that killed government officials during the nation’s wave of sectarian bloodletting, accusing the Shiite-led government Tuesday of waging [...]
How can we know what happens next in North Korea when we didn’t even know Kim Jong-il had died?
A tumblr blog. Stephen Green observes: What’s interesting is that every picture is identical, in that there is nothing to see — no people, no activity, no nothing — outside of the Dear Leader, his entourage, and his immediate focus. Much like whatever it is Dear Leader happens to be looking at, the rest [...]
Rick Perry appears to be the first Presidential candidate to comment on the death of Kim Jong-il, and it would appear he didn’t give it much thought: AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today released the following statement regarding the death of Kim Jong II: “The death of vicious dictator Kim Jong Il provides some cause [...]
These videos from North Korean State Television that have been released since Kim Jong-il’s death was announced are, in a word, bizarre. First up, here’s the official announcement from state television: And here’s footage of North Koreans “overcome with grief” in Pyongyang: It all looks remarkably similar to what we saw in 1994 when his [...]
Vaclav Havel, who spent the 70s and 80s as a playwright-turned-dissident protesting in his own way against the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia and then became leader of the country in the 1990s, has died at the age of 75: PRAGUE — Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down [...]
As Dave Schuler noted earlier this week, a fishing village in southern China has become the site of a rather remarkable revolt against central authority. The leadership in the village fled town shortly after the protests began, and the protests continue, but there’s a small army building up outside town and it seems like the [...]
The Christian Science Monitor is out with a story that Iranian engineers are claiming that they were actually able to electronically take control of the RQ-170 drone captured last week: Iran guided the CIA’s “lost” stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the US military, according [...]
Via Ed Driscoll, here’s a fascinating piece from Australian television earlier this year about what is apparently a huge phenomenon in China right now, entire cities devoid of people: There’s been talk for several years now that China was a bubble that was about to pop. When I see things like this, I’ve got to [...]
Time Magazine has chosen “The Protester” as its Person Of The Year. Let the outrage ensue.
Paul Krugman’s latest column, “Depression and Democracy,” is simply bizarre.
Newt Gingrich’s comments about Palestinian nationhood came up during last night’s debate.
After stints in Florida and France, he now heads to Panama. Via the BBC: Ex-ruler Noriega heads for Panama to serve jail terms The 77-year-old has already spent more than 20 years in French and US prisons. Last month, a French court approved a request from Panama to send him back home to be jailed [...]
Forget being outraged if the cashier at the local Wally World said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” for a real Christmas smack-down, you have to head to Asia. Via the BBC: N Korea furious at South’s Christmas lights plan North Korea has warned South Korea of "unexpected consequences" if it lights up a Christmas [...]
Once again, Newt Gingrich speaks without thinking.
Syria’s leader Bashar Assad is in full denial mode: PARIS — A defiant President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, speaking in a rare television interview broadcast on Wednesday, denied ordering the bloody crackdown that has convulsed his land for the past nine months and disputed a United Nations estimate that 4,000 people had been killed as [...]
The costs of keeping the American war machine in Afghanistan rolling are pretty steep: Parachuting a barrel of fuel to a remote Afghan base takes sharp flying skills, steady nerves and flawless timing. It also costs a lot of money—up to $400 a gallon, by military estimates. But the Pentagon is stuck with the expense [...]
While the example from the other day was an issue of a potential danger, this example is all too active. Via the AP: Vietnam: 100,000 killed, hurt by abandoned weapons More than 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured by land mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, [...]
As part of the blowback from the accidental deaths of two dozen Pakistani soldiers in a NATO helicopter raid, the U.S. is leaving a base in Pakistan used in drone operations: In another sign of deteriorating relations with Pakistan, the United States is vacating an air base used to launch American drones in response to [...]
The Iranian military claims a U.S. drone was shot-down in western Iran, but all the United States is admitting is that plane is missing: A secret U.S. surveillance drone that went missing last week in western Afghanistan appears to have crashed in Iran, in what may be the first case of such an aircraft ending [...]
The BBC provides an example of the long reach of war: WWII bomb in Rhine near Koblenz successfully defused Bomb disposal experts in the German city of Koblenz have successfully defused two bombs from World War II found in the riverbed of the Rhine. [...] The bigger of the two bombs weighed 1.8 tonnes and [...]
Exit polls for Duma elections show a loss of seats for Putin’s United Russia. Via the BBC: Putin’s United Russia party suffers exit poll blow Exit polls in Russia’s parliamentary elections point to a sharp drop in support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Polls for Russian state TV and the state-backed polling [...]
Via the BBC: ‘End of virginity’ if women drive, Saudi cleric warns A report in Saudi Arabia has warned that if Saudi women were given the right to drive, it would spell the end of virginity in the country. The report was prepared for Saudi Arabia’s legislative assembly, the Shura Council, by a well-known conservative [...]
Political instability in Iraq nearly became a reality earlier this week: BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister says a bombing in the Green Zone earlier this week was an assassination attempt against him. During an interview with The Associated Press Saturday, Nouri al-Maliki said the parliament building or speaker also could have been targets but preliminary [...]
There’s a little historical revisionism going on on the right.
The British government has reacted pretty quickly to yesterday’s embassy attack in Teheran: The UK is to expel all Iranian diplomats following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced. He said he had ordered the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London. Tuesday’s attack by hundreds of protesters [...]
Well, this sounds familiar: Dozens of hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The mob moved into the diplomatic compound two days after Iran’s parliament approved [...]
That’s what Wolfgang Münchau at The Financial Times says: Technically, one can solve the problem even now, but the options are becoming more limited. The eurozone needs to take three decisions very shortly, with very little potential for the usual fudges. First, the European Central Bank must agree a backstop of some kind, either an [...]
The fallout from Saturday’s friendly fire incident, in which two dozen Pakistani soldiers were mistakenly killed by NATO helicopters, continues to widen. On the civilian side, American flags were burned in protests by members of the public no doubt riled up by extremist elements: Tensions between the United States and Pakistan boiled over as angry [...]
Tensions between Pakistan and the U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan are threatening to turn even more sour today after an apparent friendly fire incident: Pakistani officials on Saturday accused NATO of conducting a helicopter attack on two military checkpoints at the northwestern border with Afghanistan, in strikes that military officials said killed at least 25 [...]
Current events have underscored who holds political power in Egypt in the post-Mubarak era.
“The debt crisis is burrowing ever deeper, like a worm, and is now reaching Germany.”
Rick Perry wants a no-fly zone in Syria to prevent ground forces from harming civilians.
No doubt eager to shore up some semblance of foreign policy credibility, Rick Perry sat down with Charles Krauthammer and a few other Fox commentators yesterday and went further than any other Republican candidate when it comes to the uprising in Syria: In an appearance on Fox News Monday evening, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said [...]
The protesters have returned to Tahrir Square, and so has the violence.
The last major holdout from the Ghadafi regime was captured today in Libya: TRIPOLI, Libya – Muammar Qadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam was captured in a southern Libyan city along with two of his aides who were trying to smuggle him out of the country, a militia commander said on Saturday. Bashir al-Tlayeb of the Zintan [...]
Herman Cain has either doubled down on his foreign policy ignorance or proven himself a man of great nuance.
My latest for The Atlantic: “Some Reasons Not to Worry About Republican Foreign Policy Craziness”
Via the BBC: Obama visit: Australia agrees US Marine deployment plan Australia has agreed to host a full US Marine task force in the coming years, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced at a news conference with US President Barack Obama in Canberra. She said about 250 US Marines would arrive next year, eventually being [...]
