Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Afghanistan this week at a crucial time for both countries and the troubled state lying between them. India and Pakistan have been engaged in a regional power struggle for influence over Afghanistan, and events of the last two days seemed to underline their differences. A day after India …
Fukushima: Er, Sorry…Worse Than We Thought.
In the two months since Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was pummeled by a quake and tsunami, no news has generally been good news.
Unfortunately, today, there’s some news.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced on Thursday that the damage to fuel rods inside Unit 1′s reactor core is worse than the …
Poor Panama. China’s Just Not That Into You.
The list of countries that have chosen diplomatic relations with Taiwan over mainland China reads like an exercise in national obscurity. The 23-nation compendium includes Burkina Faso, Tuvalu and Saint Kitts and Nevis, along with Palau, Swaziland and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Nevertheless, the People’s Republic has assiduously …
Bin Laden’s Diary: War Plans, or Musings from the Landfill of History?
“Since the end of the last civil war, the colonel had done nothing else but wait. October was one of the few things which arrived.” At least, it arrived for the aging military commander whose life is described in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “Nobody Writes to the Colonel Any More”. For Osama bin Laden, this year, the Navy SEALs …
Haiti’s Own “Birthers”: Martelly Refutes Citizenship Rumors
Does Haitian President-elect Michel Martelly, who is set to be inaugurated on Saturday, May 14, have his own “birthers” to contend with? In recent weeks the former Carnival singer, who won Haiti’s runoff election on March 20 by a landslide, has felt compelled to answer rumors that he has U.S. citizenship – which would effectively …
A Game of Two Halves: Can Soccer’s Governing Body FIFA Finally Clean Up Its Act?
Where were we when we last discussed the soap opera that is soccer’s governing body (and veritable global behemoth), FIFA? Ah yes, President Sepp Blatter — who, given the power of his position and the popularity of the sport, is arguably as influential as the Pope — claimed he was going to clean up the sport for good if re-elected on …
Global Briefing, May 12, 2011: Big Love and Big Spenders
Talking Torture — Sen. John McCain condemns the use of so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ in an important, if overwrought, op-ed for the Washington Post.
Common Ground — In Foreign Affairs Jonathan Kay explains why Americans should care about the Canadian election. His take: “Canada will align more closely with the …
Angry with the U.S., What Can Pakistan Get Out of China?
ABCNews reports that Pakistani authorities may be willing to share with their Chinese counterparts the charred wreckage of the detonated U.S. stealth helicopter used in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. Anonymous Pakistani officials claimed the Chinese, whose military harbors a not-so-secret ambition to match American capabilities …
Schengen Revision: The Backstory To Tightening Europe’s Borders
Mystery solved–of sorts. As noted in a recent Global Spin post on moves to revise the Schengen treaty, alterations now being suggested by European Union officials are curious in two ways. First, they don’t really create any new powers for Schengen member states to re-establish border controls in the face of urgent situations; the …
Was the Slapdown of Ahmadinejad By Iran’s Ruling Ayatullah Good for America?
Iran wants to talk, again, about the nuclear standoff with the West. Laura Rozen reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, has written to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to request another meeting. The last round of talks, held in January, was so frustrating to the Western …
What Bin Laden’s Death Gives Us, And What It Doesn’t
The death of bin Laden is an opportunity for many things. A chance to reassess how we continue the war in Afghanistan, as reported in the New York Times today.
It offers the possibility of peeling the Taliban away from from al Qaeda, in the hopes that the earstwhile leaders of Afghanistan might eventually reconcile with the current …
Global Briefing, May 11, 2011: Paradoxes, Pots and Kettles
Osama’s Irrelevance — The Taliban won’t miss bin Laden, observes Julius Cavendish in a dispatch from Kabul. The goals of Afghanistan’s insurgency are national, and even many Taliban leaders resented al-Qaeda’s presence on their turf.
Pots and Kettles — In an interview with the Atlantic, Hilary Clinton lashes out at China, calling …
Have Foreigners Unwittingly Adopted Victims of Baby-Selling in China?
In recent years, one of China’s most beloved exports has been babies adopted by overseas individuals eager to complete their families and help needy children. Now an investigation by respected Chinese magazine Caixin has uncovered evidence of Chinese family-planning officials taking children from local couples who supposedly had …
