Nuclear Fallout — In an essay for Dawn.com Rafia Zakaria mulls the meaning of ‘the bomb’ in Pakistan’s collective consciousness. “The bomb that was supposed to deter and defeat has been unable to frighten anyone into leaving us alone,” she writes. “It has revealed, instead, the flimsy remains of our national pride and a confused, …
international news
Global Briefing, May 30, 2011: Control Freaks and Calls to Arms
Last Legs— Panicking over the demonstrations, Assad has backtracked on economic liberalization, reports our correspondent in Syria. Will economic collapse end his rule?
Control Freaks — America’s response to the ‘Arab Spring’ is an attempt to re-assert its control over the region, argues Soumaya Ghannoushi at AJE. “After watching …
Global Briefing, May 27, 2011: Remembering Srebrenica
Mladic, Behind Bars — General Ratko Mladic, the alleged architect of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, was arrested yesterday. Dejan Anastasijevic explains why it took so long; The Atlantic mulls parallels with Pakistan and Osama bin Laden raid; The Christian Science Monitor features their Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the massacre. …
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 …
Global Briefing, May 10, 2011: American Narcissim, Russian Woes
The Obama Doctrine(s) — The American Prospect critiques President Barack Obama’s foreign policy. “Obama doesn’t have a doctrine of foreign policy; he has a style,” writes Joshua Foust. “As a result, his decisions are often constrained not by guiding principles but by circumstances.”
Pyrrhic Victory — Will Osama bin Laden’s …
Global Briefing, May 9, 2011: Socialists, Sellouts and Star Witnesses
Lessons Learned — On Battleland, Mark Thompson mulls the most important lessons of the OBL saga; TIME editors Nancy Gibbs and Bobby Ghosh and political columnist Joe Klein discuss the implications — short-term and long — of the killing.
Open Doors —In the Hindu, Nirupama Subramanian urges India to take advantage of the …
Global Briefing, May 5, 2011: Super Dogs and Corporate Scoundrels
Rules of Engagement — “To accept that the bin Laden raid was legal, is, in effect, to acknowledge publically that what we are actually conducting in Pakistan is a kind of war,” writes Raffi Khatchadourian for the New Yorker. “In his death, bin Laden has forced this admission from us.”
Closed Doors— As migrants continue to flee the …
Global Briefing May 4, 2011: Friends, Foes and Final Frontiers
Friends or Foes — The fact that Pakistani officials weren’t informed of the U.S. operation carried out on their soil, is the strongest sign yet that Washington no longer trusts its ally, writes Omar Waraich from Islamabad; In the Telegraph, Praveen Swami says Pakistan “conned” the West on Bin Laden.
Asian Implications — In the Jakarta …
Global Briefing, May 3, 2011: The Disease of Empire
After Osama — U.S. Presidents are tasked with telling the national story in times of tragedy and victory. For President Obama, today’s story is about a nation coming out of decline, writes TIME’s Michael Scherer.
The Scene — Omar Waraich visits Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Bin Laden was killed; TIME’s Ishaan Tharoor explores the …
Global Briefing, May 2, 2011: Bin Laden is Dead
Osama’s Obituary — “I am a person who loves death,” the inspiration of the 9/11 attacks one said. “If I am to die, I would like to be killed by the bullet.” The U.S. obliged him on Sunday. Read TIME’s account of his life and death. His life in pictures, here.
Symbolic Victories — “The killing of Osama bin Laden is more of a …
Global Briefing, April 26, 2011: Apocalypse Still
No return — Twenty five years after Chernobyl, TIME considers the disaster’s legacy and its lessons; Krista Mahr writes about what it’s like reporting in Japan’s nuclear zone.
America’s Shame — Amy Davidson’s sharp take on the Guantanamo files cuts to the dark heart of the matter: “We sacrificed our values and our moral standing …
Global Briefing, April 25, 2011: Love Letters and Wedding Hate
Guantanamo Files — The story of the day is the leak of 700 documents related to the notorious American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The disturbing details are, frankly, too many to list. To get you started, the Guardian has a useful summary and the New York Times’ multimedia package is worth a look. See the original documents, …
Global Briefing, April 21, 2011: Gimme Shelter
Troublemakers — Damascus claims subversives out of Lebanon are inciting unrest in Syria, says Nicholas Blanford in a dispatch from Wadi Khaled. But his visit to the border seems to provide evidence that the traffic is the other way around.
Killed in Action — Two photojournalists were killed in Libya yesterday. The New York Times‘ …