Because we are not limited, as Western men are, to business suits, women have greater discretion when it comes to semiformal attire. But it was only when I attended a World Economic Forum dinner in northeastern China that I discovered that the dress code for ladies extended to tablecloths. Dotted around the banquet hall in the …
Why Obama’s U.N. Speech Won’t Raise U.S. Credibility in the Middle East
In a U.N. General Assembly address to which the world looked for a meaningful response on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, President Barack Obama delivered a pretty good domestic reelection campaign speech. Pro-Israel voters and donors in the U.S. will have been reassured by the President’s passionate assertion of …
Ahmadinejad’s Words Aren’t Taken Seriously at the U.N. But Are Obama’s?
NBC may have been seduced into doing a credulous exclusive “Day in the Life of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad” special — as if the embattled Iranian president was sufficiently relevant to world events as to warrant interest in his workout routine — but no decision-makers will set much store by what he says when he turns up for his annual …
The Assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani: An End To Reconciliation?
In Afghanistan, the turban transcends tribe. It is worn by all ethnic groups, from the Tajiks and Uzbeks that dominate the north, to the Pashtuns who reside in the south. The Taliban wear turbans, but so do the tribal militias fighting them. Though out of fashion among the young and urban, it is still the symbol of a man’s honor …
Hacking Scandal: Rupert Murdoch Offers $4.7 Million Payout to Bereaved Family
Update: Scotland Yard has “decided not to pursue” its plans to force the Guardian to reveal their sources.
Back in July, News International chief Rupert Murdoch met with the family of Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl whose phone was tapped by News of the World after she went missing in 2002. According to the family’s lawyer, …
Netanyahu to Abbas: Why Not Kibbitz in New York?
“Let’s use New York for negotiations,” Israel’s minister for intelligence suggested to a roomful of journalist and diplomats bright and early Monday morning. And before the witching hour Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was making it official:
“I call on the chairman of the Palestinian Authority to launch direct …
Is This How Wars Start? India and China Now Feud Over the South China Sea
Last week, one of the world’s most intractable disputes got even stickier. News leaked that the international-arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was in talks with the government of Vietnam over hydrocarbon exploration rights in the South China Sea. In most parts of the world this would seem a …
Can a Palestinian Authority Rooted in an Untenable Status Quo Survive the U.N. Clash?
Quiz question: Who is applying to the United Nations for membership of a Palestinian state not-yet-born? Is it
a) the Palestinian Authority, or
b) the Palestine Liberation Organization?
Much of the media reporting treats the two as if they were interchangeable labels for the same thing — hardly surprising, perhaps, given …
Dispatch from Birmingham: Despite Many Travails, Nick Clegg and LibDems Brim with Optimism
There was a moment during Nick Clegg’s Q&A Monday at the annual Liberal Democrat Party conference in Birmingham where a questioner asked if Clegg was feeling “hopeless and embarrassed” to be sharing a government with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The question had to do with a scandal earlier this year over the hiring of …
Obama’s Taiwan Conundrum: Should the U.S. Authorize More Arms Sales?
U.S. presidents have reason to not relish decisions on selling arms to Taiwan. Say yes, as Barack Obama did in January 2010, when he approved the sale of $6.4 billion worth of equipment including Patriot air defense missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and two Osprey mine-hunting ships, and you anger China. China considers Taiwan to be …
With Forceful Messaging, Can the U.S. Alienate the Taliban?
When militants serving the Haqqani Network attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008, killing 54, it took several months for suspicions to leak out that the group may have been behind the attack. Not so with last week’s commando-style assault on the U.S. Embassy and other sites in the capital. Within hours Afghan officials were …
Vladimir Putin: A Candidate for China’s Version of the Nobel Peace Prize
Last year, a day before the imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia in Norway, a group of Chinese scholars with ties to the Chinese Culture Ministry announced the victor in the inaugural Confucius Peace Prize. According to the 100,000-yuan (around $16,130 at today’s exchange rate) …
Palestinians’ Political Calculus: Would Obama Take a Stand Against the Arab Spring?
Behind the bold decision by Palestinian leaders to press for full membership in the United Nations – with its risk of a U.S. veto in the Security Council – is the Palestinians’ calculation of another risk: All the Obama administration stands to lose by conspicuously denying the aspirations of a moderate, democratic national …