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Top 10 Most Distasteful Things About Romney Trip to Israel

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Juan Cole - Jul. 30 (Opinion) - He is holding a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It is distasteful for an American political candidate to hold a high profile fundraiser abroad, implying a commitment to a foreign country as a means of reaching out to American interest groups (in Romney’s case, Christian Zionists among the evangelicals and the minority of American Jews who would be willing to vote Republican).

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Time for Change

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Philip J Cunningham - Sep. 20 (Opinion) - After half a century of one-party rule in Japan, a fresh approach to foreign policy and collective security is not really an option, it's a necessity. The Liberal Democratic Party, born of the ashes of WWII, branded with the imprint of US Occupation, has always been an odd hybrid, neither particularly liberal nor democratic, but an opportunistic mish-mash that was fine-tuned into a winning political machine.

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Pakistan- the Matryoshka Doll of terrorism

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Madhavi Bhasi - Mar. 02 (News Analysis) - Pakistan’s association with terrorism was re-defined after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. In the global war against terrorism Pakistan emerged as frontline state and pledged to sever ties with the Taliban, while supporting the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. It was expected that as an ally in the global counter-terrorism effort, Pakistan would convincingly clamp down on terrorists operating from its territory. Pakistan sought to demonstrate its willingness in combating terrorism through a variety military offensives ranging from the Lal Masjid action to Operation ‘Zalzala’. But involvement in the global war against terrorism was a phase of ecdysis and terrorism continued to flourish in Pakistan.

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Erdogan and Davos

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Howard Eissenstat - Feb. 19 (Opinion) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's outburst at The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, in which he called Israeli President Shimon Peres a baby killer and much besides before stomping off the stage in a huff has served as a sort of Rorschach inkblot test for many observers, with supporters of Israel being roundly critical of the Turkish Prime Minister and critics of Israel being broadly supportive of his actions.

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Imagine a war in Los Angeles with armor, jets, artillery

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - Jan. 12 (Special Report) - It has frequently been noted that the people of Gaza are trapped. They have nowhere to run, but I suspect that many have no idea how densely populated Gaza really is and how difficult it is for many people to find safe shelter. Thanks to one of my bright graduate students at Boston University, I offer the following data:

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Toward Genuine "Afghanization"

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh - Jun. 23 (Opinion) - It may be propitious to recall that 2/3 of Afghans are illiterate and that more than three quarters live in rural areas, very far from urban centers where aid has concentrated. Yet, it is the ordinary Afghans that really want things to work, not because of some instrumental reason of regional stability, curbing international terrorism, or preventing institutional failure, but because they simply want a better life. And simply put, their lives in the past seven years have not all that improved tangibly.

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Raining on the Wrong Parade

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Philip J. Cunningham - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - Holier-than-thou human rightists who clearly find it easier to pick on China rather than tend to more egregious violations in their own backyard contribute to the enmity. Unthinking nationalists, rag-tag hooligans and agit-prop activists who are looking to spoil China's shared moment of glory by disrupting the Olympics, whether it be in the name of asserting Western values, Darfur, Dharmasala or just for the hell of it, may find the wrath of the Chinese people, once riled up, unruly and liable to spiral out of control.

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Who Lacks Capacity? Using the Skills of the Opium Trade for Counter-Narcotics

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Barnett R. Rubin - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - Sometimes when a consultant tells me that Afghans lack capacity, I try to imagine my interlocutor being forced to survive in Uruzgan province with two jaribs of land and a goat. I wonder if this person would be capable of transferring billions of dollars from undocumented workers in the Persian Gulf to families living in remote villages with no banks or telecommunications. I wonder if he could transform a local conflict incomprehensible to outsiders into a million dollar business funded by superpowers that h have been convinced they have existential stakes in the outcome. I wonder if he could smuggle emeralds out of Afghanistan to buy weapons and ammunition in Ukraine and transport them across seven closed borders into the Panjshir Valley. I wonder if he could create a multibillion dollar a year industry in one of the world's poorest countries with no government by turning those handicaps into assets in a world with an insatiable demand for illegal addictive substances.

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Global Warming

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Thisayakorn - Mar. 05 (News Analysis) - The Kyoto summit is not only a too late and too little solution to the woe. It also creates a very bad side effect or I should say another woe. Restriction in consumption is good ...

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Islamabad: Parting Thoughts on Policy

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:49:34 -0800

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Barnett R. Rubin - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - The most common feeling toward the U.S. I have encountered is a kind of anger mixed with disappointment. Pakistanis are angry at the U.S. and consider it hypocritical because it has consistently supported dictatorship in Pakistan. Many are also baffled and furious because they see clearly the complicity of part of the Pakistani security forces with the Taliban on both sides of the border and cannot comprehend U.S. continued support for that same military.

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The Pessoptimist in Istanbul: Will Bin Laden Win?

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:47:37 -0700

Informed Comment: Global Affairs - By Barnett R. Rubin - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - It is no coincidence that al-Qaida, though led and conceived by Arabs, was founded in these borderlands. To Westerners it may appear that Bin Laden is now trapped in an isolated region. But this region, never fully integrated into the modern system of states, provides an appropriate seat for this transnational insurgency against that very system.

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