WPR Articles 16 Mar 2013 - 22 Mar 2013

Diplomatic Fallout: Germany Pushes Back on British, French Crisis Diplomacy

By: Richard Gowan | Column

Last week, European leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, resisted efforts by the U.K. and France to end the EU ban on arming Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. The move sent a signal about the limits of London and Paris’ ability to define the bloc’s approach to major crises, especially if Germany is prepared to block their initiatives more consistently than in the recent past.

Global Insights: Russia’s Putin Should Seize U.S. Shift on BMD

By: Richard Weitz | Column

The Obama administration’s decision to adapt U.S. BMD plans in response to the threat posed by North Korea provides an opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to set aside the protracted but unnecessary dispute with the U.S. over BMD. Putin is the one person in Russia who could make the concessions needed to pursue stronger Russia-U.S. cooperation on the more important interests they share.

China Needs More People Power to Control Pollution

By: Scott Moore | Briefing

China’s major cities are notorious for their pollution, but visible signs of threats to human health are thrusting environmental hazards into the public eye like never before. The thousands of dead pigs turning up in Shanghai’s waterways are only the latest example. Judging by both history and the experience of other countries, Beijing needs to take public opinion seriously to avoid future environmental crises.

Subatomic Politics: Particle Physics and Science Diplomacy

By: Barry C. Barish | Feature

The popular interest in the scientific questions studied by particle physicists, coupled with the international and nonpolitical nature of the field, makes it an ideal and somewhat unique tool for science diplomacy. Especially with regard to the "science for diplomacy” aspect of science diplomacy, where scientific cooperation can improve international relations, particle physics has had and will continue to have a significant impact.

In Delicate Balance, Sudan Courts Both Iran and Saudi Arabia

By: Daniel Large | Briefing

Sudan has been pursuing some eye-catching regional diplomacy in recent weeks, with simultaneous high-level visits to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Sudan’s relations with Iran have long been prominent in regional politics. Its more concerted outreach to Saudi Arabia has become more visible in 2013, driven in part by the desire for rapprochement with Riyadh, as well as by Sudan’s chronic need for external investment.

More Police Death Squads Contribute to Honduras’ High Homicide Rate By: Catherine Cheney | Trend Lines Honduras is the homicide capital of the world. This is due in part to widespread and growing gang violence, but recently there have been reports that Honduran police themselves are organizing death squads. Progress Stalls on Moldova-Transnistria Conflict By: Stefan Wolff | Briefing On March 5, the pro-Western government coalition in Moldova collapsed, compounding the significant difficulties already facing the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. After a period of positive momentum over the past two years, negotiations have stalled and optimism has dissipated. But the challenges must be confronted if the two-decade conflict between Moldova and Transnistria is to be resolved. Cooperation in Orbit: The Evolution of the International Space Station Program By: Eligar Sadeh | Feature Orbiting the Earth once every 90 minutes from nearly 250 miles up, the International Space Station is as much a political achievement as a technological one. From its conception to its realization, the ISS has been a scientific and technological project with political dynamics, and ISS partner countries continue to give the space station political support for a variety of reasons that bear examining. But the ISS also has broader political implications beyond its partner countries. Côte d’Ivoire’s Ouattara Puts Economic Recovery Ahead of Political Reconciliation By: Arthur Boutellis | Briefing Two years after the end of Côte d’Ivoire’s post-election crisis, in which more than 3,000 people were killed, it remains unclear what direction the country will take. President Alassane Ouattara has restarted the economy and made some initial efforts at security sector reform, but now the reconciliation process has stalled. The lack of progress on national reconciliation bodes ill for upcoming local elections. Diplomatic Chill: Politics Trumps Science in Antarctic Treaty System By: Anne-Marie Brady | Feature Tension is rapidly accelerating in Antarctic affairs on a range of issues, all of them relating to sovereignty and resources, putting increased pressure on the Antarctic Treaty that has governed the continent and Southern Ocean since 1961. At the time it was drafted, the treaty represented an innovative approach to defusing potential tensions over sovereignty arising in Antarctica. It now looks like an antiquated gentleman’s agreement desperately in need of reform. Global Insider: Ten Years In, ICC’s Acquittal Rate is Extraordinarily High By: The Editors | Trend Lines In an email interview, William Schabas, a professor of international law at Middlesex University, explained the problems the International Criminal Court has faced in prosecuting cases. Global Insider: North Korea’s Armistice Nullification is More Bark Than Bite By: The Editors | Trend Lines In an email interview, Balbina Y. Hwang, a visiting professor at Georgetown University and a former adviser at the U.S. State Department who has written extensively on the Koreas, discussed the significance of North Korea’s withdrawal from the 1953 armistice that stopped the Korean War, and its likely impacts. Strategic Horizons: Strategic Retrenchment the Smart Way By: Steven Metz | Column There is increasing agreement among national security experts that the U.S. strategy of the past two decades is politically and economically unsustainable, so Washington must cut its security commitments and scale down engagement around the world, particularly when it involves the U.S. military. Given all this, the question is not whether the U.S. will undertake strategic retrenchment, but where and how much. EU Leadership Faces Major Turnover With Coming Departures of Ashton, Van Rompuy By: Catherine Cheney | Trend Lines Both Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, have announced their plans to step down at the end of next year. Pemex Proves Resistant to Peña Nieto’s Reform Drive By: Sean Goforth | Briefing Since taking office, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has mounted an assault against the country’s entrenched monopolies. Peña Nieto first took on the teachers union, then the telecom industry, explaining his aim was to “transform the country.” Still, despite the reform momentum, restructuring state-owned oil giant Pemex will prove far more difficult due to political and constitutional hurdles. PKK Cease-Fire Creates an Opportunity, If Not Yet a Breakthrough By: Catherine Cheney | Trend Lines Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has called for a truce with Turkey, with which the Kurdish rebel group has fought for 30 years. World Citizen: Measuring Obama’s Success in Israel By: Frida Ghitis | Column From the moment President Barack Obama’s trip to Israel was announced, the administration undertook a systematic effort to lower expectations. On that count, the president’s trip succeeded before it started. Practically no one expects the visit to achieve any kind of a historic triumph. Given the deliberately minimized ambitions, how will we know if this much-anticipated tour was worth the president’s time? Global Insider: South Africa’s Police Problems a Reflection of Society at Large By: The Editors | Trend Lines In an email interview, Andrew Faull, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Criminology who has written extensively on public policing in South Africa, explained how South Africans view the country’s police, and the police force’s evolution since the apartheid era. The Realist Prism: China’s Xi Aims to Shore Up BRICS Influence By: Nikolas Gvosdev | Column Xi Jinping is in Russia as part of his first trip since becoming president of China. He will then move on to Durban for his first BRICS summit, where he will have a chance to engage with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Xi's choice of countries to visit on his first foreign trip is no accident -- it will be a first test of his ability to course-correct China's growing problems in foreign relations.

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