By: Richard Gowan | Column
Do articles about the U.N. really have to be relentlessly
depressing? Over the past six months, this column has dwelt on such
bleak topics as the Security Council’s failure to halt the Syrian crisis
and the mounting dangers of U.N. peacekeeping in various trouble-spots.
Yet despite the bad news, it is arguable that the U.N. has had a good
year on many other fronts, and focusing solely on its problems is
unfair.
By: Anthony Dworkin | Feature
Two and a half years after Tunisia launched the wave of
uprisings that spread across the Arab world, the North African country
still provides the best hope for the establishment of a sustainable
democracy in the region. The transition in Tunisia has been fraught and
at times precarious, and it continues to face a number of risks. These
challenges are real, but they shouldn’t detract from the significance of
what Tunisia is on track to achieve.
By: William Lawrence | Feature
In July 2012, amid the euphoria of historic elections,
Libya’s future seemed brighter than ever, and the promise of its Arab
Spring seemed closer at hand. But one year later, Libya’s transition
continues to confound and dismay most observers. This is in part because
insecurity and infighting have slowed the pace of the transition. But
it is also due to the fact that we do not fully understand Libya’s
specificities and therefore its trajectory.
By: Jeffrey W. Hornung | Briefing
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic
Party swept this past weekend’s House of Councillors elections. This is
good news for Abe. With a majority already in the lower house, the LDP
win provides Abe an opportunity to advance his political agenda. Yet Abe
should not expect an easy road, due to the issues he has chosen to
tackle and the consequences they may have on his standing in the party.
By: Richard Weitz | Column
In addition to their growing energy and renewed arms trade,
another sign of the strengthening Russia-China relationship was their
recently concluded bilateral naval exercise. The drills were larger and
more sophisticated than those held last year. But they are still far
from establishing a capacity for joint maritime combat operations, which
does not appear a goal of either government in any case.
By: Stefan Wolff | Feature
Yemenis have high expectations of the country’s National
Dialogue Conference. The conference, part of the Arab Spring’s only
negotiated transition so far, is of great significance not only for
Yemen, but also for the wider region and beyond. Making a success of it
is vital for the continued existence of Yemen as a state—literally, by
offering a credible alternative to Southern secessionists, and
figuratively by avoiding a descent into civil war.
By: Joshua Kucera | Briefing
In June, Kyrgyzstan’s president signed a law “annulling”
the country's agreement with the U.S. to host an air base in his
country. The significance of the law is unclear, and it could be a
bargaining ploy to gain more favorable terms for a new agreement on the
base. But the passage of the law has highlighted how U.S. interest in
Central Asia is destined to diminish as the U.S. extracts itself from
Afghanistan.
By: Steven Metz | Column
The community of national security experts is consumed with
debate on the appropriate size and configuration of the U.S. military.
Seldom does a week pass without some new report, commission or
conference offering advice on this complex topic. Such vigorous
discussion is a good thing, but it may be focused on the wrong
issue—ultimately the size of the armed forces matters less than what
they are asked to do.
By: The Editors | Trend Lines
In an email interview, Kristof Titeca, senior research
fellow at the University of Antwerp’s Institute of Development Policy
and Management and the University of Ghent’s Conflict Research Group,
described the ADF’s background and its recent resurgence.
By: Alain Guilloux | Briefing
Recent floods in northern India are a stark reminder of the
extent of destruction wrought by natural disasters. Year after year we
hear of the same hazards seemingly striking in the same places, be it
floods, droughts or typhoons. Yet far from the media glare, localized
and low-intensity recurrent disasters wear down the resilience of
communities around the world through displacement and the loss of
livelihoods.
By: Saurav Jha | Briefing
India’s trade relations in the Indian Ocean region have
progressed chiefly along bilateral lines. But with China’s economic
overtures increasingly frequent and backed by commercial heft, India
finds that it can no longer take its geo-economic position in the region
for granted. To counter China, India seems to be trying to establish a
multilateral mechanism for trade and investment that China may have to
join.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment