Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
Japan’s Global Re-Emergence: How Japan’s Active Diplomacy Strengthens the Foundations of the U.S.-Japan Alliance
The following is an abbreviated summary of the German Marshall Fund’s recently released Policy Brief “Japan’s Global Re-Emergence: How Japan’s Active Diplomacy Strengthens the Foundations of the U.S.-Japan Alliance” co-authored with Sharon Stirling Woolsey Japan has reappeared on the world stage. After 20 years of...
Change Turkey’s Electoral System
Photo credit: Zaman, Ali Unal Turkish ruling party AKP announced this week that a shift to the presidential system will be its top electoral agenda. The party, which has ruled more than any other party in Turkish history, is bracing to solicit votes for upcoming parliamentary elections with a promise that the country will be better shaped if led...
Sanctions – Impact on Average Russian Life
Co-authored by William Witenberg a contemporary artist focused on abstract painting Russia’s economy is suffering from dramatically lower oil prices, a rapidly declining ruble, interest rates that are an astonishing 17 % and western sanctions over Ukraine. We thought it might be interesting to share some of the effects that this economic...
Ukraine Sets Its Sights On Joining NATO
KIEV, April 9 (Reuters) – Ukraine, locked in conflict with Russian-backed separatists in its east, on Thursday drew up a new security doctrine denouncing Russia’s “aggression” and setting its sights on joining the U.S.-led NATO military alliance. Oleksander Turchynov, head of the national security council, told a session...
Ukraine Rebels Killed Captive Soldiers, Claims Amnesty International
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Amnesty International said Thursday that it has evidence that Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine have killed several captured government soldiers in gross violation of international humanitarian law. The human rights group said in a statement that footage it has seen shows at least four Ukrainian soldiers — now...
Foreign Agents
It’s time for a confession. I have worked as a “foreign agent.” When I lived and traveled in Asia and Eastern Europe, I was an employee of U.S.-based NGOs. I was paid by these organizations to promote social change in those parts of the world. I worked hand-in-hand with groups that often criticized their own governments. Of...
Iran Calls For Global Nuclear Powers To Disarm Weapons
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran accused the five nuclear powers Wednesday of failing to take concrete action to eliminate their stockpiles and called for negotiations on a convention to achieve nuclear disarmament by a target date.Iran’s deputy U.N. ambassador Gholam Hossein Dehghani told the U.N. Disarmament Commission that “a...
Judith Miller Clings to Her Own Stubborn Myths
Judith Miller recently popped out of the Fox News bubble for a quick jaunt to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the home base for John Bolton, Max Boot, and other neo-con hawks, to give her forthcoming book a little free advertising. In the process she attempts to whitewash her role as an influential pro-war voice in the lead-up to the Iraq...
Why Europe Backs Obama on Iran
PARMA, Italy — Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu seems close to ordering a general mobilization of his country’s military, and Republicans in the United States are preparing for a ferocious battle with President Barack Obama’s administration, in the wake of the framework nuclear agreement with Iran. And yet the framework...
Escalating Tensions Challenge U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council
Co-authored by Paul Arthur Berkman, Lloyd N. Axworthy, and Oran R. YoungUkraine escalates urgency to prevent an Arctic Cold War. Already events are moving in dangerous directions, undermining decades of east-west cooperation that have established the high north as a region of low tensions. As the U.S. resumes chairmanship of the Arctic Council...
