As this blog has been reporting, some countries have a lot of water and other countries do not have enough. In a more perfect world, normal forces of supply and demand would render the former a producer and the latter a consumer. But as arguably the most valuable resource in the world, water is an […]
Alright, I’m pretty sure I’ve got you confused already by the title. Let me explain. Much has been leaked that the upcoming Obama policy plan for Afghanistan will take a ‘minimalist‘ approach to the crucial, yet troubling security situation in South Asia. In other words, Obama may downplay talk and attempts to create a democratic […]
Good news for both states as building begins for a railroad to carry non-lethal NATO supplies through Russia to Afghanistan. Radio Liberty reports that “The cost of building the 146-kilometer link is estimated at $131 million.” Let’s hope the building continues at a reasonable pace and leads to development on both sides of the border. Tajikistan’s […]
Last night I led my local Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decision discussion group on the Afghanistan/Pakistan conflict. My presentation largely stemmed from FPA’s Great Decision article written by Afghan expert and US government consultant on Afghanistan, Barnett R. Rubin, and an accompanying video debating the key issues of the conflict. I strongly recommend getting the […]
The Council on Foreign Relations today published an interview with Pavel Felgenhauer, the outspoken Putin opponent and astute defence analyst with Anna Politkovskaya’s old paper Novaya Gazeta, about all the main geopolitical questions facing Russia today. The most interesting part of this was his assertion that Russia believes that the US missile shield in Eastern […]
Gordon, a scholar at the Brookings Institute, has been appointed as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, though he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. EurasiaNet reports that this is a political appointment as Gordon is a close associate of Obama’s with little experience in the former Soviet Union. Apparently, this […]
Patrick French, a scholar and one with family connections in Pakistan’s Swat region, recently allowed to be ruled by Sharia law by the Paki government, argues that this is a disastrous policy. He asserts that the Swat settlement was an appeasement of radical Taliban leaders who will continue to foment unrest and violence further and […]
President Obama has officially named Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry as his choice to be the US ambassador to Afghanistan. Eikenberry, a career military man, was the top US commander in Afghanistan until 2007. Though some are concerned about giving such a key diplomatic spot to a military leader, I feel this is an excellent choice. […]
The holocaust drama The Reader edged out Waltz with Bashir, a film about Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, for the Oscar because “Hollywood likes its Jews… hunched over and dressed in rags”, not waging morally ambiguous wars, Bradley Burston wrote in Haaretz. Similarly, America likes its Russian artists defecting from their home country and condemning its […]
After President Obama’s announcement last month that he was sending in 17,000 more US troops to fight for stability in Afghanistan, it seemed that there were few who thought it a bad idea, though some surely did, and the American people seemed to back the plan according to several polls and newspaper articles. The main […]
Registan’s critique of scholarship on Islam in Central Asia got me thinking. The writer, Nathan, focuses on Soviet scholarship, but I am more familiar with Central Asia under tsarist rule. Either way, Nathan critiques the scholarship Islam in Central Asia because it typically starts from the postulate that Muslims are inherently violent fanatics. He is […]
So while many news outlets, including yours truly, made fun of Nazarbayev’s plan for a world currency, a Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell thinks it’s quite plausible. He was the architect of the euro and believes the idea could be expanded. I continue to seriously doubt it, Nobel prize or not. I see Nazarbayev’s remarks […]
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