Global Geopolitics

The Taliban Torches a Lifeline

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
The United States is laying meticulous plans ahead of its 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan, but it has clearly overlooked how its continued drones strikes on the tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan will affect the much-anticipated pullout.

Washington Mulls Surprise Rouhani Victory in Iran Vote

By Jim Lobe
The surprise victory of Hassan Rouhani in Iran's Jun. 14 election has provoked a range of reactions here, ranging from cautious optimism about possible détente between Tehran and Washington to outright rejection of the notion that his presidency will produce any substantive change in policy, foreign or domestic.

Analysts Say Oil Could Help Mend U.S.-Venezuela Relations

By Jared Metzker
A shift in U.S. foreign policy towards Venezuela may be pending as a bilateral rapprochement suddenly appears more possible than it has in years.

Time for a Leap Forward for the European Union

By Pier Virgilio Dastoli
Three different models for regional unification have been proposed by the movement for European integration since its inception. One vision is a league of states that preserve national sovereignty while committing themselves to follow specific policies agreed by consensus.

Iranians Vote for Hope and a Change of Course

By Farideh Farhi
Iran's Jun. 14 presidential election results, announced the day after voting was held, were nothing less than a political earthquake.

Pressure Building for U.S. to Remove Cuba from ‘Terror Sponsor’ List

By Jared Metzker
Experts here are stepping up calls for the U.S. government to remove Cuba from an official list of "state sponsors of terrorism", arguing that the country's presence on the list is anachronistic and makes neither legal nor political sense.

Intra-Asian Security Ties Good for U.S. – Report

By Jim Lobe
Deepening security ties between East Asian nations offer substantial benefits to the United States as it "rebalances" its military forces towards the Asia-Pacific region, so long as the move is not perceived as a U.S.-led effort to contain China, according to a new report by a think tank close to the administration of President Barack Obama.

OP-ED: A Double Standard Won’t Do for Baku

By Eldar Mamedov
Kseniya Sobchak, a well-known Russian political activist and social butterfly, is an outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But, curiously, she seems to be taking a much softer line on Azerbaijan’s authoritarian-minded ruler, Ilham Aliyev.

Behind the Climate Finance Headlines

By Smita Nakhooda
Developed countries report that they delivered more than 33 billion dollars in Fast Start Finance (known as FSF), beyond the pledges they made at COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. Recent analysis suggests that the funding delivered may have exceeded 38 billion dollars.  But that is not the whole story.

U.S. Syria Hawks Can’t Get No Traction

By Jim Lobe
With Syrian government forces and their allies scoring a major victory over Western- and Gulf Arab-backed rebel forces this week, neo-conservatives and other anti-Damascus hawks are trying hard to turn up the pressure on President Barack Obama to sharply escalate U.S. support for the opposition.

Rice Replaces Donilon as Obama’s Top Foreign Policy Adviser

By Jim Lobe and Thalif Deen
In a reshuffle of top foreign policy posts in his second term, U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday announced that his controversial and blunt-spoken U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, will replace Tom Donilon as his national security adviser.

Overcoming “Strategic Suspicion” – Goal of Obama-Xi Summit

By Jim Lobe
This week’s relatively informal and unscripted summit between the presidents of the United States and China on a private estate in southern California is being welcomed by most analysts here as a virtually unprecedented opportunity for each side to gain a better understanding of the strategic aims of the other.

Shift in Latin America’s Approach to Drugs – from Security to Health Issue

By Louisa Reynolds
The drug problem should be tackled not as a security issue but as a public health question, with policies for "prevention, treatment and rehabilitation," delegations from the 34 countries participating in the 43rd General Assembly of the Organisation of American States agreed.

“Syria Peace Meeting Will Not Happen in June”: UN Envoy

By AJ Correspondents
A conference on ending the fighting in Syria will not happen in June, as planned, because both sides in the conflict are unprepared to attend, the U.N.'s international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said.

Japan Seeks to Remake Asia-Africa Relationship

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Acutely aware of China’s strong presence in resource-rich Africa, Japan, the world’s third largest economy, is beefing up its relations with the continent. Participants at a high-level donor conference hosted by Japan this week stressed the need for closer engagement, not through the traditional grants and assistance loans that have hitherto defined the relationship, but rather through trade and investment led by the Japanese private sector.

Historic Arms Trade Treaty Signed at U.N.

By Lucy Westcott
The United Nations witnessed a historic moment Monday with the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty, first adopted in April by the General Assembly, and the first time the 85-billion-dollar international arms trade has been regulated by a global set of standards.

U.N. Can Help Devalue Nukes as Geopolitical Currency

By Thalif Deen
When the 193-member U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) holds is first-ever high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament next September, there is little or no hope that any of the nuclear powers will make a firm commitment to gradually phase out or abandon their lethal arsenals.

U.S., China Seek Common Ground on North Korea

By George Gao
U.S. President Barack Obama is set to host his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Jun. 7-8 for their first bilateral meeting as heads of state. Figuring on their agenda is how to address a precarious North Korea, which is armed with a small nuclear arsenal and vying for a bigger one.

Syrian Rebel Setbacks Spur Renewed Talk of No-Fly Zones

By Jim Lobe and Joe Hitchon
A series of reversals for Syria’s rebels this month has prompted its supporters here to call for much greater U.S. military intervention in the civil war in order to give them a stronger bargaining position in advance of any peace negotiations.

OP-ED: Iranian Elections: Not About Us

By John Limbert
For Washington, obsessed with matters Iranian, it may be hard to accept a simple fact: Iran’s Jun. 14 presidential election is an Iranian event. If we attempt to make it about us, we will find ourselves on the same road that has previously led to multiple failures: Iran-contra; “goodwill begets goodwill”; and a non-existent two-track policy.  

U.S., China Woo Caribbean “Friends” Just Days Apart

By Peter Richards
First it was U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who travelled to Trinidad and Tobago Tuesday to speak with "our friends” in the Caribbean.
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