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Russia’s use of force against Georgia – a close ally of the U.S. in a strategic region for oil and gas transport – is the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall that Russian forces have violated another country’s sovereignty and international law. A resurgent Russia is testing the will of the international community to hold it responsible for its actions.
Despite President Bush's condemnation of Russia's continued attacks on Georgia, the international community has yet to form a united response to the crisis. Western powers must make it clear that Russia will pay a high price for its actions through political and economic sanctions and possible suspension of the NATO-Russia relationship.
Russia’s response to Georgia’s large-scale military operation in South Ossetia transformed the conflict from a regional dispute over an obscure ethnic group into an emerging international crisis between Russia and the West. While Georgia may have succeeded in causing Russia to move in with heavy forces, the United States and Europe need to pause and think before following Saakashvili's script.
The ascension of China and Russia as autocratic global powers will redefine the power balance within the international community. Robert Kagan and Francis Fukuyama debate how the United States can successfully manage this transition.
Despite the collapse of the Doha trade talks this week, the global food crisis is creating the basis for longer term progress on a new agricultural trade regime. Key differences over agriculture as well as manufacturing and services trade seemingly stymied a final deal, but progress on farm talks bodes well for an eventual pact that better reflects the needs of developing countries and the poor.
John McCain continues to rely on neoconservative foreign policy advisers and he still thinks U.S. foreign policy should focus on transforming rogue states and autocracies into democracies that live under the shadow of American power. But such a plan would create gratuitous tensions with countries like Russia and China.
Dr. Ayad Allawi, Former Prime Minister of Iraq and current member of the parliament held a discussion on Iraqi politics in which he stressed the importance of reconciliation, including reaching an agreement on Iraqi refugees, the internally displaced, and the disarmament of militias.
For a meeting dubbed the "World Economic Forum" (WEF), Davos isn't nearly cosmopolitan enough. Of the 6,000 or so people who make up the top of the world's power pyramid, about one-third were from Asia, and that number is increasing on an almost daily basis. But, despite tectonic shifts in world markets and politics, Asian attendance at Davos remains disproportionately low.
The authors of a new policy report from the Working Group on Development and the Environment discussed the impacts of agricultural trade liberalization on sustainable development in Latin America.
Carnegie's Thomas Carothers gives an in-depth interview on the proposed "League of Democracies" with Dallas’ NPR-affiliate, KERA. Carothers discusses the problems a league or concert of democracies would face in defining and selecting democratic member states—further undermining the credibility of U.S. democracy promotion efforts around the world.
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