Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The nascent Chinese-Russian entente is not news since the relationship has been steadily broadening and deepening for more than a decade. But there is increasing evidence suggesting this relationship is part of a growing global ideological conflict between consolidating democracies and dictatorships.
Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, discussed the history of cross-Strait relations in the ten years since the missile crisis, and argued that Taiwan and China must co-develop a mutually acceptable peace and stability framework to manage the security situation in the Taiwan Strait.
If the U.S. and other Western powers decide to bypass the United Nations Security Council on the radioactive question of Iran's nuclear program, the internationalists will accuse them of undermining international law and order. Policymakers should tune them out. The world remains chaotic enough that the substance of international security must still trump procedure.
there is still a diplomatic opportunity that can resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran. The Iranians need a package of incentives to relinquish their nuclear program and it is really only America, and not the Europeans, that can offer Iran what it wants and needs. The time has come for a US-Iran rapprochement.
Ukraine's revolution of fall and winter 2004 brought lasting social change to the country. However, the country must still manage the Russian relationship and overcome domestic obstacles to economic and political development.
Authoritarian leaders around the world have recently started to crack down on democracy-promotion efforts in their countries. The Bush administration's pro-democracy bombast has not helped matters, but has contributed to the false idea that political liberalization is a U.S.-driven phenomenon.
The riots ignited by the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten's derogatory images of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) have escalated into violent protests that are no longer aimed at the offending newspaper or even against its homeland, Denmark. Protesters in several Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Indonesia, have targeted American and other Western interests as well as Christian churches.
Paul Pillar’s new Foreign Affairs article--full of stunning insights and revelations--is required reading for all concerned with accountability for the misinformation provided to the American people before the war and with the wisdom of restructuring the intelligence agencies before a full investigation had been completed.
Several developments has turned the tide against the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The political fortunes of the DPP, which rose to power in 2000 by championing a new Taiwanese identity and recklessly challenged the fragile status quo in the Taiwan Strait, has been waning. Its leadership has lost credibility, both with a majority of Taiwan's voters and with Washington.
The U.S. should de-link its concerns about backsliding Russian democracy with other areas of security and economic cooperation with Russia. The U.S. must work closely with the Russians on, for example, halting nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, but these goals should not prevent the U.S. government from promoting democracy and civil society and defending human and civil rights.