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Thai army: new line-up, same fault-lines
 Today's reshuffle of the Thai military top ranks, the first directly overseen by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, points to her party's bid to assert more civilian control over commanders responsible for the 2006 coup that ousted her brother, former premier and current ruling party de facto leader Thaksin Shinawatra. A rise in factionalism, with implications for political stability, appears the order of the day.
- John Cole and Steve Sciacchitano
(Oct 1, '13)
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THE ROVING EYE
Breaking American exceptionalism
What if the US government actually shut down to mourn the passing of Breaking Bad, arguably the most astonishing show in the history of television? It would be nothing short of poetic justice - as Breaking Bad is infinitely more pertinent for the American psyche than predictable cheap shots at Capitol Hill.
- Pepe Escobar
(Oct 1, '13)
SINOGRAPH
A devious blueprint
to empower the party
Everything has to change in order to change nothing. That is the central message of an ingenious blueprint for the Chinese Communist Party to retain power in the face of worries that reforms may stall and lead back to a Maoist path. According to the blueprint, in charting a course to make China great President Xi Jinping would do well to look to Western democracies for inspiration. Timing is everything.
- Francesco Sisci
(Oct 1, '13)
Middle East turns
a deaf ear to the US
The United States' authority in the Greater Middle East was slumping well before Barack Obama entered the Oval Office. The process has accelerated in the wake of the Arab Spring, with Egyptian generals, Saudi princes, Iraqi Shi'ite leaders and Israeli politicians now regularly defying Washington's diktats. The role reversal is a far cry from the pacified region neoconservatives envisioned. - Dilip Hiro
(Oct 1, '13)
Interrogating an Assad militiaman
Pro-government militamen or shabiha captured by rebel forces in Syria often admit to multiple killings and rapes, while claiming that poverty and violence coercion forced them to join the Assad regime's forces. Though shabiha are eager to make such confessions, telling all is unlikely to help them escape the rebels' brutal and rudimentary justice system.
- Shelly Kittleson
(Oct 1, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
A tectonic shift in the Middle East
As Israel and Gulf countries mull the implications a US nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran's allies are considering significance of the bonhomie for Iran's "axis of resistance". While it was domestic factors that eventually brought President Hassan Rouhani and President Barack Obama together, it is in the international arena that the dramatic shift will have its biggest impact.
- Pervez Bilgrami
(Oct 1, '13)
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Obama moves on Iran, Putin keeps Syria
Russian triumphalism over the UN resolution on Syria's chemical weapons contrasts with US President Barack Obama's inaudible sigh of relief at the weekend that he can avoid military action - for the present at least - and focus on the feelgood Iran file. Yet amid celebrations that Washington and Moscow actually agree on something, a dark foreboding is simmering away. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 30, '13)
A whiff of reform in Cambodia
The ease with which Cambodian Prime  Minister Hun Sen has brushed aside claims of electoral fraud and an opposition boycott of parliament following contested elections in July suggests a huge vote swing against him had little impact. Yet evidence of how the poll rattled him can be seen in uncharacteristic demands for reforms and accountability.
- Peter Tan Keo
(Sep 30, '13)
"Donkey ambulance" rides to the rescue
A new invention promises to carry mothers-to-be in Afghanistan across difficult terrain so they can get the medical care they need. The inflatable donkey saddle eases the burden of traveling in labor that makes many women lacking suitable transport opt to give birth at home - and risk not getting care if complications arise - rather than head to health centers. - Antoine Blua
(Sep 30, '13)
Islamabad forced to rethink India policy
As Pakistan increasingly realizes that terrorism and militancy are by-products of its strategic depth maneuvers in the 2000s, instinctive mistrust of India is fading. The benefits of peace will also soon become clear, with high hope invested in the success of bilateral dialogue that such as that between the countries' prime ministers on Sunday.
- Deedar Hussain Samejo
(Sep 30, '13)
Pakistan rots from the top down
Pakistan's capacity for change has been badly fractured as its moral, intellectual and political consciousness is undermined by incompetent, corrupt leaders. Unless the people can develop a collective consciousness and focus on putting a younger, educated generation in power, the violence will continue and Pakistan will never fulfill its destiny of becoming a peaceful Muslim nation.
- Mahboob A Khawaja
(Sep 30, '13)
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Tibetan father immolates in China protest
A father of two burned himself to death in Sichuan province in the first self-immolation protest against China's policies in Tibetan-populated regions in more than two months. The death brings to 122 the total number of Tibetans in China who have self-immolated calling for Tibet's freedom and for the return of the Dalai Lama.
(Sep 30, '13)
Turkey goes for Chinese take-away
 Turkey, a key NATO member, has gone for a US$3 billion Chinese take-away to ensure it has its own independent missile defense system. In ordering a version of the Hong Qi missile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be telling Washington it no longer sees Turkey as Europe's front line state in the Middle East, and aims to manage his relationships with Iran and Syria on a more bilateral basis. - Peter Lee
(Sep 27, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
How the US is
enabling Syriastan
The big news from Syria is how demented jihadis of Jabhat al-Nusra and other nasties have ditched US-supported "moderates" to pledge allegiance to a Syria with Sharia law. Follow the money, not Washington's fairytale belief in its ability to control disparate hardcore jihadi gangs, to shatter the myth that a "democratic" Syria is still in the making.
- Pepe Escobar
(Sep 27, '13)
 BOOK REVIEW
How the West
denied China's law
Legal Orientalism: China, the US and Modern Law
by Teemu Ruskola
This important book traces the remarkable hold Orientalist views demonizing China as lawless still have on political and cultural narratives about China's laws and legal institutions. It argues that at a time the word needs more accurate knowledge of Chinese legal concepts, present-day reforms equating to a "self-Orientalism" make that unlikely.
- Dinesh Sharma
(Sep 27, '13)
TPP a Trojan horse
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, planned to cover nearly 40% of the world's economy, is branded as a "free trade" agreement but has nothing to do with fair and equitable treatment. Its secretive commitments do, however, infringe mightily on the rights of individuals and sovereign states.
- Sachie Mizohata
(Sep 27, '13)
Obama: A hapless and wandering minstrel
Prospects for the Geneva process on Syria may be looking less dismal today than at dawn in New York on Tuesday. Yet, what lingers after President Barack Obama's United Nations speech is the sense of a lone superpower in a diminished role as a hapless regional power, unable or unwilling to assert itself. An era seems to be ending.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 26, '13) |
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China exports mask domestic weakness
Recent optimism over Chinese export numbers, and claims that the slowdown in China's economy may be bottoming out, may be optimism too soon. The fall in import growth serves as a worrisome signal of the core economic problem: declining internal demand.
- Tom Velk and Olivia Gong
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Many more defaults coming
In the past five years, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has allowed us a financial holiday from history, with defaults and disasters being remarkably scarce, given the severity and duration of the downturn. This is about to change. - Martin Hutchinson
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Z1 and the doves
An economy on firm footing would demonstrate at least a reasonable balance within the real and financial sectors. We instead see ultra-low interest-rates and inflated incomes, corporate cash flows and earnings and a Federal Reserve struggling with even the most timid reduction of monetary inflation.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Why Saudis are
upset with Obama
The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal used the meeting of the Friends of Syria ministerial forum meeting at New York on Friday to launch an attack on the US-Russian initiative on chemical weapons. He said the initiative should have been followed up with a UN Security Council resolution under Chapter VII.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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[Re Dangers in North Korean dual-track strategy, Sep 27, '13] North Korea is willing to talk to the US, but the Obama administration is deaf to Pyongyang's openness. Perhaps, Washington could learn something from its "diplomatic breakthrough" with Iran after 34 years, in changing its tone.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam
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