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ASIA HAND
No war, no peace in Thailand
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has presided over a period of detente in the country's still unresolved political conflict, even as her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra remains in self-exile. The sustainability of Yingluck's present position hinges on the interplay of her own threatened legal standing, Thaksin's strategic mindset, and the royal household's state of health. - Shawn W Crispin
(Mar 27, '13)
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Passing the buck on North Korea
East Asian and Western calls for China to crackdown on North Korea, which surface each time the former's "little brother" launches another nuclear provocation, ignore the regional instability that would be unleashed if Beijing really cut off Pyongyang. The same critics seem blind to the real goal of the North's brinkmanship: security assurances, diplomatic recognition and trade concessions from the US. - Nadine Godehardt and David Shim
(Mar 27, '13)
'Third front' is no alternative for India
The departure of the DMK party from India's ruling coalition has lead to renewed talk of opening a ''third front'' in the country's politics. Such talk reflects more the ambitions of various leaders no longer in government rather than a practical option for the future.
- Kunal Kumar Kundu
(Mar 27, '13)
Musharraf returns as Pakistani democrat
Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has returned from self-exile amid death threats from Islamist extremists, criminal charges from the now-powerful judiciary, and his own aspirations for political power. The former dictator enters the stream as a democrat in the May general election but is unlikely to make much impact on a very changed country from the one he left four years ago.
- Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(Mar 27, '13)
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Iraq, 10 years later
Appreciation of Iraqi suffering was as absent from US coverage of last week's 10th anniversary of the invasion as at the time, with few Americans dwelling on the lives destroyed then or on the corrupt, failing state created today. As the two potential pillars of the US legacy - dismantling a dictatorship and delivering security - rapidly crumble, all that's left is chaos and death.
- Dahr Jamail
(Mar 27, '13)
Blunt sanctions fail to deter Iran
A new report based on interviews with senior Iranian political officials, analysts and businesses, shows that sanctions are failing in their stated aim of changing the course of Tehran's nuclear program. Amid the undercurrent of economic curbs as a means for effecting regime change, the blunt tool of sanctions must be sharpened by better diplomacy.
- Jasmin Ramsey
(Mar 27, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
The politics of expediency in India
The Indian government is paying more attention these days to policies on crucial matters of national interest, largely with an eye fixed on gaining votes in next year's general election. More than that expediency is required in the world's largest democracy if genuine efforts at social emancipation and welfare are to bear fruit. - Sunil Kumar
(Mar 26, '13)
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THE ROVING EYE
BRICS go over the wall
Atlanticist, Washington-consensus fanatics who say the BRICS grouping is on its deathbed are blind to the reality that its members - while protecting the global economy from casino capitalism - will increasingly take a political role in a multipolar world. As the North is overtaken by the global South at a dizzying speed, all stagnant and bankrupt Western elites can do is cling on for grim life. - Pepe Escobar
(Mar 26, '13)
No clear path to Suu Kyi victory
Democratic steps in Myanmar that have seen Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy rehabilitated politically raise the prospect of her winning general elections set for 2015. In chasing victory, perhaps a bigger challenge for the pro-democracy icon than overcoming constitutional provisions barring her presidential candidacy will be convincing the military-dominated parliament to release its grip on power. - Aung Tun
(Mar 26, '13)
Xi tightens bonds with Moscow
The deepening bond between Beijing and Moscow, highlighted by Xi Jinping making Moscow his first port of call as Chinese president, has immense implications for the world - especially the United States. Indeed, it appears that Washington may have made a failed attempt at a "divide and rule" stratagem before Xi's Russian trip. - Brendan O'Reilly
(Mar 26, '13)
COMMENT
China can defuse North Korea time-bomb
Time is of the essence if an impending nuclear disaster at the hands of North Korea is to be avoided. As China's three most-senior foreign policy officials, including new Foreign Minister Wang Yi, have rich experience with the diplomacy of the issue and appreciate the need to achieve denuclearization peacefully, their intervention is not only desirable, it is necessary. - Joseph R DeTrani
(Mar 25, '13)
Sri Lanka thumbs nose at UN vote
The Sri Lankan government has struck a defiant posture and gained public support for its stand after a United Nations vote last week criticized its human rights record. As President Mahinda Rajapaksa pushes to consolidate his grip on power, his desire to fend off international pressure over war crimes allegations is likely to fuel the authoritarian streak.
- Sudha Ramachandran
(Mar 26, '13)
China's elderly exposed to suicide risk
Suicide rates in China's general population have fallen dramatically amid rapid urbanization and economic growth, but the breakdown of traditional communal structures has exposed the elderly to greater risk, particular after the death of a spouse. Innovative ways to keep suicidal thoughts at bay have been found, yet more needs to be done to increase mental well-being.
- Cameron Frecklington
(Mar 26, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Not a decent banker around
The evidence, from JP Morgan's grilling in the US Senate to the European Union's blundering over the Cyprus bailout, is only too clear: the public and private sectors in Europe and the US cannot produce a decent, competent banker between them. - Martin Hutchinson
(Mar 26, '13)
US resets Middle East compass
The Barack Obama-mediated phone call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week was historic in being a formal apology for an Israeli sin, even as it was also crude PR. More importantly, Turkish-Israeli reconciliation impacts the overall strategic balance in the Middle East and has profound implications for the Iran question. - M K Bhadrakumar
(Mar 25, '13)
SPENGLER
Obama converts
to neo-realism
With an Israeli-Palestinian agreement as unlikely as at any time in the past two decades, President Obama went to Israel for one simple reason - where else in the Middle East could he go? With the Passover holiday imminent, it was also a useful place to declare his own personal Exodus from idealism (as in Cairo 2009) to neo-realism and recognition of who is the US's only Mid-East ally.
(Mar 25, '13)
The Battle of Cyprus
The rejection by Cypriot legislators of a proposed levy on bank deposits is a victory for democracy over a confiscation plan that was long in the making by bureaucrats whose concerns range far wider than a small island in the Mediterranean. The push to confiscate savings is a wake-up call to how tiny cadres of elites call the shots and the rest of us pay the price. - Ellen Brown
(Mar 22, '13) |
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TAP surges ahead
of Nabucco-West
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project is now far better placed than the Nabucco West pipeline as to which will carry Azerbaijani gas to Europe, leaving the European Commission with its initial problem - how to undo Gazprom's quasi-monopoly in southeastern and Central Europe - Vladimir Socor
Putin takes on Nigeria Navy
Russian President Vladimir Putin will raise with West African leaders this week the case of the Myre Seadiver and its 15-man Russian crew, who were arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges in Nigeria last October. At the core of the case are the issue of arms found on board and the business role played by the Nigerian Navy. - John Helmer
CREDIT
BUBBLE BULLETIN
Cyprus and money
Market participants have appeared confident that the German government will talk tough before caving and bit-by-bit backstopping the entire euro zone. Last week's high-stakes drama over Cyprus may have market players rethinking a few things.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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Two First Ladies from
the world of socialism
It is becoming increasingly difficult not to allow the memories creeping up from the antics of my mind. The “First lady-style” — as Chinese newspaper Global Times titled the feature on Peng Liyuan wife of China’s president Xi Jinping — was also a hot topic of conversation in Moscow during the latter half of the 1980s when I lived and worked there…
- M K Bhadrakumar
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