Reviving the Pacific Solution: The Houston Panel Recommendations
August 14, 2012 by Binoy Kampmark
The Houston panel briefs the media on their findings. Alan Porritt/AAP
This is a story of embittered stinginess that never ends. Poorer countries have done more, and have been more conspicuous in the way they have been flooded (yes, flooded) by refugees. Nation states with porous borders, located in areas of regional conflict, have had to live for generations with the movement of displaced peoples. But it seems to be a golden rule that the richer the country, the more pinched it becomes.
Australia, land of amoral mining advocates and rising living prices, couldn’t care a fig. Distance doesn’t so much make the heart grow fonder but harder. It also makes it more irrational.
Paul Ryan In, Foreign Policy Out
August 14, 2012 by John Lyman
U.S. Special Operations service members with Special Operations Task Force South board two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters following a clearing operation in Panjwa’i district in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on April 25, 2011
With former Gov. Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) lacking virtually any significant hands on foreign policy experience, and President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden commandeering foreign policy as their main accomplishment, and as some would argue, their only accomplishment, a reasonable foreign policy debate, it would seem, is something that voters are going to be robbed of. Which given the many challenges facing the United States internationally, is unfortunate.
Inevitably, if going by the 2008 campaign, a presidential debate will feature foreign policy as a theme, but with likely voters publicly acknowledging in poll after poll that team Obama has done reasonably well internationally, the Romney campaign is unlikely to chip away significantly at this perception.
Iran: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
August 14, 2012 by Michael Koplow
I don’t know if you guys have heard, but apparently Israel is about to go to war with Iran. Not only that, but it doesn’t actually matter what is happening in Israel or the rest of the world, because any event or environment can be interpreted to mean that an Israeli strike is just around the corner. In fact, an imminent Israeli attack can be predicted based on two diametrically opposed sets of facts.
For instance, in May it was reported that the decision to attack was imminent because Israeli officials were being uncharacteristically silent, and this speculation meant that an attack was about to come. As one unnamed Israeli official said, ”Nobody is saying anything publicly. That in itself tells you a lot about where things stand.”
Tensions Mount over The Liancourt Rocks
August 14, 2012 by Sudhanshu Tripathi
A demonstrator bares a shirt declaring the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands as Japanese territory. Image via Al Jazeera
South Korea and Japan have never been the most amicable neighbors. Ill-feelings resulting from Japan’s treatment of Korean’s during the Second World War still haunts many South Koreans. A fresh diplomatic row between South Korea and Japan over The Liancourt Rocks, that dates back several centuries, may permanently damaged relations between these two Asian powers. South Korea refers to the islets as “Dokdo” while Japan refers to them as “Takeshima”.
With the surprise visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak to the group of islets has forced a publicly annoyed Japan to recall its ambassador in protest.
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