Today the NY times published the link to the much-anticipated non-partisan review report on the conduct of US CIA and other secret service personnel and installations including Guantanamo, after 9/11. The nearly two years of interviews, research and on-site visits… Read More ›
Foreign Policy 
Changing Legal Context of Torture: US Policies Raise Legal and Ethical Questions Concerning the Use of Torture to Gain Intelligence and Information
The most unlikely consequence of 9/11 has been the astounding change in the US policy on torture and the use of torture to gain access to information and intelligence. Not long ago, the US was the champion of human rights… Read More ›
BRICS, the United States and Africa: Taking on the World Bank
The attached article in the International Policy Digest has interesting information concerning the potential establishment of a BRICS bank (BRICS denotes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The bank is estimated to have a potential to start with core… Read More ›
Obama’s Silent War: US Drone Strikes Cause Disproportionate Civilian Collateral Kills in Pakistan
A joint Stanford/NY University study on the human costs of President Obama’s drone wars in the fight to eliminate terrorism has found that only 2% of strikes resulted in the successful targeting of high-level terrorist targets but that a much… Read More ›
China’s Renew Definition of “Core National Interests” Has Huge Implications for Island Disputes with Japan and in the South China Sea
The new Chinese leadership is loosing no time in redefining its understanding of “core national interests” and how these interests would be pursued through its global foreign and strategic policy. The situation was just clarified in Premier Xi’s first policy… Read More ›
Stabilization of the DRC: Recommendations for Immediate Measures to be taken by the UN, the International Community and the Congolese Government
The situation in the DRC continues to confound the international community, in particular the challenge of maintaining political commitment in the Security Council to take resolute action to remedy a conflict that has dominated their consideration for well over a… Read More ›
President Obama’s Vision of US as a “Pacific Nation” Hangs in the Balance on Outcome of US Elections Result
President Obama’s announcement that the US is a Pacific nation, after 200 years of acting like an Atlantic nation, signifies the most important shift in US foreign policy vision since the Marshall Plan and Eisenhower doctrine. Seen by China as… Read More ›
Obama’s Foreign and Strategic Policy
When Barak Hussain Obama came to power in 2008, he was elected on the hopes, struggles and aspirations of generations of Americans, that looked to him to introduce a more progressive US approach in foreign and strategic relations, and perhaps… Read More ›
US Foreign Policy Towards Europe: Coalition of the Like-Minded?
Since the WWII years, the US relationship with Europe has been premised on guaranteeing global peace and security, and ensuring that a global conflict such as a world war, never comes to pass again. A significant aspect of the relationship… Read More ›
The Truth About Syria: Regional Spillover and Theories of Conflict Causes
The Truth About Syria: Regional Spillover and Theories of Conflict Causes.
US, Israel and Iran: Opportunities and Black Holes
Pressure is mounting in global discourse between Iran and Israel, as the former grapples with hosting international (Non-Align Movement) conferences and fatal earthquakes, while the latter vacillates between seriously considering unilateral strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and securing their borders… Read More ›
US Foreign and Strategic Policy Towards Africa
When President Bill Clinton signed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act on 18 May 2000, his initiative was greeted with a significant amount of skepticism. Yet big business and particularly resource exploration corporations and the oil industry got behind the… Read More ›
The Truth About Syria: Regional Spillover and Theories of Conflict Causes
Over the last week, reports from the ground level and from those that have fled Syria* for safe havens have been coming through, sharing a lot of information about where they are, what is going on in Damascus and in… Read More ›
Russia and China: Partners or Competitors When Facing US Foreign Policy?
The most striking image to come out from the G20 meeting in Mexico was the one included in this post of Putin consulting with Hua. Putin’s demeanor is full of respect and is almost deferential to his Chinese counterpart, the… Read More ›
The 11th Commandment: Thou Shall Regime-Change
Since Summer 2010 and the commencement of the “Libya sequence”, we have been living in a parallel political universe, where the United States of America is GOD and there is an eleventh (11th) Commandment that rules our world: Thou shall… Read More ›
The US-Israel Relationship: Who is Leading Who?
The common belief is that Israel and the Jewish lobby in America control a number of important financial, political and foreign policy processes and outcomes in the USA. This is because of an inexplicably close relationship between the US and… Read More ›
The "Smart Power" Approach toward Pakistan Needs Work
Reblogged from Chanakya's Notebook: Winning over Pakistani hearts and minds is proving difficult Two new reports provide further insight into the breakdown of U.S.-Pakistan relations. The first, put out by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, charts the growing hostility of… Read More ›
Russia’s Motivations and Objectives in Syria: Decaying Power or Re-emerent Supernova?
In my last few blogs on Russia and the Return of Tzar Putin, I predicted that Russia and Putin would look for a larger global role and seek to return Russia to its former “glory” as the Soviet Union. The… Read More ›
France’s Hollande Could Play the Quisling of the EU
A few weeks ago when Hollande was elected as France’s new populist President, I wrote a blog which drew comments and criticism, but today in retrospect, was completely on target! As Hollande’s Presidency unfolds and his dynamic interacts with a… Read More ›
The ICTR: Has the work of the Prosecution Ensured Reconciliation Amongst the Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda?
Yesterday I was privileged to listen to a presentation by the ICTR President and Presiding Judge Vagn Joensen of Denmark at the New York Bar Association. I was impressed with his modesty and his wizard legal mind that has contributed… Read More ›
