The Atlanticist

China Must Do More in South Asia

Damien Tomkins — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:41:27 -0400

In an open letter to the China Daily while on a trip to China last February, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari described the Sino-Pakistan relationship thusly:

Perhaps no relationship between two sovereign states is as unique and durable as that between Pakistan and China.

read more

NATO and Russia Resume Formal Relations

James Joyner — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:42:45 -0400

NATO and Russia today resumed formal relations, which were broken off in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Protests a Healthy Part of Democracy

David Smith — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:14:22 -0400

When there is interesting news from just down the road, most people focus on that, largely ignoring events in other countries. But in our globalized world, a few keystrokes put us in touch with London, Paris, Rome or New York. Google is marvelous. A few hops around cyber space yield two observations.

Obama AfPak Strategy Déjà Vu All Over Again

Hugh De Santis — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:22:31 -0400

President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy is looking eerily similar to the approach former President George W. Bush employed in his effort to remake Iraq.

British Artist Tax Revolt

James Joyner — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:34:20 -0400

There's a nascent revolt of Britain's millionaire artists protesting the UK's high taxes. Over the weekend, Andrew Lloyd Webber spoke out and now he's been joined by Michael Caine.

Swine Flu Outbreaks Prompt EU Travel Warnings

Valerie Nichols — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:57:16 -0400

The European Union’s top health official today urged Europeans to postpone any nonessential travel to the U.S. and Mexico. With more than 1,600 cases and 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, and with confirmed cases in the U.S. doubling to 40, the World Health Organization worries of pandemic potential while economists worry of additional blows to the already suffering world economy.

Afghanistan is Irrelevant

Bernard Finel — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:26:00 -0400

It is now a deeply entrenched conventional wisdom that the decision to “abandon” Afghanistan after the Cold War was a tragic mistake. In the oft-told story, our “abandonment” led to civil war, state collapse, the rise of the Taliban, and inevitably terrorist attacks on American soil.

UN: United States Must Prosecute Torture Lawyers

James Joyner — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:09:30 -0400

The United States is required to prosecute lawyers who authored memos approving harsh interrogation techniques in possible violation of international law, the UN's top anti-torture official proclaimed Friday.

U.S. Prepared to Secure Pakistani Nukes

James Joyner — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:13:06 -0400

"[I]f Pakistan collapses, the U.S. military is primed to enter the country and secure as many of those weapons as it can, according to U.S. officials," report's TIME's Mark Thompson burying his lede three paragraphs into a story whose headline asks, "Does Pakistan's Taliban Surge Raise a Nuclear Threat?"

Taliban AfPak Strategy: A Jihadi Preemptive War

Walid Phares — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:11:51 -0400

As the U.S. administration and its allies are devising a new strategy for the next steps in Afghanistan, the jihadists have already begun their next move — but this time it’s inside Pakistan.