Asia & Pacific Archives - Page 119 of 351

North Korea: Why Engagement Now?

by John Feffer | Aug 13, 2010

Relations between the United States and North Korea, never particularly warm, have truly frosted over in recent months. The Obama administration, in the wake of the Cheonan incident, has added financial sanctions to a lengthening list of efforts to box in Pyongyang. In conjunction with Seoul, Washington has ramped up military exercises in the region. Six Party Talks have been suspended since the end of the Bush administration, and there haven’t been bilateral discussions for more than six months. Hillary Clinton has continued to speak of U.S. willingness to sit down and negotiate. But in Washington, engagement with North Korea is about as popular as BP stock. Anti-American rhetoric and threats, meanwhile, remain de rigueur in Pyongyang.

START Now

by Frida Berrigan | Aug 12, 2010

After 65 years, is there anything new to say about nuclear weapons? Their immense and almost incomprehensible destructive power is well known. Their tenacious endurance as the weapon, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, is an unavoidable fact as nine nations currently stockpile these world menacers. Their super-power allure to emerging states remains untarnished despite international treaties discouraging proliferation.

Burma’s Ethnics: Score One for the Good, er, No-So-Bad Guys

by Russ Wellen | Aug 9, 2010

Successful recent ambushes by Karen forces against the army of Burma’s junta have breathed new life into the ethnic group’s independence movement.

If They’d Listened to the Scientists We Might Not Need to Observe Hiroshima Day

by Russ Wellen | Aug 4, 2010

Opinions about using the bomb were solicited from Manhattan Project scientists — but not heeded.

Review: ‘China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’

by Anna Kalinina | Aug 4, 2010

“Why would China jeopardize its relationship with the United States, the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, and much of Southeast Asia to sustain the Khmer Rouge and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to postwar Cambodia?” asks Sophie Richardson in China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. An advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson not only offers an explanation of China’s foreign policy but also dispels the notion that it is irrational, inherently threatening, and malevolent. Through careful historical examination, Richardson argues that a set of beliefs, referred to as the five principles of peaceful coexistence, have been driving Chinese foreign policy since the 1954 Geneva Conference.

War in Eastasia

by John Feffer | Aug 3, 2010

July was the deadliest month yet for U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan. In Iraq, while political factions continue a five-month squabble over who will lead the government, insurgent violence is growing. The WikiLeaks info-dump of more than 90,000 documents, in addition to proving to the few who had not yet realized that the United States is in deep doo-doo, have shown that our ally Pakistan is collaborating with the Taliban and al-Qaeda to plan attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Review: ‘Fixing Fractured Nations’

by Greg Chaffin | Aug 2, 2010

In their book, Fixing Fractured Nations: The Challenge of Ethnic Separatism in the Asia-Pacific, editors Robert G. Wirsing and Ehsan Ahari compiled essays on several of the major ethnic conflicts that have plagued the Asian continent over the past several decades. The book provides a comprehensive study of major ethnic conflict throughout Asia with sections on Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands (with a focus on Papua New Guinea). In the concluding chapter, Ehrari places each of the essays into a geopolitical context shaped by the Cold War and by 9/11.

NorK “Coup-Proofed” From Both Within and Without

by Russ Wellen | Jul 30, 2010

Regime change in North Korea not likely due to Kim Jong-il’s ingenuity as well as a lack of international consensus on how to proceed.

Postcard From…Nepal

by Deepak Adhikari | Jul 28, 2010

Nepal is a tiny Himalayan nation sandwiched between two mighty Asian rivals: India and China. New Delhi and Beijing are using Nepal’s territory to wage a proxy war against each other. This interference in Nepal’s internal affairs has contributed to a political crisis that has already claimed one prime minister and threatens to undermine the peace process begun four years ago.