As always, emphasis added.
Emphasis Added: The Foreign Policy Week in Pieces
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Democracy & Governance
Organizing the Public in East-Central Europe
NGOs devoted to public works paradoxically became part of the wave of privatization that swept the region.
Sequestering American Exceptionalism
The political debate over sequestration has thus far focused on tradeoffs between domestic and military spending, tax cuts and deficits. Left out are questions about whether the United States should be responsible for policing the world or whether international agencies might address terrorism, aggression, and political instability in a more consistent, comprehensive, and internationally acceptable manner.
After Unprecedented Fight, Hagel Confirmed as Obama’s Pentagon Chief
While Hagel is the only Republican among the top national-security officials, he is widely seen as generally sharing their worldview on key foreign-policy and defence issues – notably, the desirability of maintaining a “light military footprint”, especially in the Middle East; “engaging” actual and potential geo-political foes through diplomacy; using military power only as a last resort; and relying more on multilateral institutions, such as the U.N. and NATO, and regional actors, to address key crisis situations.
U.S. Urged to Lean Harder on Bahrain’s Ruling Family
While the Obama administration has continuously urged democratic reforms and dialogue between the Sunni-dominated government and representatives of the Shi’a community in Bahrain, which makes up between 60 and 70 percent of the kingdom’s indigenous population, it has been reluctant to exert serious pressure to achieve those ends.
Obama Administration Reveals Deep Divisions on Syria Policy
Little is known about the current state of U.S. involvement in the two-year Syrian uprising, which may have claimed the lives of over 60,000 Syrians. Senior White House officials have repeatedly expressed concern that increasing the arms supply to the Syrian rebels may result in weapons falling into the “wrong hands”, a concern exacerbated by the influx of foreign fighters in Syria. Yet, revelations over the past week have shown near-unanimous agreement among the president’s top national security advisors for greater military intervention.
The Latin American Exception
The Washington Post recently featured a “staggering” map of 54 highlighted countries that reveals, in the years after 9/11, how the CIA turned just about the whole world into a gulag archipelago. But what’s most striking about the Post’s map is that no part of its wine-dark horror touches Latin America; that is, not one country in what used to be called Washington’s “backyard” participated in rendition or Washington-directed or supported torture and abuse of “terror suspects.”
Israel Sees Syrian Civil War as Blow to “Iran-Hezbollah Axis”
The attack was certainly a slap in the face to Assad, but was mainly intended to increase chaos in the Arab world.
Dumb and Dumber: A Secret CIA Drone Base, a Blowback World, and Why Washington Has No Learning Curve
Approximately two years ago, the CIA got permission from the Saudi government to build one of its growing empire of drone bases in a distant desert region of that kingdom. The purpose was to pursue an already ongoing air war in neighboring Yemen against al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula.
Yet news outlets didn’t publish this story until almost two years later – not for any lack of awareness, but because these editors, urged on by the CIA and the White House, had done their ‘patriotic duty’ and kept the news from the public.
The Bulgarian Turn
Sometimes interpeters have their fingers on the pulse of a country.