Asia & Pacific Archives - Page 148 of 379

Veterans and Poetry

by John Feffer, Kathryn Zickuhr | Apr 16, 2009

Dayl S. Wise was drafted into the US Army in 1969 and served in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970 with the First Air Cavalry Division. After six months in country, he was wounded while on a reconnaissance team. Upon his discharge he studied engineering and worked as a draftsperson and design engineer for many years. Wise is a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, and recently returned to school to become a teacher. He has self-published two collections of poems by veterans,The Best of Post Traumatic Press 2000 and Post Traumatic Press 2007.

Strategic Dialogue: Counterterrorism in South Asia

by John Feffer, Sharad Joshi, Fouad Pervez | Apr 15, 2009

This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Fouad Pervez’s initial argument here and Sharad Joshi’s argument here.

AfPak: Negotiate from Strength

by John Feffer, Sharad Joshi | Apr 15, 2009

This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Fouad Pervez’s opposing argument here, and their respective responses here.

A Better Alliance with Pakistan

by John Feffer, Fouad Pervez | Apr 15, 2009

This is part of a strategic dialogue on Pakistan and counterterrorism. See Sharad Joshi’s opposing argument here, and their respective responses here.

Managing the Iranian Challenge

by William deB. Mills, Erik Leaver | Apr 8, 2009

Skill, patience, consistency, logic, and understanding go a long way toward the design of an effective foreign policy. These attributes — perhaps obvious but frequently in short supply among foreign policy decision-makers — build a much firmer policy foundation than rude and emotional outbursts, erratic challenges, public bullying, contemptuous disdain, or efforts to isolate and demonize. With a new administration in place, now is the time to ask if U.S. policy toward Iraq can shift from viewing Iran as an "ultra-nationalistic, theologically conservative, politically radical, or Shi’ite" state and instead design a foreign policy based on skill, patience, consistency, logic, and understanding.

A Need for Restraint Over North Korea’s Satellite

by John Feffer | Apr 8, 2009

Editor’s Note: This op-ed originally appeared in the Boston Globe on 4/5)

When North Korea declared that it was planning to launch a satellite, the United States should have shrugged and gone about its business. Instead, the Obama administration has exaggerated the importance of the launch by treating it as a national security threat.

Obama and Medvedev on Nukes

by John Feffer, Alice Slater | Apr 7, 2009

Committing the United States and Russia "to achieving a nuclear free world," Presidents Obama and Medvedev issued a joint statement breathtaking in its positive tone. It marks an astonishing shift from the hostile policies of the Bush and Clinton administrations and offers new hope to a world weary of the endless nuclear arms race. Their statement concludes:

What’s Up with North Korea?

by John Feffer, Emily Schwartz Greco | Apr 3, 2009

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why North Korea just launched another rocket. The country wants attention. It craves the prestige of putting a satellite into orbit. It hopes to gather information for its missile program. And it’s angling to up the ante in the great poker game called the Six Party Talks that also involves the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia.

The Afghan Rubik’s Cube

by John Feffer, Conn Hallinan | Apr 2, 2009

Afghanistan is a gatherer of metaphors: "crossroads of Asia," "graveyard of empires," and the "Great Game," to name a few. It might be more accurate, however, to think of it as a Rubik’s Cube, that frustrating puzzle of intersecting blocks that only works when everything fits perfectly. The trick for the Obama administration is to figure out how to solve the puzzle in a timeframe rapidly squeezed by events both internal and external of that war-torn central Asian nation.

To Be or NATO Be

by John Feffer, Paul Hockenos | Apr 2, 2009

It hasn’t taken long at all for the Obama administration’s honeymoon with Europe to wear thin. The handling of the global economic crisis was the first breach. And directly on the heels of the G20 summit will come NATO’s 60th anniversary summit at a time when there is no consensus at all — even within Europe — about what should happen with the beaten-up Atlantic Alliance. Everyone seems to agree, though, that the alliance is in crisis — and maybe even in its death throes. But while the Europeans seem to be thinking about collective security with open minds, the Americans simply repeat the mantra that NATO must be and that more NATO is better than less.