Asia & Pacific Archives - Page 150 of 379

Afghanistan: Build Infrastructure, Not Bases

by Christine Ahn, John Feffer, Preeti Mangala Shekar | Feb 23, 2009

In 1995, Sakena Yacoobi cofounded the Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) — today one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Afghanistan — and is now its president and executive director. AIL provides education and health services to over 350,000 women and children annually in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with offices in the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Sakena has received numerous prestigious awards for peace-building, including the Peacemakers in Action Award from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, the Gruber Prize, the Bill Graham Award from the Rex Foundation, and most recently, the Kravis Prize for Leadership.

The U.S. and Afghan Tragedy

by Khushal Arsala, Emily Schwartz Greco, Stephen Zunes | Feb 18, 2009

One of the first difficult foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration will be what the United States should do about Afghanistan. Escalating the war, as National Security Advisor Jim Jones has been encouraging, will likely make matters worse. At the same time, simply abandoning the country — as the United States did after the overthrow of Afghanistan’s Communist government soon after the Soviet withdrawal 20 years ago — would lead to another set of serious problems.

The Making of a New Global Strategy

by Ehsan Ahrari, John Feffer | Feb 17, 2009

The Obama administration started with a bang in developing its own strategy toward different regions of the world. There are several ingredients in that strategy. The new president has promised a return to multilateralism. It’s searching for common ground with Russia. There are outstanding invitations for negotiations with America’s traditional adversaries like Iran and North Korea. And the administration’s approaches to Palestine, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are likely to be radically different from those the Bush administration pursued unsuccessfully.

What’s the Matter with China?

by John Feffer | Feb 10, 2009

You might have missed the news: China is now No. 3.

The Promise of the Six-Party Process

by John Feffer, Wade L. Huntley | Feb 10, 2009

Over the past two decades, engagement with North Korea by the United States and the rest of the world has waxed and waned. This vacillation is evident even in the past year. The Six-Party Talks process produced both optimistic progress toward disabling Korea’s nuclear facilities and, more recently, a return to negotiation stagnation and new North Korean threats to resume nuclear weapons development.

Asia: The Coming Fury

by Walden Bello, John Feffer | Feb 9, 2009

As goods pile up in wharves from Bangkok to Shanghai, and workers are laid off in record numbers, people in East Asia are beginning to realize they aren’t only experiencing an economic downturn but living through the end of an era.

Pacific Freeze: Call to Action

by John Feffer, Foreign Policy In Focus | Feb 9, 2009

With multiple crises affecting our world – global economy, climate change, resource depletion – we must urgently redirect the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on preparing for war. The United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea spent about $970 billion in 2008 on the military. That figure, alarmingly, is on the rise. For about one-tenth of this near-trillion dollar amount – about $90 billion a year – we can achieve more genuine security by eliminating global starvation and malnutrition, educating every child on earth, making clean water and sanitation accessible for all, and reversing the global spread of AIDS and malaria.

Postcard From…Beijing

by Eugene Coyle, John Feffer | Feb 6, 2009

Beijing is a sprawling metropolis. Avenues up to 12 lanes wide connect high-rise centers of commerce. But with size comes pollution. The air in Beijing in winter is opaque, and after a week of breathing it left me with the miserable Beijing cough. Global warming analysts point out that China is building a new coal […]

Abdicating U.S. Nonproliferation Leadership

by Miriam Pemberton, Russ Wellen | Jan 12, 2009

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was dealt yet another reeling blow by the recent U.S.-India nuclear deal. The Bush administration not only turned a blind eye to India’s development of nuclear weapons without signing the NPT, it lauded India for its strong nonproliferation record. When you preside over a nuclear arsenal the size of ours, it’s possible to think that India’s 100 unassembled nuclear weapons are no big deal.

Pakistan and the Islamist Challenge

by John Feffer, Zia Mian, A.H. Nayyar | Dec 31, 2008

The murderous assault on Bombay by Islamist militants, at least some of whom were from Pakistan, has exposed once again the grave danger that radical Islamist movements pose to Pakistan, its neighbors, and the world. The urgent challenge now is for Pakistan and its neighbors, together with the international community, to work together to confront the risk of Pakistan spiraling into chaos and collapse.