by Maia Gemmill | 24 Sep 2007 |
There's a brick building at the corner of P and 18th Streets near Dupont Circle that used to be an overgrown wreck. I first noticed it in the fall of 2003. The grass was tall and unmowed, and there was a bare, dead tree inside the fence. It seemed abandoned. For various reasons I was rarely in the Dupont Circle area between spring 2004 and fall 2006. But one day in fall 2006, I was waiting for a bus to arrive at the bus shelter immediately in...
by Peter | 23 Sep 2007 |
The controversy over the Israeli raid into Syria rages on. The Sunday Times has peeled back another layer of the onion, one that only deepens the mystery as to what Israel actually bombed in northern Syria. This latest tidbit seems to support the notion that it was in fact a North Korean supplied nuclear site in Syria. If true, it is perhaps only the tip of a much larger iceberg, and per Landis:"If this story is true," a Syrian friend of mine...
by Maia Gemmill | 21 Sep 2007 |
I swear I'm not making this up.According to the Jamestown Foundation's excellent Eurasia Daily Monitor, the Russian Department of Defense's 12th Directorate, which is responsible for Russia's nuclear weapons, has been assigned a patron saint by the Russian Orthodox Church: St. Seraphim of Sarov.St. Seraphim seems an appropriate choice for several reasons. First, he was a favorite saint of the last tsar, Nicholas II; his association with one of...
by Maia Gemmill | 21 Sep 2007 |
A friend forwarded me this interesting article by Dennis Ross in the New Republic on why we should be paying more attention to Russia. I have to say, that I certainly agree that we should be paying more attention to Russia. And I think that he gets some stuff very right: (continued below the fold)Russia tends to pale in comparison to these other concerns [unrest in the Middle East, the rise of China, climate change, etc.], and the tendency will...
by Peter | 19 Sep 2007 |
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a fascinating speech Monday to the World Forum on the Future of Democracy addressing "a 'realist's' view of promoting democracy abroad."The whole speech is worth reading (here). In it, Gates reflects on the longstanding debate between the "realists" and "idealists" in US Foreign Policy. It is very closely related to the great debate between Liberals and Realists in IR Theory. It also happens that many...
by Peter | 18 Sep 2007 |
Something is brewing in the Middle East that merits close attention, because the more we learn about it, the more intriguing it becomes. It also brings home some chickens to roost, so to speak, for earlier Bush Administration foreign policy failures.Last week, Israel launched a highly secret air-strike deep into Syria. Despite the fact that Israel and Syria share a border (the direct route), the squadron of Israeli F-15's flew over the Med,...
by Rodger Payne | 15 Sep 2007 |
The September Atlantic had a brief note in its Primary Sources section about how "Terrorists are turning more and more to crime to fund violence." The piece references a Congressional Research Service report that apparently included "bootlegging Viagra" as one source of income.I guess they've moved on from infant formula. In any case, I did a bit of searching around and found this MSNBC/Newsweek piece from August 2006, which describes an...
by Maia Gemmill | 14 Sep 2007 |
No, I don't know what to make of this either:In a meeting with the Valdai Discussion Group, a group of academics and journalists, in the Black Sea town of Sochi (now best known for its successful Olympic bid), Vladimir Putin commented, "Now, at least five people are named who can really stake their claim to be elected president in March 2008. Well, if another real candidate appears, then the Russian people will be able to choose among several...
by Maia Gemmill | 13 Sep 2007 |
The Duma hasn't even confirmed Viktor Zubkov as Russia's new prime minister, and already he's raising eyebrows. Early commentary on Zubkov pegged him as a quietly competent bureaucrat who was unlikely to make waves or alter the balance of the intra-Kremlin jockeying over succession.But it's so much fun to confound the pundits: today Zubkov told reporters that a run for the presidency is not off the table. So who is this mysterious fellow?Here's...
by Maia Gemmill | 13 Sep 2007 |
I like Foreign Policy's Passport blog. I really do. But this kind of thing BUGS the living daylights out of me. They have a perfectly good post on a bizarre attempt by a Russian regional governor to increase the local birthrate. And it's illustrated with a stock photo of a rather bizarre postage stamp commemorating the "Week of the Child". At least, I'm pretty sure that's what it says. The reason I'm not totally positive?The stamp is from...
by Maia Gemmill | 12 Sep 2007 |
Update below the fold--Ivanov is not the new PM.Reuters is reporting that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has stepped down. No replacement has yet been named, though Vedomosti is reporting that First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov is the most likely candidate.Prime ministers may come and go, but this is big news because of the open question: who will be the next president of Russia. While I wouldn't be entirely shocked if there was...
by Rodger Payne | 10 Sep 2007 |
General Petraeus finished delivering his prepared remarks to the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees not long ago -- and I've already been interviewed about them by the local NPR station (WFPL).Basically, I concluded that his report was not surprising. Most analysts expected an optimistic assessment that would not call for a substantial reduction in American troops. The General is only talking about returning the US troop level...