Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
The Hizbullah Trial in Egypt: A War of Words in the New Middle East Cold War
The latest exchange of blows in the ongoing feud between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbullah came on April 28, as the Egyptian State Security Court convicted and sentenced 26 individuals who Cairo accuses of being part of an active Hizbullah cell in Egypt. Authorities claim the... MORE
Dark But Short: Russia’s Shadow on Georgia’s Elections
Russia is casting its dark shadow on Georgia’s electoral campaign, but it is not the proverbial long shadow. Rather, it affects Georgia’s internal politics at its outer fringe, far short of beclouding the political system or any significant voter constituency. Russia’s recently acquired allies in... MORE
All Eyes on China in Wake of Cheonan Sinking
China’s longstanding relationship with North Korea has come under greater international scrutiny since the March 26 sinking of the 1300-ton South Korean corvette Cheonan near the de facto maritime boundary between North and South Korea. The apparent torpedo attack killed 46 of 104 sailors aboard... MORE
Brazil and Argentina: China’s Growing Foothold in Latin America
On May 21, Norwegian oil company Statoil announced that it agreed to sell 40 percent stake ($3 billion) of the Peregrino field located in the Campos basin offshore of Brazil to Chinese state-owned Sinochem Group. The Peregrino announcement closely follows the disclosure in March that... MORE
A Tale of Two Presidents: Astana Fears the Spread of the “Kyrgyz Virus”
Kazakhstan’s official attitude towards the provisional government in Bishkek is growing more contradictory. President Nursultan Nazarbayev never tires of talking about Kazakhstan’s commitments as the Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to contribute to normalizing the political situation in Kyrgyzstan... MORE
Kyrgyz-Uzbek Tensions in Jalalabad Fueled by Political Competition
May 19 was another day of turmoil in Kyrgyzstan. Roughly 1,500 people marched towards Jalalabad’s private university, demanding the provisional government terminate support for Kadyrzhan Batyrov, an ethnic Uzbek and one of the leading members of the Uzbek diaspora who founded the school. Reportedly, the... MORE
Georgia Develops Functional Relations With Iran
On May 20-24, a delegation of Tehran journalists, led by the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast (with deputy minister’s rank), visited Georgia. The group included journalists from Iranian radio and television channels, news agencies, and print media, both state-owned and private. Mehmanparast and... MORE
Turkey: a Source of Strategic Reinsurance for Georgia
Following recent miscalculations regarding Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia, US policy in the South Caucasus also suffers from an erosion of credibility with regard to Georgia. A recent spate of commentaries in US mainstream media has taken cognizance of Washington’s and NATO’s de facto strategic disengagement... MORE
The Iranian Trap for Medvedev’s Opportunistic Foreign Policy
The draft resolution on new sanctions against Iran introduced by the US at the UN Security Council last Tuesday has caught Moscow in a trap set primarily by its own unprincipled diplomatic maneuvering. On previous occasions, Moscow tried to reconcile the pragmatic bargaining with the... MORE
Non-Bloc Status Covers Ukraine’s Shift to Russian-Vector Orientation
Opening, alongside Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, the Interstate Commission’s session, Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, turned the clock back to 1990. Invoking that year’s declaration of Ukraine’s sovereignty (still within the USSR), Yanukovych selectively underscored the document’s stipulation of “non-bloc status” for Ukraine. The country can... MORE