John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — As the carnage against civilians continues across Syria, there’ a compelling humanitarian case for international intervention to stop the violence which has killed more than 10,000 civilians. Yet, what started as a political uprising against the authoritarian rule of Bashar Assad sixteen months ago, has morphed into a complex […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] You don’t have to be a determinist — believing as orthodox Marxists, all life’s decisions lie in the stomach — to occasionally believe overwhelming national and international economic movements will likely determine the future. But it sometimes helps. The thought comes after reading an analysis by Swedish Anders Aslund, […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — America’s political standing has dipped so low in Egypt, that in a recent Gallup poll, more than eighty percent of respondents said they neither want military aid nor economic assistance from the United States. Moreover as many shades of Islamic political parties dominate the landscape, many people in this […]
Special to WorldTribune.com JERUSALEM — China and Israel have moved toward renewing strategic relations, a report said. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs asserted that China and Israel completed a series of exchanges that promoted defense and economic cooperation. In a report, the center said Beijing was seeking to maintain its interests in the Middle […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — The United States has been supplying major combat platforms to Egypt in wake of the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that Egypt received scores of armored platforms from the United States in 2011. In a report, the institute cited the delivery of the […]
Jeffrey T. Kuhner Radical Islam is on the march. It is being aided and abetted by the Obama administration. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently warned at a conference in Tunisia that the Arab Spring is backsliding. The democratic transformation of the Middle East and North Africa is not working out as Mrs. Clinton […]
Sol W. Sanders Minxin Pei, the most original of current Sinologists, makes the point authoritarian/totalitarian regimes inherently prioritize requirements for protecting regime leaders over long-term national interest. To preserve the former’s power, they sacrifice the latter’s needs. In the process, they encourage breakdown in the world order. Beijing is now demonstrating the phenomenon in spades. […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — When the government of erstwhile U.S. ally Egypt shut down seventeen Western pro-democracy groups, trashed their Cairo offices, and slapped travel bans on some of their staff, political relations between Washington and Cairo hit a new and unexpected low. Just a year after a tumultuous political uprising topped the […]
Sol W. Sanders Diverted by the essential — if sometimes burlesqued — pursuit of America’s quadrennial search for leadership, policymakers have tried to put international problems on hold. But dealing with wannabe-totalitarian outcroppings throughout the Islamic world from Casablanca to Zamboanga, is as critical and demanding and may take as long as the struggle with […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Though it’s the birthplace of Christianity in ancient times, the modern Middle East is increasingly hostile to Christianity as civil conflict, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism grow in scope and strength. Although most regional states have a small but successful Christian minority ranging from Egypt to Iraq, only Lebanon, Israel […]