Jim Lobe

The publics of India and China believe that each of their respective nations currently exercise global influence second only to the United States, whose relative power, although still unmatched, is on the wane, according to a major opinion survey [.pdf] released Thursday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) and the Asia Society. The … Continue reading “Poll: US Power Waning, Asian Power Growing”

For the many, many foreign policy experts who have reached an advanced state of despair over the ever-plunging image and influence of the United States after nearly six years of the presidency of George W. Bush, the name James Baker III has an almost talismanic quality. "Maybe if he [Bush] asks Baker to…" has become … Continue reading “Jim Baker, Savior?”

Encouraging Japan to build nuclear weapons, shipping food aid via submarines, and running secret sabotage operations inside North Korea’s borders are among a raft of policy prescriptions pushed by prominent U.S. neoconservatives in the wake of Pyongyang’s nuclear test. Writing in publications from National Review online (NRO) to the New York Times, neoconservatives claim, contrary … Continue reading “Neocons Call for Action
Against N. Korea”

In its initial reaction to Monday’s North Korean nuclear test, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush indicated it will seek the strongest possible sanctions against Pyongyang at the UN Security Council but was not considering taking military action on its own, at least for now. At the same time, independent analysts said the … Continue reading “No War, No Talks,
More Pressure”

Amid signs that the administration of President George W. Bush remains unwilling to take stronger steps to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track, a growing number of prominent U.S. and foreign figures are calling for a new international mechanism to set the framework for a comprehensive settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Such … Continue reading “Appeals Grow For Comprehensive Mideast Settlement”

On the 30th anniversary of the first midair bombing of a civilian airliner in the Americas, the plot’s suspected mastermind is hoping that a U.S. federal judge will soon release him from a Texas jail where he has been held on immigration-related charges for the last year and a half. In a brief submitted to … Continue reading “Bush’s Terrorism Hypocrisy”

President George W. Bush and his peripatetic secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, may believe that they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy in order to "transform" the Middle East, but to longtime regional observers, their latest initiatives look painfully familiar. Not only does Washington’s current courtship of Sunni-led authoritarian states – most notably, … Continue reading “Middle Eastern ‘Strategic Consensus’ Redux?”

Five years after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was putting the final touches on a brilliant campaign plan to oust the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies from power, Afghanistan is back in the headlines, and the news isn’t good. An unexpectedly fierce and prolonged Taliban offensive that began last spring has U.S. and NATO … Continue reading “War on Terror
Returning to Its Cradle”

By enacting new legislation this week governing the treatment and trial of suspects in Washington’s "global war on terror," Congress has turned its back on both international law and the U.S. Constitution, according to the country’s major human rights groups. The legislation, which cleared the Senate Thursday and is expected to be signed into law … Continue reading “Groups Unanimously Assail New Detention Law”

Iraqis – especially the majority Shi’ites – are increasingly angry and frustrated about their situation and impatient for U.S. troops to leave, but most do not believe their country will fall apart, according to a major new poll [.pdf] released here Wednesday by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). Seventy-one percent … Continue reading “Poll Shows Iraqis Weary of Violence, US Presence”