Diplomacy & Crisis News

The way the president rolled out this decision is almost a textbook example of how not to make difficult decisions on military policy.

The White House has tried to pile pressure on Pyongyang but the regime keeps launching more advanced missiles.

Moscow tells U.S. to cut diplomatic presence in Russia and removes two diplomatic properties.

Sanctions on Russia are just the beginning.

Why slow-rolling technology R&D can help the U.S. military prevent the rise of dangerous rivals.

In the flurry of media comment on this, I did not see anyone point out that the issue of whether transgender individuals can serve in the armed forces is within the exclusive constitutional authority of the Congress. 

The U.S. military has been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001.

The ex-president of Georgia, stripped of both Georgian and Ukrainian citizenship, is sitting in a relative’s apartment in the Bronx, plotting his next move.

Entre la rivière Ciliwung, surplombée d'arbres fleuris, et une rangée de maisons colorées, constellées de linge suspendu et de plantes en tout genre, court la petite rue centrale du « kampung » Krapu. Mais derrière cette apparente douceur se cache un combat quotidien pour l'existence. Une lutte qui a (...) / Asie, Asie du Sud-Est, Indonésie, Inégalités, Pauvreté, Urbanisme, Ville, Environnement - 2017/08

As the ultra-Orthodox pass new measures governing prayer at the Western Wall and religious conversion, a rift is growing between Israel and American Jews.

  With Adam Rawnsley Scaramucci. Just because. Flynn ally, Iran hawk, ousted from NSC. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has removed Derek Harvey, the top Middle East advisor on the National Security Council, from his post Thursday, a source with knowledge of the personnel move told Kate Brannen, FP contributor and Just Security ...

Dilma Rousseff was impeached last year as the elected President of Brazil. The divide between her supporters and her opponents led to some of the largest political demonstrations in the country’s history. Michel Temer, who replaced President Rousseff, was suspected of being complicit in corrupt practices as well, and has recently been investigated and charged but still holds his position as President. Former popular President Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva who was set to run again for Rousseff’s PT party was convicted recently under a corruption probe, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Actions against corrupt practices coming out of the Petrobras scandal have placed many of Brazil’s political class under legal review. The judicial activists who had the courage and ability to go after corruption in the country have exposed the structural and institutional infestation of corruption in Brazil. While Brazil is not unique in being mired in corruption, the actions by some in its judiciary and government came from the anger of the people and the desire to end waste that had consistently burdened the citizens of Brazil.

The character of corruption is that once it takes hold, it is almost impossible to get rid of in any meaningful way. Because deep corruption is often embedded in the top tier of an organization, the practices to get ahead and be successful permeates the entire administrative structure from the top down. This makes it impossible to grow as an honest agent in that structure without acquiescing in some way to the new infected culture. Working against those practices often means coming from the outside and pairing with internal agents.

Such individuals often assume a great risk to their career in exposing the problems within their organization, and in most cases those whistle-blowers lose in the greater scheme of repairing or replacing corrupt agents in those organizations. Embedded corruption, often one that came with the creation of an agency is even more of a challenge, as the institutions and structures within are formed around a tradition of corrupt practices. When analyzing the challenge the judicial activists in Brazil had to confront in institutions that were built on generations of corrupt practices, it was shown that issues were present in most established control structures with many politicians and business leaders from many political parties in Brazil being found linked in their investigations.

Brazilians in many ways had no choice but to demand accountability, and it was evident that most of their political leaders were not in the moral position to pursue change. Fighting against corrupt practices was the only way to turn power and just policies back towards helping the average person in Brazil. Voting for political parties that have been tarnished by corrupt practices is the worst approach as it institutionalizes and legitimizes their illegal activity.

With no political betters, the courage and strength of Brazil’s judicial inquirers were placed in the position to investigate and apply legal solutions when most Brazilians likely assumed this possibility did not exist. Beyond abrupt revolutionary movements, removing corrupt practices is almost impossible. Even some of the least corrupt societies have trouble challenging institutionalized corrupt practices.

Brazil may just be fortunate to have a few who are able to change their country by reducing corruption via a positive and legitimate judicial approach, perhaps for the first time in their history.

The post Judicial Activism and the Fight Against Institutionalized Corruption appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été de Politique étrangère (n°2/2017). Hans Stark, secrétaire général du Comité d’études des relations franco-allemandes (Cerfa) à l’Ifri, propose une analyse de l’ouvrage de Hans Vorländer, Maik Herold et Steven Schäller, PEGIDA: Entwicklung, Zusammensetzung und Deutung einer Empörungsbewegung (Springer Verlag, 2016, 176 pages).

Né en octobre 2014, le mouvement PEGIDA – Patriotischer Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abend­landes [Européens patriotiques contre l’islamisation de l’Occident] – est un phénomène curieux pour au moins trois raisons. Il s’agit d’abord d’un mouvement citoyen indépendant devenu au fil des mois « l’expression citoyenne » du parti populiste de droite AfD (Alternative für Deutschland). La relation fusionnelle entre l’AfD et PEGIDA a été telle que la première a fourni l’idéologie et la seconde le soutien logistique, tandis que le succès de cette dernière permettait à la première de progresser dans les sondages et d’obtenir des scores électoraux inespérés en 2015 et 2016. De plus, PEGIDA est et reste avant tout un mouvement de Saxe (où les immigrés ne représentent pas plus de 2 % de la population totale), voire local, limité à la ville de Dresde. Les tentatives de PEGIDA de s’enraciner hors de Saxe ont échoué. Enfin, PEGIDA ne connaît nul équivalent dans les autres pays européens, pourtant richement dotés en partis et mouvements populistes de droite.

Étudier ce mouvement de plus près et comprendre sa genèse pour mieux pronostiquer ses perspectives futures, voilà l’objectif de trois politologues de l’université technique de Dresde. Le résultat est convaincant, tant les auteurs parviennent à plonger dans l’univers sociologique de PEGIDA, dont ils analysent les discours, les positions politiques, les réseaux, puis les acteurs et les militants, avant d’évaluer leur impact sur les médias (à la fois nationaux et régionaux), et la société. Pour les auteurs, PEGIDA est clairement un mouvement sociétal de protestation de style nouveau, qui s’inscrit dans la mouvance populiste de droite qui émerge en Allemagne, tout en véhiculant des ressentiments xénophobes et islamophobes ainsi qu’une attitude de rejet fondamentale contre les élites politiques et médiatiques.

Comme l’AfD d’ailleurs, PEGIDA réunit à la fois des représentants de la classe moyenne aisée et intellectuelle d’un côté, et des représentants des « perdants » ou des exclus de la société de l’autre. Cette dichotomie se reflète dans les positions prises par PEGIDA, qui oscillent entre la protestation populiste antimondialiste et l’extrême droite xénophobe et islamophobe de l’autre. Une partie du mouvement se contente de protester pacifiquement une fois par semaine, en général le lundi soir, dans les rues de Dresde ; l’autre va plus loin et se mobilise pour attaquer physiquement les centres d’accueil des réfugiés et des demandeurs d’asile. Les propos de haine contre l’islam et le gouvernement Merkel tenus fréquemment lors des manifestations PEGIDA ont eu pour conséquence une radicalisation du mouvement et une banalisation, dans les faits, du recours à la violence contre immigrés et réfugiés.

Enfin, les auteurs soulignent que le mouvement PEGIDA est volatil et aléatoire. Il n’a connu d’affluences records qu’en hiver 2015-2016, durant la période qui a vu l’arrivée massive de réfugiés en Allemagne. Le flot de migrants s’étant tari depuis la signature de l’accord entre la Turquie et l’UE en avril 2016, le nombre de manifestants répondant à l’appel des organisateurs de PEGIDA a aussi très fortement diminué depuis. Mais il peut renaître de ses cendres à tout moment. D’où l’intérêt de cet ouvrage.

Hans Stark

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(Own report) - Berlin is expanding its military and arms industry cooperation with the People's Republic of China's East Asian rivals. A few days ago, the German and Japanese defense ministries signed an agreement to intensify their "cooperation in the defense technology sector." For years, the German arms industry has been seeking to enhance its standing on Tokyo's arms market, which is continuously expanding, primarily due to the power struggle with Beijing. Cooperation is also growing between the armed forces of Germany and Japan. The German Armed Forces Staff College in Hamburg recently concluded an agreement to this effect. Cooperation with the South Korean military is likewise being intensified. Seoul, one of the German arms industry's most important customers, has already placed South Korean warships at the disposal of the EU's operation in the war on piracy at the Horn of Africa.

The Academy Award-winning actor is in hot water for lavishing praise on the government of Kazakhstan.

The power and prestige of American statecraft cannot eliminate religious persecution, but when wielded effectively it can make a meaningful difference.

Senate weighs closing loopholes in the Foreign Agent Registration Act

Allegations of torture follow expansion of U.S. footprint in Africa, as Washington’s fight against terrorists forges new allies.

Is the president looking more like a dictator after six months in the White House?

Another Flynn holdover has been removed.