China Reform Monitor: No. 869
China gives students subsidies after protests over food prices;
Vietnam and China negotiate over border disputes
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Publications
Eurasia Security Watch: No. 233
The IMU remakes itself;
American soft power at work in Saudi Arabia;
TAPI back on the table;
Turkey and Russia, friends forever?
China Reform Monitor: No. 868
Japan tailors new defense policy to China;
Beijing blames U.S., ROK for DPRK attack
Obama Gives The Kremlin A Seal Of Approval
The Senate's passage this week of New Start, the latest U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty, was greeted with some jeers in Washington, where worries over its technical deficiencies persist in spite of White House reassurances. Here in Russia's capital, however, news of New Start's ratification was met overwhelmingly with cheers of approval from officials and experts alike.
It's easy to see why. The accord carries concrete strategic advantages for Moscow. Chief among them is the possibility that it will chill American enthusiasm for further development of missile-defense capabilities. That's because of, among other things, the Kremlin's opposition to U.S. missile defense and the Obama administration's interest in keeping Russia engaged as an arms-control partner.More than anything else, however, Russian leaders see New Start as a political victory confirming that their country still matters to Washington and on the international stage writ large. Some Russian officials also have taken it as affirmation that, under President Obama, the United States has adopted a hands-off approach to Russia's interests and political system.
U.S. Recognition Of Palestine Would Heighten Tensions, Spur Violence
U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state is one of those tempting silver bullets that upon close examination would produce the opposite of its promised result. Rather than promoting peace, it would likely ignite conflict both within Palestinian society and between Israel and the Palestinians.
Never mind that such recognition would undermine the very process of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to which the two parties agreed, which the United States and the global community have endorsed, and which is supposed to produce a Palestine that lives in peace with its Jewish neighbor.
Never mind, too, that we have been here before with a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood followed by strong international recognition, followed not by peace but, instead, by more conflict.
In late 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization adopted a resolution that declared an independent state of Palestine. PLO chairman Yasser Arafat declared himself the president of Palestine, and more than 100 nations have since recognized an independent Palestine over the years.
No state arose and no peace ensued because Israel and the Palestinians had not ironed out the details of mutual recognition, borders and other basic matters that are the sin qua non of real peace. Why anyone would expect a different result this time with the parties wrangling over the same issues defies explanation.