Envoy May Take Disarmament Plan to Pyongyang – NYTimes.com

Progress with the Koreas?

Any visit of a U.S. envoy to the reclusive North is trumpeted by the state's propaganda machine as a victory for leader Kim, whose military-first rule and nuclear arsenal forced the United States to come to Pyongyang with concessions.But analysts said President Barack Obama's administration may have the upper hand due to the state of the North's broken economy. Fresh U.N. sanctions, imposed as a result of the North's nuclear test in May, and U.S. Treasury action that has targeted its finances have further hurt Pyongyang.”The real problem with denuclearization is both parties are just testing the waters to see who will act first,” said Chon Hyun-joon, an expert on the North at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.

via Envoy May Take Disarmament Plan to Pyongyang – NYTimes.com.

Trial of Khmer Prison Official Nears End

If you haven’t been following this case—an interesting story of international justice and the challenges inherent to tribunals–you should.  Previous reportage of accusations against Duch and the Khmer regime are horrifying, fascinating, and will make your soul feel heavy with the “man’s inhumanity to man.“

After admitting his guilt and asking for forgiveness, Duch (pronounced DOIK) seemed on the final day of the trial on Friday to think that he had done enough, asking the court to set him free.

Duch’s plea seemed to contradict a carefully constructed strategy to seek leniency by admitting guilt, apologizing and cooperating with the court. He faces a possible term of life in prison for crimes against humanity and other crimes. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 40 years, taking into account his cooperation and the five years he already spent in a military jail. The judges are expected to announce a verdict early next year.

via News Analysis – Moving Beyond Khmer Rouge’s Ghosts – NYTimes.com.

Growing, Yes, but India Has Reasons to Worry – NYTimes.com

Not only is India’s largest democracy with some challenging problems to address as it develops and grows–it lives in a tough neighborhood.  Take a look at what surrounds this vast country as a way to better understand its national interests:

For all the talk of a new era of Indo-American collaboration, Americans tend to view India through the narrow prisms of two shared concerns — a battle against Islamic extremists, and the benefits of international trade. But India is a complicated country in a complex part of the world — buffeted by internal insurgencies, surrounded by hostile neighbors, marginalized until recently as underdeveloped

via Growing, Yes, but India Has Reasons to Worry – NYTimes.com.

Speaking for Islam – A Series on Link TV

The big think series offered by CNN hit a mass audience, but tend to be more generic; PBS does a fine job but has an even narrower audience.  On the sparse end of the audience spectrum is a worthy interlocutor in the programming offered by Link TV—especially this wise series asking “Who Speaks for Islam?”  Don’t miss BYU Kennedy Center featured author, Reza Aslan , among others in a fascinating discussion on how Islam is portrayed, the relationship between religion and violence (especially relevant and important for Latter-day Saints on historical and current issues, such as frontier violence and social policy debates), and other points at Who Speaks for Islam? | Link TV

 

 

 

U.S. Diplomat Meets Myanmar’s Top Dissident and Urges Junta to Work With Her – NYTimes.com

After a two-hour meeting on Wednesday with the leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Campbell urged the government to allow her “more frequent interactions” with members of her party, the National League for Democracy, which won elections in 1990 that were ignored by the ruling generals.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years and is allowed only infrequent meetings with anyone outside her home. Mr. Campbell is the most senior American representative she has met since 1995.

via U.S. Diplomat Meets Myanmar’s Top Dissident and Urges Junta to Work With Her – NYTimes.com.

Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India – NYTimes.com

 

 

Contrast the fact that almost as many Indian security officers have been killed over the past four years as coalition forces in Afghanistan during the same timeframe–and you see the beginnings of a major problem for India:

If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country’s most rugged, isolated terrain.

via Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India – NYTimes.com.

Asean Inaugurates Human Rights Commission – NYTimes.com

Don’t cut the cake—the new HRC for ASEAN didn’t get a great start this week, adding to skepticism that the secretive, poorly attended and conflict-ridden discussion could produce a functioning new body:

…human rights activists called the body toothless and walked out of a meeting here Friday when “civil society” representatives from five countries were rejected by their governments.

“The commission has not been designed to be effective and impartial,” said Debbie Stothard, a human rights activist from Malaysia.

via Asean Inaugurates Human Rights Commission – NYTimes.com.

News Analysis – Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling – NYTimes.com

A Security Council reverse crush?

In truth, the Russians express no desire to return to Communism as a far-reaching Marxist-Leninist ideology, whether the Soviet version or the much attenuated one in Beijing. What they admire, it seems, is the Chinese ability to use a one-party system to keep tight control over the country while still driving significant economic growth.

It is a historical turnabout that resonates, given that the Chinese Communists were inspired by the Soviets, before the two sides had a lengthy rift.

via News Analysis – Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling – NYTimes.com.

China and the United States | Marital Discord?

At the heart of the global economic crisis is the marriage of the PRC + USA, a configuration called by one eminent historian “Chimerica,” enabled by currency interventions:

We are living through a challenge to a phenomenon Moritz Schularick and I have christened “Chimerica.”¹1. “‘Chimerica’ and the Global Asset Market Boom”, International Finance (December 2007). In this view, the most important thing to understand about the world economy over the past decade has been the relationship between China and America. If you think of it as one economy called Chimerica, that relationship accounts for around 13 percent of the world’s land surface, a quarter of its population, about a third of its gross domestic product, and somewhere over half of the global economic growth of the past six years.

Zachary Carabell, author of an intriguing new book, argues that there is little change among the two great nations for good reason.  Any adjustment of the status quo could be catastrophic for both, with serious implications to the world economy:

While there are positive signs in the discussions around alternative energy, climate change, and the long-term security of the dollar, what’s striking is how little has changed between the two as a result of the economic crisis. In fact, the events of the past months have propelled the two closer together, contrary to the arguments of those such as Niall Ferguson who are now predicting an impending divorce. The U.S.-China trade deficit is still immense, running at an annualized rate of nearly $250 billion a year in U.S. imports and $60 billion in exports, down from almost $340 in imports in 2008 and nearly $70 billion in exports, but still considerable given the sharp contraction in overall economic activity globally. And China has been adding to its dollar reserves every month and has been a steady buyer of U.S. debt, which means it had become an even more significant creditor of the U.S. and a facilitator of U.S. government spending.

via Zachary Karabell: China and the United States — a Marriage of Convenience.

News Analysis – China Aims to Steady North Korea – NYTimes.com

What does real leverage look like?

For months, North Korea had insisted that it would never return to the talks demanded by the United States, calling them “dead.”  North Korea’s reversal came after China signed a series of agreements that promised aid for the North and an expansion in economic exchanges, including the construction of another bridge across their tightly controlled river border.  via News Analysis – China Aims to Steady North Korea – NYTimes.com.

China really doesn’t’ want to have to face the implosion of North Korea.  But its interests are furthered using North Korea as a “buffer” against US influence in the region.  But as the article notes, China wins and South Korea/US loses influence.