There are rumors that Tony Blair wants to decriminalize the production of opium in Afghanistan. With a vicious and effective Taliban resurgence spreading throughout many parts of the country, such talk indicates that the British government is becoming increasingly worried about their ability to establish stability in the country. Continued at Foreign Policy Watch.

Nancy Pelosi spoke at the Knesset yesterday. Here’s what she had to say about Iran: And together, we must have a simple message for Tehran, whose support of Hezbollah is well known. Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. The time to leverage all our power is now, and the way to do it is through diplomacy – with stronger sanctions and smarter policy choices. Under Chairman Tom Lantos’ leadership, the U.S. Congress is moving to put additional pressure on Iran by expanding...

I don’t think it’s worth paying much attention to Condoleezza Rice’s trip to Israel-Palestine. Why? Because Rice doesn’t have a chance in hell of waging a solution to the conflict. The problem lies with the fact that the Bush administration has very little credibility amongst Palestinians. American officials have put relentless pressure on the Palestinian government to stop all violence against Israelis, to recognize Israel, to marginalize Hamas, and to agree to previous peace...

It’s amazing that some analysts are still insisting that there is not any torture going on at America’s foreign detention centers. That is, despite the fact that the number of detainees who claim to have been tortured or abused while in US custody seems to grow every week. In the past, there have been allegations by Bangladeshis, Afghanis, and Brits. Last week, it was Khalid Sheikh Mohammad who insisted that he had been tortured while in American custody. This week, it’s David Hicks,...

Back in 2002, Bush began an initiative called the “Millennium Challenge Account” (MCA) which upped the foreign aid budget for poor countries. The goal of this program was to encourage democratic governance and liberal economic policies by offering aid in exchange for the implementation of various reforms. How much success has the program had since its creation five years ago? A lot. It seems that giving states a monetary incentive to implement reforms is one of the most effective ways...

It’s not a bad idea…

I’m not convinced that intervening militarily in Darfur is a good idea. As Nicholas Kristof pointed out recently, with the negative perception of the US assault on Iraq, any American-led military action could easily be discredited by the Sudanese government as another ‘imperial’ invasion to gain access to the country’s vast oil resources. So, before we get involved in a difficult and perhaps unsuccessful military operation, we should be trying a range of different options...

Karen Hughes, the infamous head of public diplomacy at the State Department, has a lot of work to do. A new Zogby International poll, conducted among 3,850 residents of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, found the following: Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed stated they had unfavorable attitudes — 57 very unfavorable and 21 percent unfavorable — towards the United States. More than two-thirds of those surveyed, or 70 percent, said their attitudes...

Is it smart for the Bush administration to ally with dictatorships in order to fight Islamic extremism? An article in The Economist on American relations with Ethiopia got me thinking about this question. Since 9/11, a range of ghoulish dictators and autocrats from across the globe have witnessed their ties with the United States improve dramatically. Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, the Saudis, and Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi are just a few...

It’s real and, to a certain extent, it works.

The use of political rhetoric has played an important role in the recent nuclear deal with North Korea. In the early years of his presidency, Bush’s rhetoric was often coarse, and sometimes straight-up nasty. Talking about North Korea, he famously referred to the nation back in 2002 as a part of the “Axis of Evil,” and he labeled its leader, Kim Jong Il, a “tyrant,” a “pygmy,” and “a spoiled child at a dinner table.” The effect of such rhetoric...

I bet that John Bolton is in hot water with the White House. Talking yesterday about the recent nuclear arms agreement reached with North Korea, Bolton said: “It’s a bad, disappointing deal, and the best thing you can say about it is that it will probably fall apart.” Whoops. That’s probably not what the Bush administration had in mind for him to say. Indeed, during the President’s press conference today, an uncomfortable moment ensued when a reporter asked Bush to explain...

Should the international community get involved to stop civil wars and ethnic conflicts? Inspired by the seemingly-intractable civil war in Iraq and the ongoing conflict in Palestine, an increasing number of academics are arguing that international involvement to end humanitarian crises is not always a good thing. Instead, they suggest, allowing violence to continue is sometimes a necessary evil to establishing a long-term peace. Edward Luttwak, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International...

I just watched Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be interviewed by ABC’s Diane Sawyer. Assad has always struck me as a smooth talker, clearly someone who has mastered the art of political parlance. He is very adept at avoiding questions, hedging his answers, and playing to his audience. When he talks about Iraq, for example, he manages to deny any culpability for insurgent violence while presenting himself as the only Arab leader who could possibly bring about an end to the conflict. In this...

Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Africa this week. Why is he there? And what is the controversy surrounding his visit? I analyze the situation in a new post at Foreign Policy Watch.

I was not convinced by Michael van der Galien’s recent analysis of the radicalization of British Muslims. Citing an article in The Telegraph, Michael writes that British Muslims are becoming increasingly fundamentalist and that their support for terrorism is on the rise. How does he explain this phenomenon? Michael argues that it is “multiculturalism” that has encouraged this radicalization. The British policy of tolerance towards people of different cultures, he suggests, is so...

I’m very pleased to be a new co-blogger at The Moderate Voice. Joe has decided to grant me a spot on the staff as a way of bringing another angle of foreign policy analysis here to TMV. These are big shoes to fill, as the current crew of bloggers seems to do a very good job of debating and analyzing current international issues. Nonetheless, I hope to add a new perspective to these ongoing discussions and I look forward to working with the other bloggers and discussing ideas with readers. As...