United States
United States
Fair Observer provides inclusive, insightful and non-partisan analysis of important American issues, events and trends.
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360° Analysis / Boston bombing / Boston Marathon / Mahmud Mansur Nidal / Russian security services / Tamerlan Tsarnaev / terrorism / The Jamestown Foundation / United States / Valery Dzutsev / Europe / Global SecurityBy Valery Dzutsev Leaks of information from Russian security services offer more questions than answers over the Boston Bombings. *[Note: This article was originally published by The Jamestown Foundation.] On April 27, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published an article on the dead Boston bomber suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, based on information it received from the Russian security services. It cited officers of the Dagestani Center for Combating Extremism who said they became aware of Tsarnaev’s presence in the republic in April 2012, and registered his “repeated” meetings with 18-year-old Mahmud Mansur Nidal, who had previously been under surveillance for a year. The...
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360° Analysis / Gateway House / Kim Jong-Un / Korean peninsula / North Korea / Nuclear / obama / President Park / Pyongyang / Reshma Patil / Seoul / South Korea / United States / Washington DC / Global Security / AsiaBy Reshma Patil The new provocations from Pyongyang heighten the risk of a military showdown with the US, South Korea and Japan. China, the only power with sway over the regime, is exercising limited options for peace on the peninsula. An untested 30-year-old dictator declares a ‘state of war’ with South Korea, threatens to set Seoul ablaze in ‘a sea of fire’ and launch missile strikes on US military bases. He rules a rogue nuclear state; its army as large as India’s and its isolated population as small as Mumbai’s. Just how dangerous is North Korea now? Since taking over in December 2011 from father Kim Jong-il as the supreme leader of North Korea, the...
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1991 Gulf War / 360° Analysis / AIPAC / al-Qaeda / Congress / Ehud Barak / George W. Bush / Iraq / Iraq War / Israel Lobby / Neoconservatives / Politics / Saddam Hussein / Stephen Zunes / terrorism / United States / US Imperialism / WMD / Middle East / Global SecurityStephen Zunes argues that the blame for the Iraq war should not be put on the Israel lobby, but the Bush administration and US imperialism. This is the first of a two part series. Given the enormous tragedy of the US invasion of Iraq, the war's tenth anniversary has inevitably raised the question of “why?” As many of us predicted in the lead-up to the war, the official rationales for the US invasion of Iraq — namely, that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” and had operational ties to al-Qaeda — were false. And the corrupt, inept, and repressive sectarian government the United States helped establish in Baghdad has undermined any...
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360° Analysis / Barack Obama / Chuck Hagel / Congress / Holocaust / Israel / Israel Lobby / Jewish Vote / John Mearsheimer / Palestine / PLO / Politics / Ronald Reagan / Stephen Walt / United States / United States / Middle EastJerome Slater analyzes the power of the Israel lobby and argues that US support for Israel is the result of the convergence of a wide range of factors, not solely determined by the Israel lobby. In light of Israeli rigidity and continuing expansion into the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, it is clear that there is no chance for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement in the absence of serious and sustained US pressures on Israel. Mere verbal admonitions and even diplomatic pressures would almost certainly be insufficient, for nothing would be likely to bring about a radical change in Israeli policies short of a simple and blunt message from the Obama...
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360° Analysis / immigration / Politics / President Obama / United States / US Congress / Washington DCThe US has been in dire need of a new immigration system for almost 30 years. With the immigration reform bill, millions of families across the country can genuinely hope for a brighter future for themselves. To approximately 11 million individuals, the last six years or so have been something of a political rollercoaster. In 2007, when George W. Bush promised new immigration reform legislation as his outgoing good deed, the nation’s largely working-class and undocumented migrants heeded with anticipation. The “mega-marches” of 2006 organized across the country were a clear indication that the United States' “silent minority” was ready to emerge from the...
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360° Analysis / America / Justin Dargin / Kim Jong Un / Nishtha Chugh / North Korea / obama / President Park / Pyongyang / Seoul / South Korea / United States / Washington / Global Security / AsiaJustin Dargin, a geopolitics expert from the University of Oxford, speaks to Fair Observer's Nishtha Chugh about the implications of North Korea’s nuclear program and why its latest test is essentially a show of strength by its young leader. Nishtha Chugh: What is your evaluation of North Korea’s nuclear program compared to other nuclear states and industry technical know-how? Where do you think it stands? Justin Dargin: North Korea is a very recent nuclear state. It has conducted three nuclear tests so far, with the latest one conducted in February this year. When it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, which was conducted underground, it did not produce the desired...
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360° Analysis / Kim Il-sung / Kim Jong-Un / North Korea / Nuclear / Nuclear Missile / Nuclear Program / obama / President Park / South Korea / United States / United States / War / Global Security / AsiaNorth Korea’s recent rhetoric is neither new nor surprising. While nuclear weapons in the hands of a volatile and irrational leader are cause for concern, it is unlikely that Pyongyang is on a suicide mission. The ongoing tensions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States have once again highlighted the vulnerability of the Korean Peninsula, a region often plagued by the possibility of war. The threat this time is from the untested 29-year-old Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea and grandson of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. The supreme leader has threatened to turn Seoul, the capital of South Korea, into a “sea of fire”, with...
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360° Analysis / Asia-Pacific / Kim Jong Un / Kim Jong-il / Michael Bassett / North Korea / obama / Pyongyang / Seoul / South Korea / United States / War / Washington / Global Security / AsiaBrinksmanship is a logical tactic deployed by North Korea when it feels backed into a corner with nothing to lose, because it has everything to gain. [View, In Pictures: A Note From North Korea (Part 2)] The annual round of brinksmanship between the US and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is seemingly more intense than in years past. This is a tactic that makes perfect sense for the DPRK, as no country has any political power over it. It is a tactic that is usually initiated by North Korea for the purpose of forcing the external world to give it concessions, and hopefully, a little respect. The DPRK wants mutual recognition and normalization of relations, and it sees...
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Ari Katz / China / Kim Jong-il / Kim Jong-Un / North Korea / Nuclear / obama / President Park / Pyongyang / South Korea / United States / Washington D.C / 360° Context / Global Security / AsiaBy Ari KatzAs tension between North and South Korea continues, an armed conflict, however contained, can potentially wreak havoc in the Korean Peninsula and the wider East Asian region. Background North Korea has continued its policy of aggressive posturing and combative rhetoric under new leader Kim Jong-un, albeit a note shriller than that of his father, the late Kim Jong-il. Against a strained history with South Korea, the communist state is now pushing the peninsula closer to conflict through renewed rhetorical blusters in recent months. With peace in Asia at stake, South Korea, the US, and China are all pushing Pyongyang to back down in an effort to defuse tensions and avoid a shooting war....
