Politics
Politics
Fair Observer's analysis of political issues, events and trends and their national, regional and international consequences.
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By Anna RitzThe true value of the Rio+20 conference does not consist of its political outcome. Discussing the political relevance of the outcome document only distracts from the true value of this conference. Conversations and Networking: Connecting the World We all know Forrest Gump. The great and extraordinary man sitting on the bench – alone. I was reminded of that situation when taking a break from the negotiations of the Rio+20 conference to have lunch in the park. Not far from me on a wooden bench was sitting a man, eating his sandwich – alone. I spontaneously approached him to ask whether we might share the bench and have lunch together. As it turned out, the man was Pekka...
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Only the United Nations has the ability to rescue Syria from what it has quickly become – a staging ground for a regional power struggle between respective Sunni and Shi’a backed forces. Syria’s unique position on the map – it lies on the Mediterranean Sea and shares borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon – is like a keystone that holds the surrounding elements in place. The outbreak of civil war in Syria has weakened the central government’s control over vast areas of the country, opening up space for new actors to operate in the pursuit of their own strategic interests. The struggle of Syria’s Sunni-based opposition against the...
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The ‘double standards’ critique is not relevant to justify a military intervention in Syria, and denotes a dangerous romanticism in international relations. As helpless spectators of the massacres in Syria, we are all outraged. Willingness to intervene is natural, and it can rely on the tradition that refuses to regard sovereignty as a shield behind which human rights could be grossly violated. Some then decree to wage war in the name of humanity, advocating “intervention”, a medical analogy used since the 19th century, giving war a ‘cleaner’ appearance, much like the controlled precision of a surgeon’s knife whose aim is not to kill but to heal....
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There are 2 million stateless persons scattered across Myanmar and an estimated 400,000 of them are of Indian origin. As India participates in Myanmar’s rejuvenation, can it also use effective diplomacy to advance minority rights in the country? By Venessa Parekh Even as the world smiles benignly at the democratic opening up of Myanmar and the extended foreign tour of its Leader of the Opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s complex domestic dynamic, hidden for years, has surfaced. The spillover of the sectarian violence that began in early June has simultaneously exposed the difficulties of democratisation and the plight of Myanmar’s many underprivileged ethnic...
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The “constitutional coup” is a major set back for Paraguayan democracy. By Gustavo Setrini and Lucas Arce Paraguayan democracy has taken a giant step backward since its Congress impeached President Fernando Lugo in June, plunging the country into political turmoil and diplomatic isolation. Coming only nine months before the next scheduled presidential election, this crisis erupted from political party elites’ short-sighted and brutish competition for public resources, not to mention their disdain for democracy. Although the impeachment played out according to the constitution, there was little semblance of due process, and international observers have described the move as...
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The response to Lugo's impeachment from other Latin American statesmen has been dictated by economic necessity rather than commitment to democracy. By Sean Burges The reaction among other Latin American countries to the extremely questionable constitutional putsch in Paraguay appears based more on economic urgency than the defense of democracy. Although Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff condemned the government of Fernando Lugo’s ouster, they must be at least a little delighted by the June 22 events. The Double Pretext Just as Paraguay’s Colorado party used the clash that killed eleven peasants and six police officers as a...
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By Trevor CohenThe impeachment of Paraguay's President, Fernando Lugo, raises questions about politics and power structures in Latin American Democracy. Background On the morning of June 15, three hundred Paraguayan police officers entered the estate of Blas Riquelme, a wealthy soy farmer. Their orders were to remove 100 landless peasants who had been occupying Riquelme’s property for over a month. But the campesinos did not go peacefully. Gunfire erupted along both sides, killing eleven peasants and six police officers and wounding nearly 100 more. The clash produced a political firestorm, ushering the hasty and near unanimous impeachment of the Paraguayan President, Fernando Lugo. The lower...
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The failure of Central Asian states to engage political Islam within a religious and political framework perpetuates the threat of Islamic extremism. Religious pluralism may offer the antidote. Islamic society and the state have a long history of active engagement in Central Asia, but the 20th century introduced external agents that disrupted Islam’s place in the civic system. Two disruptive agents include state-imposed secularism, and the simultaneous shift towards pan-Islamic political activism within intra-Islamic dialogue. These phenomena coalesced into a mode of religious governance that disengaged Islam in the state sphere and silenced moderation within the religious sphere. And...
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By Aaron SebagAs the AKP continues to address Turkey's internal political reforms and growing domestic challenges, it may soon discover that its leadership will be compromised by its reticence to establish and entrench the necessary standards needed for the country to sustain itself as a dominant regional power. In the year that has followed the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) successful showing in Turkey’s most recent national elections, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP have emerged from June 2011’s electoral victory with a successful, yet highly delicate, governing mandate. As the Turkishfaithful reflect on a year of post-election governance, the...