No Joy over Sri Lanka's Peace
TweetTo their credit, Mark Leon Goldberg and Matthew Lee spread blame around liberally for the human rights debacle in Sri Lanka. I'll stipulate the LTTE is - was? - an odious organization. Yet, even...
View ArticleCool, Calm, and Pleased
TweetIt looks like the Obama administration might need another special negotiator for Northeast Asia.Yang Jiechi, the Chinese foreign minister, in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Yu...
View ArticleFresh Voices on DPRK
TweetIf I had to offer the most thought-provoking debate on DPRK's recent provocations, it's this three-way discussion between Ray Suarez, Douglas Paal, and Joel Wit on the PBS Online Newshour....
View ArticlePlanning the Next War in Sri Lanka
TweetNow, the United Nations calls for action!The U.N. human rights chief called on Tuesday for an international inquiry to determine if Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels committed war...
View ArticleDid the North Korea CD Just Skip Backwards
TweetThe United nations Security Council looks to be trying the Stanton Gambit - sanctioning companies facilitating North Korean bravado. If Beijing stonewalls, or if a resolution with sanctions leads...
View ArticleAid Money Greases Colombo's Slaughtering Wheel
TweetHowever germane Matthew Lee's question, whether the UN facilitated screening and the slaughter of non-combatant Tamils used for shields by the LTTE, it doesn't seem, after Rwanda, anyone cares....
View ArticleFooled by Low Baselines
TweetI just don't comment on The Becker-Posner Blog enough - mostly because I don't read it enough as I would like. Yet the topic, "Is the World Economic Center of Gravity Moving to Asia?"", caught my...
View ArticleIran Leads the Way
TweetGraham Allison offers a serious test for the non-proliferation regime to handle. I doubt it's possible to get UNSC rivals to agree on much.The best hope for defining a meaningful red line is to...
View ArticleA Dragon Beats an LTTE Tiger
TweetBeijing's less than speedy resolution to slap Pyongyang's wrist is just one reason to reconsider how the United Nations votes its Security Council members to the big table. Vijay Sakhuja offers...
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Pyongyang Is Not the Hive Mind
TweetJohn Pfeffer does have one good point within a discussion leading to Forging a Consensus on Human Rights, in response to Roberta Cohen.…I do say…that a human security approach has a more...
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Is the Lee Administration Its Own Worst Enemy?
TweetThis is how South Korean diplomats talk about each other:A former high-ranking official jokingly said South Korea’s diplomats may look like they have been playing the piano for decades but they...
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The UNSC Cheonan Statement Is a Gift the US Doesn’t Deserve
TweetI’m not surprised. Dismayed, yes. But, strangely I feel vindicated.Friday’s U.N. Security Council statement condemning the March sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan, but not fingering the...
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The Kind of Comedy That Makes for Cynicism
TweetBrian Fung’s attention to the Korean peninsula is welcome, but not if crackpot campaigns, like a “Peace Forest” in the DMZ is all he can find to report about.A 13-year-old American plans to visit...
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Beijing Buys ROK Treasury Bonds
TweetHere’s another reason to be cautiously optimistic this morning. China starts to change the game with a move into South Korean treasury debt.The news that China has been buying South Korean...
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Seeing the Benefits Even in a Pest
TweetHow should a country respond to a biological invader that reaches its shores via cargo shipped as international trade?A host of international trade agreements address the growing problem of...
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Selling What Japan, Inc. Has Left
TweetIt’s not that I don’t think geopolitical fears of Beijing’s rise are driving Tokyo’s drive to sign civilian nuclear deals with India, but that Joshua Keating talks about everything but Japan,...
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Where Can I Find An Honest North Korean?
TweetIt’s prudent for the US to tap American NGOs, to distribute flood aid to the DPRK, because UNDP appears rotten to the core.In 2007, the U.S. mission to the U.N. shined a light on the U.N. agency’s...
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A Reality Check Next for DPRK-US Relations
TweetThe Chosun Daily might understand that the Obama administration is skeptical about the Six-Party Talks format, but its perceived solution – it’s Beijing’s responsibility – is becoming more...
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How the Old Hands Do It
TweetRobert Koehler has some chuckles at U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s expense, but it seems even the ancient Middle Kingdom needs some schooling on diplomacySha Zukang’s highly undiplomatic...
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Ban Ki-moon Reveals His Sinister Plot
TweetColum Lynch fears the nauseating truth about U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: he’s old-school Korean, which means once he has a political job, he’ll never give it up without a bullet or a nudge...
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