However, a year later, there is some movement toward a resumption of talks. Mitchell will be going back to the region in the next few days, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to meet tomorrow with officials from Jordan and Egypt.

To take a deeper look at the issues, Alon Ben-Meir, a senior fellow at New York University’s School of Global Affairs, joins Daljit Dhaliwal. Ben-Meir discusses why the timing is right to resume the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He also talks about the new role settlements are playing in the peace process.

This latest warning came as Yemeni officials said security forces killed two al-Qaeda fighters in a gun battle.

And ten days after the attempted bombing of a U.S. jetliner by a suspect who received his training and explosives in Yemen, passengers from Yemen and 13 other countries now face additional aiport security screening.

For more, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Juan Carlos Zarate, senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

And Omar Al Saleh reports for Al Jazeera English on the Arabic-language school where the alleged plane bomber studied during his time in Yemen.

Yuli Edelstein, the Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora in the Israeli cabinet, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the prospects of peace in the Middle East and why Israel won’t agree to a settlement freeze.

Al Jazeera English’s John Terrett reports on the challenges and reasons behind Abbas’ decision to bow out of politics — including the expansion of Israeli settlements and the impartial U.S. stance.

Kazan Kremlin Mosque. Photo: Flickr user pirateparrot

Clinton swung by the predominantly Muslim autonomous republic at the end of her three-day trip to Russia this week. After visiting the Kazan Kremlin, the Blagoveshchensk Orthodox Cathedral, and the newly built Kol Sharif Mosque, one of the largest in Europe and Russia, Clinton praised the republic as a “model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians.”

Tatarstan is one of more than 20 ethnic republics in the Russian Federation. Located between the Volga and Kama Rivers some 500 miles east of Moscow, it is home to two million Turkic-speaking Tatars — the largest non-Slavic minority group in Russia. Chuvash, Udmurt, and Mordvin are among the other ethnic groups, alongside ethnic Russians, that make up the rest of the population. Slightly more than half of residents are Muslim.

Tatars are proud of their heritage, and their independent roots run deep. In the 15^th century, they had their own medieval state—the Kazan Khanate, which ruled for more than a century, until Ivan the Terrible brought the khanate under Moscow’s dominion in 1552.

The Sunday before Clinton’s visit, more than 400 people demonstrated in the capital city Kazan to mark the anniversary of this very conquest. Demonstrators took the opportunity to protest Moscow’s policy of “Russification”—targeting a new education law passed this year that advances the use of Russian—and call for the national independence of the Tatars.

Claims to Tatar independence are not new. During the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, Tatarstan was one of many ethnic minority republics within Russia demanding full-fledged sovereignty. Chechnya’s attempts to break away resulted in two wars, and violence continues to flare there periodically.

Blagoveshensky Cathedral, Kazan. Photo: Flickr user LostBob

Tatarstan was luckier. While its attempts to gain independence failed, no blood was shed. Due in part to President Mintimir Shaimiev’s savvy negotiating, Tatartstan walked away with more autonomy than any other republic in the Federation, including a significant degree of control over its economic resources.

Today, Tatarstan is, as the official website boats, one of the most economically developed parts of Russia. Rich in oil, it is also a manufacturing hub. Some of the biggest and most successful Russian companies are based there: the KamAZ truckmaker, for one. Shaimiev’s been successful in creating special economic zones and attracting foreign investment. Both Iran and Turkey, two big investors, have consulate generals in Kazan.

After Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tatarstan is said to be the most prosperous region of Russia. And, despite the prevalence of numerous ethnic groups and religions, and occasional pan-Tatar strivings for independence, actual strife is rare.

While the Tatar President’s claims to educate Secretary Clinton on foreign policy issues may be a bit far-fetched, it’s not that surprising the US State Department selected the region to showcase.

Or perhaps it was the republic’s unofficial motto that served as the decided factor: “We Can!”

Sound familiar, Obama?

- Christine Kiernan

Clinton swung by the predominantly Muslim autonomous republic at the end of her three-day trip to Russia this week. After visiting the Kazan Kremlin, the Blagoveshchensk Orthodox Cathedral, and the newly built Kol Sharif Mosque, Clinton praised the republic as a “model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians,” writes Christine Kiernan. http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_russia_kazan.jpg ]]> http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/10/16/what-hillary-clinton-could-learn-from-tatarstan/7825/feed/ http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/08/14/week-in-review-afghanistan-iraq-and-the-clintons/6815/ http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/08/14/week-in-review-afghanistan-iraq-and-the-clintons/6815/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:15:49 +0000 Worldfocus http://worldfocus.org/?p=6815 Gideon Rose of Foreign Affairs magazine and Carla Robbins of The New York Times editorial board join Martin Savidge to discuss the week’s top stories: A major U.S. offensive as national elections approach in Afghanistan, a surge in suicide bombings in Iraq and Hillary Clinton’s trip to Africa.

Clinton visited a clinic and a large refugee camp in the eastern town of Goma, where she pledged $17 million to deal with sexual abuse.

Severinne Autesserre, an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the conflict in Congo and how the country’s government and people will respond to Clinton’s message.

Watch the Worldfocus signature video “Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo” and see our extended coverage of the crisis in Congo.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about Clinton’s mission: Clinton must call for an end to Congo’s media censorship

A blogger at “Texas in Africa” writes an open letter to Hillary Clinton:

I think it’s great that you’re headed [to Goma]. You have to get out of Kinshasa to understand the country and its governance problems, and you will not understand the conflict in full — or how pitiful and inadequate the international response to it is — without going to the east and meeting some of the victims. [...] You will meet little girls who’ve been gang raped by soldiers and who can no longer talk or feed themselves. You’ll see mothers and their children who live in a kind of poverty that does not compare with what you see in Kenya or South Africa or Ghana or any of the places you’ve previously visited on the continent.

Remind yourself that this is the norm in eastern Congo. [...] You will not be the same after hearing their stories. But the people of the Congo don’t need you to see and be shocked by their situation. They need you to do something. They need you to go beyond the rhetoric. So I am begging you: please make this trip different.

Blogger “Marcel,” with Oxfam’s operations in Congo, gives Clinton some advice based on experience with rape victims:

This afternoon I’m supposed to be attending a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who flew into Congo last night.

She couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time. Rape is widespread here, and cases have increased dramatically in the past few months.

I remember a woman I met in the remote Lubero territory of North Kivu Province. She told me she witnessed a gang rape of another woman by three armed men. It is almost impossible to describe the scenes she told me, but she was so brutally raped that she later died of internal bleeding. The witness, the woman I talked to, fled the area in terror. So did thousands of other unnamed victims in the past few months.

[...] If Hillary Clinton asks me what she can do to reduce rape in eastern Congo, I will tell her first of all that the US government, and the rest of the international community, needs to urgently rethink its support for an offensive that has - according to UN figures - forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes, and has resulted in rape cases spiralling out of control. The military option must not be the only strategy. It is always the civilians - the women, children and men of Eastern Congo - who pay the highest price for any military operation.

The “Wide Angle View” blog examines different approaches to combating rape:

I was encouraged to read about both the top-down and a bottom-up approaches underway in the area to address sexual violence, which I think are equally important for effective change. Having legal structures in place regarding all forms of sexual violence against women is vital for preventing aggressors from acting with impunity, and may provide some preventative dissuasion. And public services are essential for dealing with the aftermath. On the other hand, changing attitudes is a slower process, and immensely difficult, but it offers the only hope of clipping sexual violence in the early stages before it can grow and take root.

Doctors Without Borders shares a video of Congolese refugees in neighboring Sudan:

The

They discuss the news made this week by a power couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a major American diplomatic initiative on the African continent, Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea and secured the release of two American journalists.

View an interactive map of Hillary Clinton’s African tour.

Clinton pledged to expand America’s support for Somalia’s weak interim government as it struggles against Islamic extremists. As she makes her way through Africa, economic development and human rights are also expected to be high on the agenda.

Emira Woods, the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Clinton’s agenda in Africa and U.S. goals in Somalia.

Below, view an interactive map exploring Hillary Clinton’s tour of Africa. Click on a country to view her plans.

In Somalia, pirates have released a German container ship and its crew. The ship was captured 400 miles off the coast of Somalia and the crew was held for ransom. On Monday, the owners of the ship paid the pirates almost $3 million.

Sarjoh Bah, a senior fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the chaos in Somalia, Somali militants abroad and Hillary Clinton’s expected visit with the president of Somalia.

For more, read our Q&A: Somalia’s state of emergency and listen to our online radio show on lawlessness in Somalia.

For more on the issue of rape in Liberia, watch the Worldfocus signature stories “Former child soldiers, sex slaves recover from Liberia’s war” and ”Liberian women occupy front lines of war on sexual violence.”

Tania Bernath, a researcher for Amnesty International, joins Martin Savidge to discuss efforts to combat rape and sexual violence in Liberia and other post-conflict countries, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s scheduled visit to Africa next week.

Secretary of Clinton rounded out the emerging power circuit with a trip to India this week.

The Obama administration has been in overdrive building America’s pivotal power relationships with China, Russia and now India. For reasons Mona Sutphen and I describe in our book, this is the right approach to big powers in the current era. A central rationale is that “strategic collaboration” will focus major power assets on transnational threats, which America cannot successfully battle alone.

A lot of legwork goes into building a working relationship, Obama officials have wasted no time. Presidents Hu and Obama have met twice, and every week seems to find another high level U.S. official in Beijing. Secretary of State Clinton was the first in history to go to China before Europe. Next week, the first Strategic & Economic Dialogue, an intense two-day conference co-chaired by Secretary Clinton and Secretary of Treasury Geitner and their Chinese counterparts, will be held in D.C.

President Obama and presidents Medvedev met and issued a comprehensive joint statement not even three months into his term, after Secretary of State Clinton had already hit the “reset” button with her counterpart.   Next came a full fledged summit in Moscow two weeks ago at which the U.S. and Russia agreed to resume arms control talks and to reinvigorate the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

Secretary of Clinton rounded out the emerging power circuit with a trip to India this week. She inaugurated a “strategic dialogue,” with Delhi and blessed deepening civilian nuclear cooperation. But she came away empty handed on climate, as Delhi refused to commit to any binding targets under a new climate treaty.

It’s one thing to build these working relationships. And it is another for them to work. While we’ve realized some important gains from these rising power relationships already, many others are elusive. The coming years will be filled with frustration as our officials invest countless hours consulting and negotiating — yet we don’t get the kind of help we want from China on North Korea or climate, from Russia on Iran, and from India on Pakistan, to name a few. But at least we will increasingly understand their perspectives, and that will lead to either more policy success or more realistic expectations.

- Nina Hachigian

Photo courtesy of Flickr user u.s. department of state under a Creative Commons license.

On Monday, the two countries concluded a new deal that will grant American companies exclusive rights to sell India civilian nuclear power reactors — a deal that could be worth $10 billion.

But even as that deal was struck, India once again resisted American efforts to limit carbon emissions — a deal India fears would slow its own economy.

Amit Pandya of the The Stimson Center joins Martin Savidge to discuss the Secretary of State’s visit to India and the state of American-Indian relations.

Iran has so far refused to discuss or scale back its nuclear capabilities. Many experts believe Iran is several years away from being able to build a bomb, but a German news magazine quotes intelligence sources as saying there is evidence Iran could have a nuclear bomb within six months.

Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the U.S. position and the likelihood that Iran will respond to Clinton’s call.

Christopher Sabatini, the senior director of policy at the Council of the Americas, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the political situation in Honduras and the role of the U.S.

Cuba is not a member of the Organization of American States. Photo: OAS

The wittiest of the Marxes (Groucho, not Karl) said famously, “I wouldn’t join a club that would have me as a member.” It is an often-used quote that fits well with news about Cuba coming from a meeting this week of the Organization of American States in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Hillary Rodham Clinton faced a harangue from OAS members demanding that Cuba be invited to become a member of the organization. A New York Times piece about the meeting said this:

On one level, it seems a sterile debate: Cuba has said often and loudly that it does not want to rejoin the organization. But on a deeper level, the meeting has showcased Latin America’s resurgent political left, which has seized on Cuba as an issue with which to press the United States.

How much does this involve the misapplication of those overused words, “left versus right?” It can also be argued that all of Latin America yearns for a different relationship with the United States under the new presidency of Barack Obama. Cuba has diplomatic and trade ties with something like 170 countries around the world — left, center and right.

Back in Washington, the dominant move for a change in stagnant and stymied Cuban relations comes from the offices of Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who only Rush Limbaugh might try to label as a leftist. Lugar doesn’t support OAS membership for Cuba, but he calls for rethinking U.S. relations with Cuba. 

The OAS is a sideshow compared with appeals from Lugar and others, including U.S. businesses looking to open Cuba as a lucrative new market. Meanwhile, a majority of Americans and even a majority of the Cuban-American community in the United States support an end to the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo of Cuba. 

So whether or not Cuba is invited to join the OAS, the focus is on Washington: How quickly and to what extent will the Obama administration promote the changes that appear close at hand?

- Peter Eisner

For more, watch Martin Savidge’s interview with Shannon O’Neil of the Council on Foreign Relations: Clinton outlines conditions for Cuba entry to OAS.

One issue on the table was Cuba, which was kicked out of the OAS in 1962. While most of the 34 nations in the group want Cuba to be reinstated without conditions, Clinton said there must be changes made by the Cuban government, including the release of political prisoners, respect for basic human rights and democratic reforms. That position comes despite recent overtures by the United States to improve relations with Cuba.

Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America with the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss what it would take for Cuba to be re-admitted into the organization, overtures from Cuba to the U.S. and Iran’s interest in Latin American countries.

President Barack Obama meets with his senior advisors in the Oval Office. Photo: Pete Souza/White House

About two weeks before President Obama took office, I received a call from a friend of mine who said in an ominous tone, “Well, 17 days to do what we have to do.”

“What would that be?” I asked.

“Bombing Iran, while we still can,” replied my friend, a pilot recently retired from government service. He assumed that an Obama administration would never do so.

“Regime change” in Iran has been a fixation in some quarters for years, notably among neo-conservatives who saw “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq as a stepping stone toward toppling the Iranian government and being greeted as liberators.

Their ranks include former Defense Department officials, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perl and many others who filtered into top civilian jobs at the Pentagon during the tenure of former Defense Secretary Donald P. Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld, in turn, is the mentor of former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, who is of a like mind, and boisterous these days on criticizing Obama.

While still vice president, Cheney said:

The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences…We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

The New York Times reported Cheney’s remarks on Oct. 21, 2007 at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that is home for a number of neo-conservatives. The story included a comment by Dennis Ross, a scholar at the Institute, a former aide to Wolfowitz, and now President Obama’s envoy to Iran and its environs:

Cheney’s “language on Iran is quite significant,” Ross said. It “does have implications.”

Two years later, how different is Bush-Cheney policy from that of President Obama? We don’t know yet, but there are hints.

Two prominent Middle East analysts, Flint Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, former staffers at the National Security Council, question Ross’ role in the Obama administration. In a New York Times opinion piece on May 24, 2009, they warn that President Obama may be going down the wrong road; public declarations to the contrary, they say Obama is neglecting important diplomatic opportunities to engage with Iran and truly work on better relations, including negotiations about nuclear issues.

The Leveretts criticize Obama’s choice of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and the designation of Ross to such a key role. They note that Clinton once said she would “‘totally obliterate’ Iran if it attacked Israel.” They describe a conversation they had with Ross, in which he, like Clinton, said he doubted talks with Iran would be fruitful.

…he told us, if Iran continued to expand its nuclear fuel program, at some point in the next couple of years President Bush’s successor would need to order military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets. Citing past ‘diplomacy’ would be necessary for that president to claim any military action was legitimate.

If we take this point of view at face value, my friend who had been worried about NOT bombing Iran may be feeling appeased.

- Peter Eisner

The immense strain of this humanitarian crisis is challenging the Pakistani government as it tries to avoid internal dissent against the consequences of its anti-Taliban military campaign.

The U.S. has pledged more than $100 million dollars in emergency assistance for Pakistan.

Ahmad Kamal, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the situation in the refugee camps and how the military campaign is going.