Commentary | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Feb 27, 2012

American safety tab in terms of drone deaths

by Hiroaki Sato

Sometimes people make a startlingly mindless argument. One recent example is “Drones for Human Rights” (New York Times, Jan. 31). “Drones are not just for firing missiles in Pakistan,” began Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Mark Hanis, who co-wrote the op-ed. “In Iraq, the State ...

Commentary Feb 27, 2012

Find common ground with critics to work out norm for 'responsibility to protect' operations

by Ramesh Thakur

Ten years after the formulation of the responsibility-to-protect (R2P) principle as a guide for driving international intervention in a country, it is worth making three points: • First, as shown in Libya last year, R2P is the norm of choice for galvanizing moral outrage ...

Commentary Feb 22, 2012

Amazing GRACE can measure world's ice loss

by Michael Richardson

One of the main climate change concerns for Japan and other Asian countries with valuable and densely-populated low-lying coastal land is how much of their land may be threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges as the century advances. Humans burning fossil fuels ...

Global-related Feb 22, 2012

Why Iran thinks it needs the bomb

by Ray Takeyh

Bombastic claims of nuclear achievement, threats to close critical international waterways, alleged terrorist plots and hints of diplomatic outreach — all are emanating from Tehran right now. Last week, confrontation between Iran and the West reached new heights as Israel accused Iran of a ...

Commentary Jan 30, 2012

U.S. claims to be pushing reform of U.N. bodies, but campaign smacks of intrigue, shady politics

by Ramzy Baroud

The country that has long been known to abuse its powers and privileges in the United Nations is now leading a campaign to reform the same organization. While U.N. reforms are welcomed, if not demanded, by many of its member states, there is little ...

Editorial Jan 29, 2012

A victory for women

Voters in Otsu, Shiga elected Japan’s youngest-ever female mayor last week. Congratulations go out to Ms. Naomi Koshi, who is only 36, almost half the age of the outgoing mayor, Mr. Makoto Mekata, 70. Mr. Mekata held the post for two terms supported by ...

Editorial Jan 23, 2012

Shaping a human rights panel

The Justice Ministry in mid-December made public an outline of a bill to set up a human rights protection committee. In 2002, the Liberal Democratic Party government submitted an earlier version to the Diet, but it was eventually quashed mainly because it contained a ...

Global-related Jan 19, 2012

Understanding Tehran's behavior

by Ray Takeyh

The perennial conflict between Iran and the West has entered a dangerous new phase, with tensions rising in the Persian Gulf since Iran has threatened retaliation for last week’s assassination of a chemical engineer linked to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. What accounts for ...

Editorial Jan 17, 2012

The Syrian charade

There have been 300 days of protest against the government of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. They have made no dent in the government’s resolve. Even the presence of an Arab League observer group has had no impact on Damascus’s readiness to bring all its ...

Global-related Dec 19, 2010

Pernicious 'rogue' offers of aid

by Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — China found itself in the unwelcome WikiLeaks spotlight the week before last with sweeping claims against its “aggressive” policies in giving aid to Africa. Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, called China “a pernicious economic competitor with ...

Global-related Dec 16, 2010

Is open diplomacy possible or even desirable?

by Peter Singer

PRINCETON, New Jersey — When the furor erupted over WikiLeaks’ recent release of a quarter-million diplomatic cables, I was reminded of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 speech in which he put forward “Fourteen Points” for a just peace to end World War I. The ...

Global-related Dec 6, 2010

India moving to pole position for Security Council challenge

by Harsh V. Pant

LONDON — U.S. President Barack Obama made a splash in India recently when he indicated that the United States would back India’s bid for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council. It was a major policy shift that India has long ...