This Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs: Increasing Tension in the Korean Peninsula
Tension in the Korean Peninsula seems to escalate by the minute. The fallout from Seoul's formal accusation of Pyongyang for the sinking of its warship last month started with Seoul greatly curbing trade and blasting the North with propaganda from loud speakers; then the North threatened to take any violation of its naval airspace as an act of war worthy of retaliation and said it will fire at the loud speakers; Seoul then severed many official ties, blocked passage of Northern cargo through its waters and shored up international support and indignation; Pyongyang then cut off a naval hotline specifically designed to stave off conflict. US support for the South and pleadings with China to intervene and help mitigate the crisis seemed to yield few results. Theories abound as to why the North has tuned to a belligerent posture (trying to shore succession to Kim Jong-Il's third son, unilateral action from a rogue naval general, dissenting and rebellious armed forces, a tactic of distraction to deflect from the ongoing economic and food crisis, poor judgment from an ailing Jong-Il, a hapless effort to strike out before trying to reengage with the international community and gain concessions for better behavior, etc.). Where this will lead no one knows, but it is looking like imminent conflict unless China chooses to intervene and tries to diffuse the crisis.
American Security Strategy
US President Obama presented his formal national security strategy on Thursday. With a mix of realist policies and principled priorities, Obama said the US would focus not only on fighting violent extremism but addressing nuclear proliferation, climate change, American energy dependence, reducing the budget deficit, drawing down the wars and other major global problems. Obama said America would maintain its military supremacy and diplomatic leadership (but still reserves the right to unilateral and preemptive action) whilst pursuing reinforced multilateral engagement with traditional and rising powers (and while supporting peaceful democratic movements and fledgling democracies).
War Reports:
Iraq
As the cost of the war in Afghanistan topped the cost of the war in Iraq for the US military, and as American Vice President Biden reiterated that the US' withdrawal from Iraq will take place on time, progress in this country appears to be gaining ground. Nonetheless, analysts are skeptical to believe in any positive peaceful developments too fast. Calls for political unity in Iraq, coming particularly strongly from the UN, were heard this week, as the nation's government tries to bring a tentative order to a chaotic land.
Afghanistan/Pakistan
As NATO and Afghan forces ready for a major action in Kandahar Province, violence surged in Nuristan Province in Barg-e-Matul district (from where coalition troops have recently withdrawn). The leader of the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley, who fled from the recent Pakistani offensive there and was trying to establish a safe-haven in Nuristan, is reportedly killed in the fighting. Meanwhile, international condemnation of drone attacks heightened with a top UN official taking issue with the fact that drones are operated by intelligence officials rather than traditional combatants (thus reducing their accountability). Elsewhere, Pakistan and India exchanged in violent skirmishes in Kashmir. On Thursday, the US Senate approved a war spending bill that reveals the annual cost of the war in Afghanistan to have exceeded that of Iraq. With initiatives like the reintegration of Taliban soldiers into the fabric of Afghan society, this could continue to prove costly in both dollars and lives.
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