How Two Men Can Unite The World

Tags

china, Diplomacy, U.S.

President Obama and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China had a weekend together that was supposed to change the world. The New York Times article U.S. – China Meeting’s Aim: Personal Diplomacy discussed a really important point that has been forgotten over the past few years. We read articles and studies that show how personal relationships have been influenced by technology, but that is also true in diplomacy. Because of recent advancements in methods of communication, diplomats have less interaction with government officials.
The world today has the largest population it has ever had, but has also been more connected than ever before. Who would’ve thought possible that a man that you meet in the slums of Rio during your humanitarian trip, is friends on Facebook with your roommate in college? This is reality today, and it makes things easier, but it also makes things harder. Now, government leaders like Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi Jinping have to worry about issues that they didn’t even know existed just ten years ago. Their agendas are full, they have a lot to worry about, and they just don’t have as much time to have one-on-one conversations with each other.
It is good to see that these two men took the time to spend a weekend getting to know each other personally and be able to understand the worries and frustrations that each of them have. Personal diplomacy is effective, people are empathetic to that which they know, and apathetic to that which they don’t know. I feel that these two men will be able to agree more now that they’ve had this time to have an informal encounter and discuss what’s important to them as individuals rather than speaking on behalf of their countries.

Drone Diplomacy?

Tags

china, drones, war

In “Pilotless Planes, Pacific Tensions”, an Op-Ed by Richard Parker, Mr. Parker argues that the rise in drone use by the U.S. to combat the rise in Chinese naval power is cheapening the cost of war in a way that we don’t fully understand. For example, what are the implications of using drones to destroy enemy drones?Is there a different standard for engaging drones with our weaponry when compared with manned units? If so, what should the different protocol be? Does this change in military tactics influence diplomacy between the U.S. and China?

At the moment, it seems that a change in military strategy will effect very little between the U.S. and China, economically it is in neither country’s self interest to cut off relations. However, what happens when this calculus changes? What would keep the peace between our two nations then? The U.S. and the Chinese need to work harder to establish a good diplomatic relationship, not just an economic one. The lack of dialogue and understanding across the pacific are laying the seeds for an adversarial relationship that does not need to exist.

The use of drones makes lighting tinderbox conflicts much easier. That means that preventing these tinderbox situations is essential to preserving peace. The U.S. needs to start building greater coordination between the East and the West, so that a natural alliance may form in the decades ahead.

Senate Slap

Long time senators are headed for the exit next year, an increasing sign of frustration in a body once viewed as the “greatest deliberative body in the world”. However, what’s interesting is the lack of viable candidates running to fill those once prestigious positions.  Senatorial races that once would have been prime targets for aspiring politicians are now being left a lone. New York Times writer Jeremy W. Peters reports,

At this point in 2011, seemingly vulnerable incumbents like Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, had Republican challengers. In states where seats opened up like Nevada and Virginia, the Democratic and Republican sides of the tickets both quickly filled up.

This year there are numerous states with open seats where only one party has a candidate, and many states without a challenger where there is an incumbent the other party would very much like to pick off.

It seems that the Senate is facing a serious brain drain. The wave of retirements in the last two election cycles is the largest in the Senates history. How is this going to affect the already dysfunctional Senate? When the greatest political office shy of the Presidency is no longer desirable, what does this say about politics in America? In multiple cases, potential senatorial candidates cited the hyper-partisan media as a major concern about running for office. How has the media shaped the politics that we know today?

Don’t rock the boat?

Tags

moral courage, mormon community, public protests, salman rushdie

Salman Rushdie’s opinion piece on moral courage is a wake up call to those complacent in their feelings towards liberty. As the world increasingly shifts from promoting liberty to equality, many voices that we used to admire as courageous are instead being thrown under the bus because they are “rocking the boat”.

As recently as 1989, the image of a man carrying two shopping bags and defying the tanks of Tiananmen Square became, almost at once, a global symbol of courage.

Then, it seems, things changed. The “Tank Man” has been largely forgotten in China, while the pro-democracy protesters, including those who died in the massacre of June 3 and 4, have been successfully redescribed by the Chinese authorities as counterrevolutionaries.

THIS new idea — that writers, scholars and artists who stand against orthodoxy or bigotry are to blame for upsetting people — is spreading fast, even to countries like India that once prided themselves on their freedoms.

We should be careful about painting certain forces as good or evil based on the media’s coverage. As Mr. Rushdie points out, even American’s fall into the trap of seeing protestors as immoral naer-do wells. When the Occupy movement hit full force, media coverage was almost scathing in its disdain for the purpose of the movement, and many viewed the protests as some sort of novelty, rather than a legitimate way to communicate an idea.

Within our own Mormon community, protests of church policies are often seen as heretical attempts to delegitimize church authority, and as such are looked upon with contempt. I believe this feeling goes beyond just church politics and into our political life as well. Though Mormons are happy to resolve disputes through the courts, I feel that minority groups seeking a greater voice through public protests are discriminated against rather than listened to. It is ironic that we (at least in Utah), have arrived at this mindset; we forget that this country would not exist without the tremendous moral courage the founding fathers had when they led a revolution in protest of Britain’s rule.  Perhaps we should reconsider what it means to be a “good citizen”.

Delusions of Defection

The New York Times reported today that Syria’s government has decided to switch tactics. As fears of islamic extremism in Syria spread, Mr. Assad’s autocratic government has increasingly tried to sell itself as a viable, secular partner for western powers in the middle east. Here is Omran al-Zoubi, an information minister for Syria, describing current conditions in Syria:

[Syria is] a war for civilization, identity and culture. Syria, if you want, is the last real secular state in the Arab world.

Washington’s continuing reluctance to directly arm Syrian rebels seems to have signaled to Damascus that a preservation of the status quo in Syria may be preferable to western powers than the rise of another extremists Islamic regime in the Middle east. With no resolution in sight, I wonder how the Obama administration’s policy of reluctant and indirect support of Syrian rebels will change in the next few months? The fog of war is thick in this conflict; President Obama’s early reluctance to throw the U.S. behind the rebels was a blow to secular forces in the rebel movement. However, at this stage in the conflict, the measured approach is the more wise one. When there are no clear friends or enemies, it does not make sense to ally ourselves in the conflict.

It seems prudent to not try to create an alliance that will eventually spiral because of deep cultural differences (think Pakistan).

The Price of Shadow War

11 days ago, the United States became indirectly responsible  for the deaths of 12 children. After a night raid went awry, 4 C.I.A. advisors and their local militia were ambushed in a house with 12 children inside. Though the irregular military team did not intentionally use the civilians in the home as shields, it became a natural result of the ambush. Eventually, one C.I.A. agent lay dead while the other 3 were med-evacuated, barely escaping the Taliban ambush.

Shortly after the C.I.A. agents were airlifted, airstrikes began raining down on the area to protect the C.I.A.’s covert fighting force, disregarding a Presidential Executive Order from President Karzai that declared drone strikes in residential areas illegal. Eventually this resulted in the collapse of the house containing the trapped civilians.

This is the result

 These children were killed only because of the airstrikes. These (C.I.A. run militias) are … irresponsible armed people, carrying out operations for and on the payroll of the C.I.A.       -President Karzai Spokesman

Who goes around in the middle of the night invading villages and hurting innocent bystanders? That sounds a lot like… who are we? Why has the U.S. traded asymmetric warfare for militias? The C.I.A. is making the military draw down look like a farce. For political reasons, the Obama administration must withdraw standard military forces. But instead of forcing the Afghans to fill the void, we seem to be filling it with a shadow force that has no accountability to anyone but the C.I.A.

Is this an acceptable solution to the American people? We don’t want troops on the ground, but we are ok with relatively uncontrolled untrained militias running free through the Afghani mountains, killing people they think are Taliban? Is the price for using irregular forces worth the cost? Why or why not?

Cycling Past an Afghan Taboo

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/sports/cycling/shannon-galpin-has-a-mission-putting-afghans-on-bikes.html?hp&_r=0

 

We must understand to be tolerant and to try to understand the culture and stop trying to make things the way we think should be,  I totally see this as a bad move from Shannon Galpin, let me know what your thoughts are of this article. I would like know why there is no more people following this movement.

Boston Blasts

Emergency response after blasts (Pictures from NYTimes)

A series of bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday, leaving two people dead and more than two dozen injured

-New York Times

My heart goes out to those caught in the blasts in Boston, may we keep them in our prayers. It is days like today that give us pause as a nation, to consider who we are, and what we represent. How will we respond to these attacks when the perpetrators are identified? The U.S. has become war weary, as we pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, most Americans have felt a certain relief towards the end of an endless war. However, if this attack can be traced to Al-Qaida or another terrorist movement abroad, how will this affect our retreat from Afghanistan/Pakistan?

Map of explosions

Details are thin at the moment, but I’m sure there will be much more investigative work to do as the FBI begins its investigation. However, if this attack can be traced to a foreign source, how do you think this will shift America’s diplomatic focus? Given America’s recent refocusing on east asia, would a terror attack force the U.S. to rethink its current strategy? If the attacks were home grown, how will politicians respond?

Gold, Long a Secure Investment, Loses Its Luster

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/business/gold-long-a-secure-investment-loses-its-luster.html?hp&_r=0

I feel like at this point of economic uncertancty any kind of investment would be hard to determine it as a safe one. So is gold really loosing its luster as some Wall Street analysts are declaring it to be the end of a golden age of gold. But is 11% to 15% declining in the price of gold, really a big hit to it? I see companies buying gold like if the are buying candy. I disagree with especulators who say think know everything I see something coming and history is the best especulator. But for a generation of investors, the golden decade created the illusion that the metal would keep rising forever. The financial industry seized on such hopes to market a growing range of gold investments, making the current downturn in gold felt more widely than previous ones. That triumph of marketing gold was apparent in an April 2011 poll by Gallup, which found that 34 percent of Americans thought that gold was the best long-term investment, more than another other investment category, including real estate and mutual funds.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324050304578413421108874266.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

In the never ending saga that is the federal budget, there may, possibly, almost, be a glimpse of progress.  Whether or not the olive branch is real remains to be seen, however it appears that at least another effort is being made.  Am I optimistic?  Not in the slightest, but maybe I’m looking for something positive on a Wednesday morning.  Will anything ever get done?  Remains to be seen. Thoughts?