Diplomacy & Crisis News

The Russian public was quiet about Manafort and Cohen, but in the halls of power, debate about Trump’s usefulness rages.

Amid external uncertainty and volatility, the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by an average of 1.5 per cent this year, thanks to a rebound in private consumption and a slight increase in investment, according to a United Nations flagship report issued on Thursday.

The Pentagon says the United States is winning the war, but after 17 years, there’s still no end in sight.

By urging self-reliance at home while demanding aid from abroad, Amman has painted itself into a corner.

But how long will it last?

On this 20th anniversary of the International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, the United Nations is inviting the world to reflect on the legacy of slavery and remember to guard against racial prejudices, which continue to fuel everyday discrimination against people of African descent.

The young woman belonged to a political group whose members may have been entrapped by a police informant.

As hundreds of Venezuelans continue to pour into neighbouring countries due to social and political upheaval at home, the heads of the United Nations refugee and migration agencies called for greater international support to meet the most basic needs of the displaced.

Le XIVe congrès officiel du parti communiste tchécoslovaque, qui s'est tenu du 25 au 29 mai dernier, a achevé le processus de « normalisation », autrement dit la liquidation des conquêtes et des réformes qui ont marqué le « printemps de Prague ». M. Husak, le secrétaire général du parti, a pu affirmer (...) / URSS, Censure, Communisme, Parti politique, Police, Socialisme, Tchécoslovaquie 1918-1992 - 1971/07

The Trump team has been pushing false rhetoric regarding immigrants since the moment Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. Starting with his infamous “they’re rapists” comment at his candidacy announcement speech to his call for a “complete and total shutdown of all Muslims entering the United States,” Trump has made it abundantly clear that one of the core parts of his platform was going to be cracking down on illegal and legal immigration.

The latter issue he went after with the “travel” ban. The original ban most notably prohibited people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days while also placing new restrictions on the US’s ability to accept refugees. The ban’s stated purpose and title was “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” The lunacy of the Supreme Court decision to uphold a watered down version of the ban a year later (ignoring the ridiculous conflict of interest in the case as Neil Gorsuch, who voted for Trump, was appointed by the petitioner himself) and the flawed logic of the original ban is clear. Two studies done by the CATO Institute serve as great evidence to this end. First, they found that the vetting process of citizens from the Middle East trying to travel to the United States was already incredible thorough and “robust” including thorough background checks, several rounds of interviews, and fingerprinting. Second, they reported that “Foreigners from [the] seven nations [in the original ban] have killed zero Americans in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between 1975 and the end of 2015.” In fact, between 1975-2015, terrorists originating from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon have accounted for far more deaths than any other country in the world. Terrorists from the fifth country on the list, Kuwait, have only accounted for six deaths in the time frame while the top four are all in the triple digits and above. None of those countries were on any iteration of Trump’s travel bans. Trump’s cries for national security fall well short.

As far as the Supreme Court goes, it’s more than obvious that the intention behind the travel ban was maligned. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes in Trump v Hawaii, “Based on the evidence in the record, a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus … The majority holds otherwise by ignoring the facts, misconstruing our legal precedent, and turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering the Proclamation inflicts upon countless families and individuals, many of whom are United States citizens.” Trump did exactly what he told the voters he would do: he stopped Muslims from entering the United States to the best of his abilities, through a thinly veiled attempt to cry national security.

Not only does the ban fail to actually protect the United States against potential terrorists, the ban actually has harmful, negative impacts. Specifically, it exacerbates the problem of radicalization, arms extremist groups with unlimited recruitment publicity, and jeopardizes our relationship with critical foreign governments. The same CATO report that explored the US’s “robust” vetting processes cited a Department of Homeland Security draft intelligence assessment which found that “most foreign-born, US-based violent extremists likely radicalized several years after their entry into the United States.” Critically, Trump’s ban makes the problem much worse. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former senior director for counterterrorism and deputy legal adviser at the National Security Council Joshua A. Geltzer, and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew G. Olsen published an article for CNN explaining their scathing opposition to the ban in which they write: “The ban is so obviously, palpably, indeed explicitly anti-Muslim in nature that it has — understandably — offended Muslim-American communities around the world, including in the United States. Yet those are precisely the communities that can prove critical for identifying and responding to individuals becoming radicalized by groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.” Furthermore, Clapper et co explain that “effective counterterrorism relies heavily on robust intelligence-sharing relationships with foreign governments.” Restricting a country’s citizens from entering the United States is a “surefire way to offend that country’s government and impede intelligence-sharing, rather than enhancing the flow of information about terrorist threats as effective counterterrorism requires.” In fact, after Chad was included in an iteration of the travel ban, they pulled their troops out of Niger where they had been aiding in a counterterrorism fight against Boko Haram. Despite their removal from Trump’s next ban, “there’s been no indication of when, if ever, Chad’s troops will return to Niger. It’s usually not easy to soothe an offended partner.”

Conclusively, Trump’s travel ban does nothing to improve national security, while subjecting “countless families and individuals … pain and suffering” and arming extremists groups with recruitment materials. Nevermind the justification is essentially to punish citizens of foreign countries because the government believes a few individuals from their country pose a threat to national security. Trump’s Muslim ban is incredibly dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional.

The post Dismantling Trump’s Immigration Lies: The Travel Ban appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

A la lumière de contacts récemment pris en Israël, Jean Lacouture évoque ci-dessous l'action de quelques groupes, organisations ou tendances qui jouent un rôle en Israël dans la recherche de la paix, ou simplement dans l'acceptation des procédures pacifiques devant y mener. La paix est-elle possible (...) / Israël, Idéologie, Pacifisme, Politique, Extrême gauche - 1970/09

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2018). Rachid Chaker propose une analyse de l’ouvrage dirigé par Christophe Jaffrelot et Laurence Louër, Pan-Islamic Connections: Transnational Networks between South Asia and the Gulf (Hurst, 2018, 288 pages).

Les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux États-Unis, et l’intervention internationale en Afghanistan qui a suivi, ont braqué les projecteurs sur une région jusqu’alors peu connue du grand public occidental. Les populations d’Europe découvrirent alors sur leurs écrans les madrasas pakistanaises et afghanes, où des jeunes enfants apprenaient dès leurs premières années la langue arabe et la récitation du Coran. Ces lieux d’apprentissage furent perçus comme le vecteur de transmission de la radicalisation religieuse, conduisant à l’adoption de doctrines rigoristes débouchant parfois sur la violence. Dans ce contexte, le rôle des monarchies du Golfe, et de l’Arabie Saoudite en particulier, dans le financement de ces structures et la propagation du wahhabisme en Asie du Sud, a été pointé du doigt.

L’ouvrage dirigé par Christophe Jaffrelot et Laurence Louër réunit des contributions de spécialistes internationaux sur les liens entre les pays du Golfe et l’Asie du Sud, notamment l’Inde et le Pakistan. On y apprend notamment que, bien qu’existantes, les relations entre musulmans du Golfe et d’Asie du Sud furent peu développées avant le XIXe siècle, le rigorisme religieux du Moyen-Orient ne convenant guère aux populations des Indes, plus proches d’un soufisme qui se voulait ouvert et tolérant. Toutefois, l’ouverture du canal de Suez, la répression qui suivit la mutinerie de 1857 aux Indes, et la proclamation du Califat ottoman vont permettre la naissance de fortes interactions, avec influences religieuses réciproques.

La naissance du Pakistan en 1947, qui se voulait un État islamique, et la volonté des dirigeants Bhutto puis Zia d’obtenir des financements pour leur programme nucléaire, vont progressivement rapprocher le Pakistan de l’Arabie Saoudite, qui verra dès lors d’un mauvais œil l’influence iranienne dans la région. La guerre d’Afghanistan (1979-1989) fut un accélérateur. Soucieux de combattre l’envahisseur soviétique, le Pakistan, via ses services de renseignement dont l’Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), fera transiter des armes et des fonds, en provenance notamment du Golfe, renforçant ainsi le poids des groupes religieux armés dont le régime des talibans sera une émanation quelques années plus tard, et ce avec la bénédiction des dignitaires religieux saoudiens, dont le grand mufti Ibn Baz.

L’Arabie Saoudite n’est pas le seul État du Golfe à s’être intéressé à cette partie de l’Asie. On apprend dans cet ouvrage que les Émirats Arabes unis ont de longue date entretenu des liens forts avec des groupes talibans afghans : Jalaluddin Haqqani aurait en effet autrefois visité les Émirats, et y aurait rencontré les plus hauts dignitaires du pays. Le Qatar n’est pas en reste. La volonté du petit émirat de peser sur la scène internationale l’a poussé à s’impliquer dans le processus de réconciliation afghan, bousculant parfois son rival et voisin saoudien. La question des financements privés du Golfe à destination de l’Asie du Sud est également abordée, tout comme le rôle de l’Iran dans cette partie du monde.

Cet ouvrage riche et complet retrace avec précision l’historique des connexions entre ces deux sous-régions asiatiques que sont le Golfe et l’Asie du Sud, leur état actuel, en offrant au lecteur des clés essentielles pour comprendre les enjeux géopolitiques liés à ces complexes régions.

Rachid Chaker

S’abonner à Politique étrangère

The refugee crisis in Bangladesh sparked by the mass exodus of people from Myanmar almost a year ago risks creating a “lost generation” of Rohingya children who lack the life skills they will need in future, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

Erdogan used to rely on Turkey’s best and brightest—until he replaced them with its worst and dimmest.

United Nations agencies must join forces at the policy level and refuse interference from tobacco companies in their programmes so the destructive impact of tobacco can be effectively addressed and lives can be saved, the head of the UN tobacco control treaty watchdog (WHO FCTC Secretariat) told UN News on Wednesday.

The U.N. agency chief for Palestinian refugees warns funding cuts risk undermining Middle East stability.

The 67th United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization (DPI/NGO) Conference kicked off today at UN Headquarters in New York, with speeches affirming the importance of multilateralism, closer partnerships between the UN and civil society, and the role that young people have to play.

Recurring cycles of violence in the Middle East highlight the need for international efforts to prevent hostilities, provide humanitarian aid and support Palestinian reconciliation, the UN’s political chief told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Unfortunately for him, it probably won’t work.

His triumphs created the organization we know today, and his tragedies are warnings for what's in store.