Afghanistan: Central Asia Takes Center Stage Again

Original: Afghanistan: Central Asia Takes Center Stage Again

With the Taliban having made Pakistan an insecure supply route for war materiel headed into Afghanistan, NATO and the U.S. are looking again to Central Asia for help.

Thom Shanker of The New York Times has filed a piece this morning detailing talks with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan about serving as alternate supply routes. The talks also include Russia, which exerts considerable influence in the former Soviet region.

Uzbekistan, carried out a new offensive against militants based in the border area.

Blunder: A New Age for Russia

Original: Blunder: A New Age for Russia

My friend Zach Shore, who teaches at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, usually writes about foreign affairs with a historical bent -- on militant Islam in Europe, and on we have covered the Gazprom-led rivalry with the West to build new natural gas pipelines into Europe. Russia's Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines appeared to beat out the West's proposed Nabucco pipeline without breaking a sweat.

Not any longer. Simply put, Russia is in trouble. Its much-ballyhooed $600 billion cash reserve base dropped by a out in his conversation with The

Original: Obama Energy Team Stresses Break with Bush

In announcing his energy team, President-elect Barack Obama seemed to take a not-very-subtle swipe at the Bush administration. Obama did so in introducing Steven Chu, his designate for energy secretary, invoking a frequent complaint of critics -- that Bush and his team have neglected science in favor of politics and ideology, and been slow to act on global warming.

Obama said this evening in Chicago that Chu's appointment would "send a signal to all that my administration will value science, make decisio president/new_team/show/49">Carol Browner, named to hold the new White House post of energy and climate czar. Browner was EPA administrator under former President Bill Clinton. Still, questions have been raised as to how much true influence Browner will enjoy in a White House filled with heavyweights with perhaps competing agendas.

On the light side, Lynn Yarris, the bundle of enthusiasm and science know-how who serves as Chu's spokesman at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, says no one at Berkeley -- with the possible exception of Chu's wife -- even knew that he was interviewing for the energy post.

Chu was in London at the time

четверг, 11 декабря 2008 г.

What Chu Means as Energy Secretary

Original: What Chu Means as Energy Secretary

By appointing Steven Chu as energy secretary, President-elect Barack Obama appears to be making concrete his campaign pledge to focus on alternative energy. Obama also is continuing his streak of favoring serious personalities with star power in the cabinet.

Chu is the first Nobel laureate to serve on a presidential cabinet. (He won the prize for physics in 1997.) As the current director of the Lawren years down the road. But given the magnitude of the problem, it's okay to have some of our best and brightest working on it. In the end, the quality of the solution will depend on the quality of the people working on it.

Iceland From the World's Grumpiest Man

Original: Iceland From the World's Grumpiest Man

We're reading a lot about miserable people. There in fact seems to be no end to miserableness. To make one's mood worse, just yesterday President-elect Barack Obama said things will only get worse.

So I decided to consult an expert on unhappiness. Not just unhappiness -- Eric Weiner says he's a grumpy man (even though I can tell you personally that he isn't really) -- but also happiness. In The Geography of Bliss, published a few mon s, too. And, from what I can tell, those relationships remain intact, despite the financial hardship and, in a way, because of it. Here's what Karl Blondal, deputy editor of the main newspaper in Iceland, said to me in an e-mail.

Right now Icelanders are in a state of shock, and not sure how this will turn out - has Iceland been catapulted back into the stoneage - and where things will stand once the dust has settled. A lot of individuals have been hit really hard, pensioners have lost their lives' savings, etc. But there is also a lot of communal feeling, people address each other in a more caring way in the morning, neighbours inquire how each other is doing. One thing about living in a small community is that everyone you know, family and friends, is within reach - those who lose their jobs are not isolated, the risk of estrangement is not the same as it would be in bigger societies. But there will be a lot of anger, living standards will not

Pre-empting Peace Between India and Pakistan

Original: Pre-empting Peace Between India and Pakistan

The weekend before last, Pakistan President Asif Zardari made a momentous offer to the country's blood enemy, India: a withdrawal of Pakistan's pre-emptive, first-strike nuclear policy. He also suggested that the two countries, which have gone to war three times, form an economic union. In other words, Zardari made a show of friendship unprecedented in Pakistan's 61-year history.

Three days later , a group of terrorists , possibly members of a Pakistan-nurtured Islamic army , created mayhem in Indian's largest city , Mumbai it's become clear that the ISI has lost control of these groups.

The ISI , for instance , had no role as far as I could tell in conceiving , controlling or influencing the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl , my Wall Street Journal colleague , by members of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Nor , certainly , was the ISI responsible for last year's murder of Zardari's wife , Benazir Bhutto , by a suicide bomber.