BRIBED LOYALTY: THE WAY THEY DO IT IN KABUL

Tribal leaders of Jirga have apparently been bribed in quite a haste. Instead of paychecks and “the only true currency” Karzai had to lavish them with promises that, firstly, their clans would be free from the “night clean-ups” and inspections, and, secondly, that American military wouldn’t interfere with the tribal opium trade in Pakistan, having confined themselves with the fight against major producers. I’m really desperate to know, whether American taxpayers are aware of objectives, their money are spent for?

“As far back as during his election campaign Barack Obama named Afghanistan the cornerstone of his foreign-policy concept. He has repeatedly claimed that achieving success in Afghanistan would allow solving the major part of the international terrorism dilemma”. This is a quote from my article “Afghanistan: Back to the Great Game?” that was written exactly two years ago. Today, preparing to run again, the U.S. President “is cleaning up his background”, burdened with the lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Voters demand results, of which there are none. Reuters has recently published an article by Missy Ryan (chief of the Mexico and Central America Bureau) named “Key Senator warns against Taliban talks, transfer”.

Not the right time for the G2. Part 2

Chinese economic miracle became possible and will remain such in future if PRC decides to be a part of global economic and political system, if it will wish and be able to participate in the global discourse on the model of its further development and exchange of ideas. Therefore, fantasies about unipolar and even bipolar (the USA—China) world would hardly come true in the foreseeable future. China is, without a shadow of doubt, an important element of global economics, politics and international security. But the roles of the so-called emerging powers like Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and Turkey will also be increasing. That’s why we have to mark out the following statement of the U.S. State Secretary:

“History teaches that the rise of new powers often ushers in periods of conflict and uncertainty. Indeed, on both sides of the Pacific, we do see some trepidation about the rise of China and about the future of the U.S.-China relationship. Some in the region and some here at home see China’s growth as a threat that will lead either to Cold War-style conflict or American decline. And some in China worry that the United States is bent on containing China’s rise and constraining China’s growth, a view that is stoking a new streak of assertive Chinese nationalism. We reject those views.”

Not the right time for the G2. Part I

On the 18^th of February, right before Hu Jintao’s visit to the USA, Hillary Clinton delivered a speech in the State Department where she mentioned the possible future format of Sino-American relationship in the 21^st century. Recent rapid growth of the PRC economics made everyone talking about the new Chinese global role, which may reconfigure the G8 having reduced it to the G2 — alliance of America and China.

Public address of the U.S. State Secretary was timed to the commemoration events for Richard C. Holbrooke, who passed away in the end of last year. This well-known American diplomat used to be the State Secretary Deputy for the Asian-Pacific region in Jimmy Carter’s government and was mostly responsible for the coordination of foreign-policy efforts that normalized the diplomatic relations between the PRC and the USA in 1978-79 after death of Mao Zedong and Dang Xiaoping’s coming to power. Since then world has changed and so have both of these countries. As madam State Secretary emphasized, it was the rule of Democratic President (Richard Nixon) and efforts of then chief of American diplomacy Henry Kissinger that helped to achieve the fundamental improvement of bilateral relationship: