Guest Commentary

Throughout the past decade, as we have struggled to prevent Iran from becoming another North Korea, the U.S. and other responsible nations have enabled Tehran’s assertion that it has a right to possess virtually the full array of technology and materials that could also be applied to a weapons program. 

If we hope to stem Iran’s quest, it is time for an integrated approach to arms proliferation. The first step in this process is speaking clearly. Diplomatic chatter by U.S. and international officials has been anything but that.

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On April 24, 2013, two youths, Lobsang Dawa, 20, and Kunchok Woser, 23, lit themselves on fire near their monastery in eastern Tibet. The toll of Tibetans who have chosen to self-immolate has now reached 117, one of the highest in recent world history. The prime cause of this tragedy is the profound resentment of and resistance to China's continued occupation and repression in Tibet. Read more...

As a former U.S. diplomat who authored the 2007-09 Country Reports on Terrorism for Nigeria and visited Cuba many times on official business, I believe keeping Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism is absurd and highly political, particularly given its glaring omissions. 

Where is North Korea, which has conducted small-scale attacks against the South over the past several years — and recently threatened a nuclear first strike against the United States? Despite the fact that Cuba maintains a capable espionage network, no credible intelligence sources claim it is currently a security threat to us. Cuba’s listing is about Florida electoral politics. 

A small minority of Cuban-American politicians has been dictating U.S. foreign policy toward one of our most geographically proximate neighbors for too long — and using the highly questionable terrorist listing to justify continuation of the Cold War-era embargo.

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In the arduous struggle to achieve stability in the Middle East, the West cannot afford to jeopardize a single strategic advantage. It cannot turn its back on those whose survival is critical to Western security. It must not undermine its friends.

Lebanon is one such friend that continues to prove its commitment to Western interests even amid recent insupportable attacks on the integrity and soundness of its financial institutions. The West must reject those attacks; its leaders in the private sector as well as the public sector are most well-advised to appreciate the conspicuous role Lebanon plays as a vanguard of free market enterprise, compliant banking practices and counter-terrorist initiatives.

In fact, the aggressive steps that Lebanon’s government and its banks have taken to assure full transparency and bolster rigorous anti-money laundering measures represent a gold standard for financial institutions anywhere in the world. In turn, the nation has emerged as a role model for democratic values in the Middle East.

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At the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group this week in Washington, D.C., Canada is focusing on how the World Bank Group can advance the goal of reducing poverty by working more collaboratively with the private sector.

Growing businesses is one of the most effective means of securing long-term sustainable economic growth. That is why I will be re-affirming Canada’s commitment to private sector-led growth as a key driver of poverty reduction. 

We want to harness the power, resources and innovation of the private sector to help the most vulnerable. This leads to better job opportunities, more investment and more resources to improve productivity and public well-being.

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One of our country’s most remarkable achievements is something few of us think about anymore. All Americans should take pride in the fact that the world is on the verge of eradicating polio, and finishing the job for good has never been more achievable. Read more...

President Obama has been roundly criticized for exaggerating the effects of the sequestration budget cuts. In reality, millions of people will suffer far greater consequences than even the most dire of the president’s predictions. 

Not all cuts are created equal. Obama may have exaggerated the significance of the sequestration on the federal workforce, but the effect of these budget cuts on the world’s poor will be deadly.

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Cuba’s efforts to “update” its socialist system through a series of economic reforms just got more complicated. The death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, its principal benefactor, could seriously disrupt what is already a precarious process of maintaining top-down political control while liberalizing elements of the economy. Raúl Castro’s announcement that he will step down in five years and the emergence of younger leaders born after the 1959 revolution add further uncertainty to the island’s future.

These new circumstances offer President Obama a rare opportunity to turn the page of history from an outdated Cold War approach to Cuba to a new era of constructive engagement. In his second term in office, he should place a big bet by investing political capital in defrosting relations, an approach that will advance U.S. interests in a stable, prosperous and democratic Cuba.

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What are the real threats facing the Afghan people as we approach 2014, when international military troops withdraw to their bases or leave the country — and responsibility for security rests wholly with Afghanistan?

Will Afghan National Security Forces, trained and equipped by the West, defect or melt away? Or will some internal mass uprising reveal a degree of discontent with the efforts, investments and sacrifices of the past decade, sufficient to cast them aside? People are even asking themselves whether the whole effort was a mistake because of the relentless negative portrayal of my country in the media and among commentators.

And yet all the evidence points in another direction, to another future. One that is rocky, is not yet wholly clear-cut and is subject to disruption from sporadic acts of violence, but not one in which total social, political or military collapse is likely to happen.

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TIRANA – Driving down the streets of this bustling European capital, it’s impossible not to be struck by Albania’s unbelievable transformation from a psychologically battered, isolated and Stalinist nation just a few decades ago to the thriving, democratic NATO ally it is today.

The sidewalks are lined with bars and cafes, the stores are full of western goods, the hotels are packed with businessmen and tourists – all signs of Albania’s dedication to a free market economy and its emergence as a hot tourist destination.

Newspapers and airwaves are crammed with robust political debate – a hallmark of freedom that shows how deep democracy’s roots have grown. But as critics note, the wrangling is also a sign of deep political polarization that has at times stymied progress: The European Parliament, for instance, recently denied Albania full EU candidate status because it has not enacted several important reforms that are stuck in the country’s deadlocked parliament.

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