Iran's role in Iraq

Meet Me in Baghdad | Foreign Affairs

An article on the Foreign Affairs website that describes how Iran's influence in Iraq has grown over the past few years, with Iran being very cunning in taking advantage of the possibilities brought about by the US invasion and the subsequent civil war.

Negotiating with the Taliban

Asia Times On Line has an interesting piece that describes how the (indirect) talks between Washington and the Talibans are being carried out.

the Pakistan army has already been in contact with top Taliban commanders, including Sirajuddin Haqqani. Information is then passed onto the Saudis, who in turn liaise with the Americans.

The aim of the US seems to be to separate the Taliban from Al-Qaida, and strike a deal with the former with a guarantee that the latter are not allowed safe haven in Afghanistan.
Trust-building measures seem to be revolving about the issue of 60 pakistanis held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay

The article then goes on to describe how Al-Qaida has evolved over the years, and how it has kept on operating (or rather, lending its brand to operations conducted) on a global scale

A few thoughts on the special relationship

You can now find in the "my writings" section of my website the translation of the final chapter of my dissertation:

A few thoughts on the special relationship

It tries to answer these questions: Can we really qualify the relationship between the US and Britain in the 1980s as “special”? What differentiates it from the relations that the US and the UK have with other countries?

Stoning in Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may end up as Genghis Khan with a nuclear bomb

I wonder if what Alasdair Palmer says in this article on the Telegraph is true:

a large portion of Iran's leadership, and of its population, is not ashamed or embarrassed: they think stoning is entirely right and proper

You don't usually get to read this kind of things, and I appreciate the departure from political correctness:

This is the reality of multiculturalism: human rights are not universally recognised or accepted. Barbaric practices can be deeply embedded in the convictions of thousands, even millions, of people.

However, I'm not sure this can be applied to Iran. Do you think the people that took part in the mass demonstrations against Iran's president a few months ago have a "deeply embedded" convinction that stoning is a just punishment?

India

A summary of the situation in India by the Economist. Too high expectations after Mr Singh's party won the elections in May with a good margin, allowing him to be rid of the Communist party, which was in the coalition government before the elections. The incompetence is most clearly shown in the handling of the worsening problems in the Kashmir and with the Maoist rebels, but it encompasses many fields of (in)action. The economic reforms that had been promised have not been realized yet.

http://www.economist.com/node/16953189