Thursday, December 22, 2011
Political instability worries U.S.
From The Hindu
Even as the reality of Democratic People's Republic of Korea
leader Kim Jong-il’s death sunk in, speculation in Washington centred on the
likely spike in uncertainty in the politics of that country and its potentially
reduced engagement with the world that this could engender in the medium term.
In the face of the murky succession question in the DPRK reaction
from the White House appeared to focus on the question of maintaining stability
in the region. This was underscored by a phone call between President Barack
Obama and President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea at midnight on Monday
following news of Mr. Kim’s passing.
In the conversation the U.S. President reaffirmed his country’s
“strong commitment to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the security of
our close ally, the Republic of Korea,” the White House said in a statement,
adding that the two leaders would be staying closely in touch as the situation
developed.
Commenting on the all-important nuclear question Richard Bush,
Director of the Centre for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings
Institution said that “With Kim’s death the prospects for regional negotiations
on North Korea’s nuclear program and other issues in the near term are very
low.”
Mr. Bush noted that any successor regime would have to consolidate
itself before it would be prepared to engage the United States, South Korea, and
others. “While there had been movement towards such engagement... little can
happen now,” he added.
In comments to the BBC former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, who led the delegation of the six-party nuclear talks on North
Korea, said that he thought that the North Korean military was “going to be less
inclined to do things with the international community [and] the Chinese are
going to try and get in there very early and try to figure it out.”
Suggesting that the “heir-apparent, Kim Jong-un, [was] truly not
ready [to be a] prime time player,” Mr. Hill said that that would imply that the
country’s military would have a lot to say and Jang Song-taek, the
brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il may have “a big role to play.”
Others however did not support the view that there was cause for
concern in terms of the role of China in the future of DPRK politics. Robert
Gallucci, President of the MacArthur Foundation and a specialist on the region’s
politics, said, “I do not think we need to be overly concerned about a too-close
relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang.”
He argued that the U.S. had gone to the Chinese many times since
the Clinton administration through the Bush administration and possibly in the
Obama administration too, “to get the Chinese to play a more active role in
encouraging the North to be open to more negotiations...”
Dr. Gallucci further noted that significant changes in U.S.
policies towards North Korea were unlikely. He said, “That there has been a
willingness to engage the North directly in talks and to provide food assistance
and other kinds of assistance and ultimately to improve the political
relationship provided we can get the performance we need from the North Koreans
that we need on their nuclear programme.” Dr. Gallucci said that such
performance would entail initially a freeze on and then ultimately the
dismantling of the programme.
Labels: death, Kim Jong-il, North Korea, political instability, U.S.
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Obama mourns Steve Jobs’ passing
United States President Barack Obama made a rare statement mourning the passing of Steve Jobs (56), Cofounder, Chairman and former Chief Executive of Apple Inc., saying that he and First Lady Michelle Obama were saddened to learn of the death of one of “the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”
His statement came a few hours after Apple announced on its website that Mr. Jobs had passed away. Displaying nothing but a photograph of Mr. Jobs and its main menu bar on its homepage Apple said that it had lost a visionary and creative genius, and that the world had lost an amazing human being. “Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple,” the company said.
In a tribute to Mr. Jobs’ spirit, Mr. Obama said that he exemplified American ingenuity and recalled that Mr. Jobs was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. “Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama’s comment in some senses reflected a now-famous speech that Mr. Jobs made at a commencement event at Stanford University in 2005. In that speech Mr. Jobs had spoken about inspiration when he said, “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love.”
Having learned of his cancer diagnosis a year earlier Mr. Jobs had also touched upon the theme of death and said, “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
Underscoring the sea-change in technology that was brought about by Apple’s numerous, elegant products Mr. Obama said that in Mr. Jobs’ death “the world has lost a visionary, and there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
The President spoke especially of Mr. Jobs’ transformative innovations and said that by making computers personal and literally putting the internet into people’s pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. “By turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike,” Mr. Obama added.
Labels: death, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, U.S. President Barack Obama
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Richard Holbrooke dead
From The Hindu
Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died on Monday evening here at George Washington University Hospital after undergoing two surgical procedures aimed at repairing a tear in his aorta. He was 69 years old.
Expressing grief at his passing Mr. Obama said, “Michelle and I are deeply saddened by the passing of Richard Holbrooke, a true giant of American foreign policy who has made America stronger, safer, and more respected.” Along with Mr. Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton extended her condolences to Mr. Holbrooke’s wife, Kati Marton and his family, describing him as a “true statesman.”
Other senior administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, Susan Rice, and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, issued statements of condolence too. Sympathy also poured in from the region of Mr. Holbrooke’s work, with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari calling Ms. Marton to express condolences. In particular Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi recalled that Mr. Holbrooke “played an important role in upgrading the Pakistan-U.S. Strategic Dialogue to the Ministerial level and expanding the scope of Pakistan-U.S. relations.”
Mr. Holbrooke’s career both began and ended in the service of American diplomacy trapped within the perimeter of unrelenting wars of occupation. As a young Foreign Service officer he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Vietnam in 1962, where he served for six years and made important policy contributions for economic development and local political reform. In this posting he was most remembered, however, for lending his expertise to the Paris peace talks of 1968, which ultimately helped end the war.
Twenty-four years later – following successful stints as the Director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco (1970-72), as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under President Jimmy Carter (1977-81) and as U.S. Ambassador to Germany (1993-94) – Mr. Holbrooke again found himself shaping the course of historically significant events.
In 1994, when Mr. Holbrooke took on the mantle of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, he headed the negotiation team that was responsible for resolving the Balkan crisis. For the seminal role he played as chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1996 Mr. Holbrooke was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medal by the German Ministry of Defence for public figures rendering “special meritorious service to peace and freedom in Europe.”
Touted as a potential future candidate for the position of Secretary of State, Mr. Holbrooke was however sometimes caught out making gaffes including a statement he made earlier this year underplaying the fact that Indians had been targeted and killed in an attack in Kabul. The coordinated suicide attack of February 26 killed nine Indians in a building regularly used by Indian embassy and by Indians engaged in development work in Afghanistan.
Speaking to The Hindu Teresita Schaffer, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and a South Asia specialist who knew Mr. Holbrooke well said he was “extraordinarily gifted, insisted on control over all aspects of the foreign policy machinery, [was] a bureaucratic bulldozer, [and] alternately charming and abrasive.” Mr. Holbrooke was in fact nicknamed “the bulldozer,” and was quoted in media as saying that he had no qualms about “negotiating with people who do immoral things,” if it served efforts for peace.
Touching on his most recent role, Ms. Schaffer however said that Mr. Holbrooke recognised that Afghanistan was a tougher assignment, “in part because there were so many players, you couldn't put [the parties involved] in a room and force a solution.” This view was also corroborated by Lisa Curtis, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation think tank and a South Asia specialist who has served with the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department.
Ms. Curtis said to The Hindu that even Mr. Holbrooke, who brought to bear some of the best diplomatic and negotiating skills that existed in the U.S. government, “was unable to get Pakistan on board to deal with Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.” She added that along with the challenge of securing Pakistani cooperation, the biggest task facing any successor to Mr. Holbrooke would be to “figure out how to work in coordination with the [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai government rather than at cross-purposes.”
On the vacuum left by Mr. Holbrooke’s death, Ms. Schaffer noted that “Whoever succeeds him will probably not have the same larger-than-life quality, and won’t be able to control how funds get allocated, to micromanage what people get assigned to Afghanistan and Pakistan, in short to dominate U.S. civilian tools being used in those countries.”
Ms. Curtis said it would be important, at the very least, to appoint a successor who had significant regional experience, and potential candidates could include Frank Ruggiero, Mr. Holbrooke’s deputy, Richard Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Haass, former U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan, or Bruce Riedel, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Near East and South Asian Affairs.
The question of successors notwithstanding, the Obama administration has clearly lost a powerful personality who championed its cause, something that Vice President Joe Biden doubtless recognised when he quoted a mutual friend as saying, “If you’re not on the team and you’re in his way, God help you.”
Labels: death, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
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