Tag: Internal power struggle

North Korea: Intra-elite Conflict and the Relevance for Global Security

Post author By Hazel Smith
Post date 14/07/2017
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*Courtesy of Life As Art/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)*

This article was originally published by Pacific Forum CSIS on 24 May 2017.

‘This third-generation Kim already holds the titles of supreme leader, first secretary of the party, chairman of the military commission and supreme commander of the army – but he wants even more. This Kim wants recognition, vindication and authentication.’ The Observer, May 8, 2016

This description of Kim Jong Un is not the most lurid; in fact, it is representative of broadsheet analysis of the leadership of North Korea. It reduces analysis of the leadership of a state of 25 million people, which has an indigenous advanced scientific capability sufficient to develop nuclear weapons and advanced ballistic missile technology, to a level more appropriate to the pages of an airport pot-boiler. It trivializes analysis of a conflict that involves all the world’s great military powers, and which intermittently looks as if it might spill over into warfare that military planners from all sides assess will cost millions of lives, however and whenever the conflict ends.

The focus on Kim Jong Un as supreme leader is misplaced and dangerous. It obscures and prevents discussion of where real power lies in North Korea.

Tags Government, North Korea, Security, Internal power struggle, International Security Threat, Political Leaders and Politicians, Kim Jong-un

North Korea: Intra-elite Conflict and the Relevance for Global Security

Post author By Hazel Smith
Post date 31/05/2017
1 Comment on North Korea: Intra-elite Conflict and the Relevance for Global Security

This article was originally published by Pacific Forum CSIS on 24 May 2017.

The focus on Kim Jong Un as supreme leader is misplaced and dangerous. It obscures and prevents discussion of where real power lies in North Korea.

Tags Political Leaders and Politicians, Kim Jong-un, Government, North Korea, Security, Internal power struggle, International Security Threat

Regional Stability

The Death of Karimov: The Game for Uzbekistan

Post author By Jozef Lang
Post date 14/09/2016
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3004000196_73cf51f9e5_o — *Courtesy Alexandra (Sasha) Lerman/flickr*

This article was originally published by the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) on 9 September 2016.

On 2 September (although unofficial reports cited 29 August as the date), the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov died in Tashkent. Formally, the President’s duties are currently being carried out by the leader of the Senate, Nigmatilla Yuldashew (although he has not been sworn in as head of state), and elections to the post of president are to be held over the next three months. Due to the undemocratic nature of the system in Uzbekistan, the successor to Karimov will be decided by an informal fight for the leadership, and not the result of the election. Currently, the most likely successor seems to be the ruling Prime Minister, Shavgat Mirziyayev, who among other indications headed the funeral committee, received the foreign delegations who attended Karimov’s funeral on 3 September, as well as the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, during his surprise visit to Samarkand on 6 September.

Tags Government, Internal power struggle, Uzbekistan, Politics, Political Leaders and Politicians

Terrorism

Pakistan’s Political Renaissance

Post author By Shahid Javed Burki
Post date 16/12/2013
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General Raheel Sharif, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan. Photo: FSCEM45212/Wikimedia Commons

LAHORE – Pakistani institutions are evolving rapidly. With executive authority increasingly in the hands of elected representatives, rather than dispersed among various competing institutions, the political establishment has been revitalized – and it has taken three important steps toward strengthening democracy and the rule of law. Is Pakistan, a country long prone to military coups, finally developing a well-functioning political system?

On November 27, Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain – acting on the prime minister’s advice, as the constitution dictates – announced that General Raheel Sharif would succeed General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as Chief of Army Staff, even though Sharif was not among the military establishment’s favored candidates. Unlike Kayani – who has directed the Directorate-General of Military Operations and the Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan’s spy agency) – Sharif has not served in any of the positions that typically prepare someone to lead Pakistan’s best-funded and most influential institution.

Tags Government, Security, Pakistan, Internal power struggle, Fragile States

Global Voices

Iran’s Power Shakedown before the Presidential Election

Post author By Hooman Askary
Post date 20/11/2012
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On October 22, 2012, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote an unprecedented open letter to Iran’s judiciary accusing them of unconstitutional conduct. The letter was written in response to judiciary’s decision to bar the Iranian President from visiting the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran where his media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr is currently jailed.

In the letter, Ahamdinejad suggests that there was a “top secret” communique dispatched by the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani that said the president’s request to visit Evin was not in the best interests of the country. Ahmadinejad claims he wishes to investigate the conditions of prisoners.

Tags Judiciary, Internal power struggle, Politician, Government, Iran, Leadership