Month: January 2013

Peut-on vraiment parler d’un accord de paix en République Centrafricaine ?

Rebel in Northern Central African Republic. Photo: hdptcar/flickr

[Liens en français, sauf mention contraire] Le 11 janvier 2013, le gouvernement de la République Centrafricaine dirigé par le Président François Bozizé a scellé un nouveau traité de paix avec la coalition rebelle Séléka. L’accord est survenu après un mois d‘instabilité militaire et politique où les rebelles ont avancé vers la capitale Bangui dans une tentative de renverser Bozizé par les armes. Cet accord est supposé aboutir à la désignation d’un nouveau premier ministre ainsi qu’à la formation d’un gouvernement d’unité nationale. Selon Centrafrique Presse Info, le président Bozizé devrait tenir sa parole et respecter la décision de nommer Nicolas Tiangaye, avocat et ancien président de la Ligue Centrafricaine des droits de l’Homme, nouveau premier ministre du pays.

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República Centroafricana: ¿Cuán fuerte es el acuerdo de paz?

Rebel in Northern Central African Republic. Photo: hdptcar/flickr

El 11 de enero de 2013, el gobierno de la República Centroafricana (RC), encabezado por el presidente François Bozizé, y la coalición rebelde Séléka firmaron un nuevo acuerdo de paz [en]. El acuerdo se produce después de un mes de inestabilidad política y militar que vio el avance de los rebeldes [fr] sobre la capital, Bangui, en un intento de derrocar a Bozizé durante un avance militar. Se espera que el acuerdo de paz se traducirá en el nombramiento de un nuevo primer ministro y la formación de un gobierno de unidad nacional. Según Centrafrique Presse Info, se espera que el presidente Bozizé respete la decisión de nombrar a Nicolas Tiangaye [fr], un abogado y ex presidente de la  Liga Centroafricana de Derechos Humanos [fr], como nuevo primer ministro del país.

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Occupy Shines a Light Amidst Ongoing Sandy Disaster

Damage from Hurricane Sandy to the New Jersey coast, Oct. 30, 2012. Photo: US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons

“Thank God for Sandy!” said Leviticus Sumpter, a supervisor of a mold clean-up team in New York City, to The Brooklyn Bureau.

“I’m not going to say that,” said Albert Gibbs, Sumpter’s nephew and also part of the crew. “I’m going to say, ‘Thank God for employment.’ […] One person’s mishap is another person’s blessing.”

The tragedy of thousands of lives overturned in the wake of Hurricane—later superstorm—Sandy has become a success story for the Occupy movement, bringing the group national recognition for its efforts to help their fellow man recover from a disaster with a far-reaching level of destruction (somewhat less than the infamous Hurricane Katrina).

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Not Beyond Hope: Japan and TPP

 

Shinzo Abe speaking in 2012

George Bernard Shaw called second marriage “the triumph of hope over experience.” In restoring the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its leader Abe Shinzo to power last month, Japanese voters seemed to be sending the opposite message: after three years of vesting their hopes in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) with disappointing results, they opted to fall back on the LDP’s greater experience in governing.

Abe himself seems to have learned from his previous, unhappy experience as prime minister in 2006–2007. In his first public remarks after taking back the job in late December, he said, “There is no future for a country which has given up on growth.” The sentiment marked a refreshing change not just from the DPJ’s focus on austerity, but from Abe’s own disinterest in economic affairs during his earlier tenure in office. An older and wiser Abe is right to pay more attention to Japan’s economic health – and right that more growth is what the patient needs – but his policy prescriptions to date will not be enough to produce the lasting recovery he is hoping for.

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UAVs – Heavy Footprints on ‘Light Footprint’ Wars

Predator drone
Predator drone. Photo: Doctress Neutopia/flickr.

Successive US administrations have regarded unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as among the most effective tools for fighting the ‘war on terror’. John Brennan – Barak Obama’s pick for the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – has stated that UAVs are surgically precise weapons that allow the United States to undertake the ‘targeted killing’ of terrorists. Collateral damage, in terms of the lives of civilians and pilots, is minimized, with UAVs also thought to be cheaper to purchase per unit than fighter aircraft. If so, then UAVs may eventually replace aircraft as the mainstay of the United States’ Air Force.

UAVs have, therefore, become an essential feature of the United States’ vision of lighter and more technologically advanced armed forces capable of conducting light-footprint warfare. This places far less emphasis on fighting land wars and more on the use of UAVs, special-forces, private contractors and local partners to target a diffused and dispersed network of enemies. As part of its commitment to light-footprint warfare, Washington has been working to establish a network of small airbases in Africa to track extremist groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al Shabaab, and hunt down alleged war criminals like Jospeh Kony.

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