My River Path colleague (and co-author of A Long Peace?), David Steven, just happens to be in Pakistan at the moment former Premier Nawaz Sharif returned to a country still under the military dictatorship of General Musharraf. At the moment (he’s updating as things happen), it looks like he’s on a helicopter en route back out of the country.
Update: In the end, Sharif spent just five hours on the ground.
Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also elected [...] read our review »
Northern Ireland’s peace process has been promoted as an international success story. The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs has its Conflict Resolution Unit, which aims to disseminate the ‘lessons’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. And some of the prominent players in our peace process have travelled abroad to other troubled spots to share their [...] read our review »
Saudi Arabia is nice this time of year.
USA sponsored democracy in action.
Still he didn’t have an Aquino moment.
Hadn’t read “A Long Peace” b4 – now understand that Prisoner’s Dilemma thing u have been referring to. V good paper I thought.
Indeed Dewi. And it is all strangely appropriate again now we finally have the ‘extremes’ inside the tent. Civic responses on both sides are probably the practicable ones to dug in stand offs, like those surrounding the sensibilities of the minority community in Londonderry/Derry.
here is another link on the same issue
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070910/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_politics;_ylt=AsEXyCHnJ31YL250bN6W83as0NUE
Yahoo news links never work for me…
Same for me Mick (yahoo link).
the pakistan situation is the scariest prospect in the world right now
The United States have said, and I agree with them on this, that this an internal matter for Pakistan.
Would that they had taken a similar principled stand of detachment on Iraq, not to mention Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba, Chile, Grenada, El Salvador…shall I go on.
Let’s see how they apply this principle to Iran. Any bets?
Rory: “The United States have said, and I agree with them on this, that this an internal matter for Pakistan.”
Presumably you feel the same about other exiled political leaders – or is it simply a general support for the status quo in a country, no matter what horrors are going on. For many this will be seen as tacit US support for a military dictatorship – even non-intervention has its consequences.
“Would that they had taken a similar principled stand of detachment on Iraq, not to mention Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba, Chile, Grenada, El Salvador…shall I go on.”
Yes, why not mention Afghanistan and Kosovo; or maybe Korea. Or does that render the general “USA = Bad” theory incomplete. Most of your list above are interventions during the cold war – remember that, and remember how bad the alternative of Communism turned out to be when the walls came down and the truth of the “people’s paradise” was exposed for all to see. We have had a non-interventionist USA in the first half of the 20th century and we ended up with two world wars that could, with US help, have been either snuffed out at birth or severely shortened.
I was, DK, highlighting the hypocrisy of the US statement on recent events in Pakistan in comparison with what has been in effect its general practice on non-intervention going back to the arrogance of the Monroe Doctrine and its ever expanding interpretation.