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Daily Archive: March 25, 2018

March 25, 2018

Diplomacy for Peace or Preparations for War?

After a series of high-level meetings between officials from Seoul and Pyongyang, the proposal for a face-to-face meeting between the American and North Korean leaders appeared before President Trump, who without much hesitation accepted, upsetting the last 50 years of relations between the countries. Donald Trump tweeted: “Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a...
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March 25, 2018

Trump, the Crown Prince and the Whole Ugly Big Picture

There are few countries on earth more oppressive than Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy shaped by Sunni theocracy. It stones adulterers and hurls gay men off buildings by judicial decision. The State Department routinely, matter of factly, reports widespread human rights abuses in the country. International human rights organizations use Saudi Arabia as the poster child of egregious violations. Everybody...
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March 25, 2018

Amnesty International: Trumpeting for War… Again

One must marvel at the first few paragraphs of Amnesty International’s recent press release: “The international community’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to protect the people of Syria has allowed parties to the conflict, most notably the Syrian government, to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with complete impunity, often with assistance of outside powers, particularly Russia. Every...
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March 25, 2018

Sri Lanka’s Religious Violence and the US Pivot to Asia

Recent inter-communal riots in Sri Lanka have highlighted the problem of religious extremism, particularly among Asia’s Buddhist population. But the Buddhist nationalist point of view has been largely ignored in favour of a discourse which demonises Buddhists as aggressors and portrays Muslims as innocent victims. The reality is far more complex. Part I A state of emergency has been introduced...
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