The 47-nation UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted five resolutions condemning Israel Thursday, including one that establishes a massive new “fact-finding mission” to investigate alleged Israeli violations relating to settlements. The vote was 36 in favor, 1 against (U.S.) and 10 abstaining. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was quick to issue a statement denouncing the UNHRC. […]
The U.N. Security Council finally reached an agreement on Syria yesterday. In typical U.N. form, it amounts to more talk than action. Russia and China acquiesced to a non-binding presidential statement calling for “a ceasefire in Syria and opening conflict areas to humanitarian aid.” The statement contains no ultimatum for the Assad regime if it […]
A March 11 editorial The New York Times appears to support the idea that the nuclear arsenal of the United States acts not as a deterrent to the aggressions of other nuclear powers but rather as an invitation to play hardball. The Times cites options being considered by the “Pentagon and national security aides” that […]
The release last week of an Indian think tank report entitled “Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century” has prompted robust discussion about Indian foreign policy in the age of a rising China. Indian national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon provided remarks at the report launch and apparently participated […]
As China prepares for the final plenum of the 17th Party Congress, it has announced that the new defense budget would amount to 670 billion RMB (approximately $106 billion), which equates to a 11.2 percent increase. This is in sharp contrast to the United States, which, despite a so-called “pivot to Asia,” is busily reducing […]
Britain’s Liam Fox has a warning for America: Fix the debt problem now or suffer the consequences of less power on the world stage. The former U.K. secretary of state for defense visited Heritage to explain why the America’s debt is a national security issue. Watch the full 45-minute speech, “Warning to a Superpower” [youtube […]
The World Bank’s latest report sounds a warning on China’s future economic growth, reiterating critical recommendations concerning the Chinese economy by The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. The report makes a strong case that, if China is to keep up growth rates at even half the level it has managed over the past 30 […]
As Syrian tanks and artillery continued to rain indiscriminate fire on the defenseless city of Homs and as the world watched with mounting horror the final reports of courageous American journalist Marie Colvin, half a world away, in Caracas, Venezuela, a truculent and defiant Hugo Chavez continues to stand four-square behind the Bashar al-Assad regime. […]
by Daniel Pipes February 7, 2012 Cross-posted from National Review Online: The Corner Ever since the U.S. government announced in March 2004 plans to build “the largest embassy ever run by any country,” I have been on the case, poking fun at its over-wrought size (21 acres), excessive expense (US$750 million), and gargantuan personnel (16,000) […]
Iran continues to claim it is reaping the rewards of European sanctions even amid a deep currency crisis that rocks Tehran. In fact, the oil ministry in Tehran claims the embargo would leave Iran unscathed while inflicting “heavy economic loss” on the “people of Europe, who have been affected by crisis”. The result would be […]
