David Ignatius's Blog, page 137

Ignatius: China’s assertiveness leaves its neighbors anxious

SHANGHAI

AChinese military expert is explaining to a conference here what he sees as the benign inevitability of Beijing’s rising power in the Pacific. “You should trust China,” he says cheerily. “In 10 years, we will be much stronger, and you will feel safer.”

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Ignatius: The internationalism of the heartland

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, was trying to explain recently why her state has remained “internationalist” in its soul, even as it shares the national anger about Iraq and Afghanistan. In Minnesota, she says, “internationalism is not just tolerated, it’s embraced.”

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Ignatius: Spymasters gather to discuss Syria

Western and Arab intelligence services that support Syria’s struggling opposition gathered for a two-day strategy meeting in Washington last week that appears to signal a stronger effort to back the rebels.

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Ignatius: On Syria, a spymasters’ conclave

Western and Arab intelligence services that support Syria’s struggling opposition gathered for a two-day strategy meeting in Washington last week that appears to signal a stronger effort to back the rebels.

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Ignatius: Gold-medal corruption

Amid the television extravaganza of the Sochi Olympics, I had a chance to visit last week with a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov. Back in 2010, he had revealed what he claimed was a network of corruption that included a billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea allegedly built by wealthy businessmen for Vladimir Putin.

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Ignatius: Taking a long view on Syria and the Sunni-Shiite divide

MUNICH

The 50th annual Munich Security Conference this month was a celebration of the power of the democratic vision in Europe — one that now stretches all the way toward Ukraine. But there was a sense of defeat in the room, almost of collective shame, when the subject turned to Syria.

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Ignatius: John Kerry, a secretary on a mission

Secretary of State John Kerry was trying to choose his words carefully in talking about his negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran and a “framework agreement” between Israelis and Palestinians. As recent experience has shown, one loose statement from Kerry — say, about the risk of a boycott of Israel if the peace talks fail — can mean days of damage control.

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Ignatius: After Snowden, a lesser Internet?

MUNICH

Edward Snowden’s supporters have portrayed him as the champion of Internet freedom. But when senior European and U.S. experts privately discuss the future of cyberspace, their fear is that the Internet may be closing, post-Snowden, rather than opening. “We may be the last generation to take joy from the Internet,” because of new boundaries and protectionism, as one American glumly put it.

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Ignatius: In the West Bank, pride has become bitterness

HALHUL, West Bank

Hoping to understand the current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in human terms, I paid a visit last week to a Palestinian farmer named Hammadeh Kashkeesh, whom I first met 32 years ago. The encounter reminded me of the pain at the heart of this dispute and of how hard it will be for any diplomatic settlement to resolve the bitterness on both sides.

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Ignatius: With Iran, Israel, Kerry is master of the interim deal

TEL AVIV

For Secretary of State John F. Kerry, diplomacy has centered on what might be called the art of the interim deal. He has tackled two of the world’s toughest issues — the Iranian nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian problem — and has fashioned tentative formulas outlining the shape of a final accord, even though the parties are far from such comprehensive settlements.

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