Archivo etiqueta «EEUU»
By Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has written extensively on the Afghan war (THE WASHINGTON POST, 14/01/12):
It may be fair to argue that the last thing the nation needs at the start of an election year is yet another budget crisis and another decade of war. Yet this is the path the United States appears to be taking in Afghanistan. U.S. officials are talking about removing all American troops from Afghanistan and about massive cuts in military spending as part of the “transition” to … Seguir leyendo
Por José Ignacio Torreblanca (EL PAÍS, 13/01/12):
Barack Obama recibió de su predecesor, George W. Bush, una herencia bélica envenenada. Aunque distinguiera entre Irak como una guerra “elegida” y Afganistán como una guerra “necesaria”, en ambos casos prometió la retirada.
La primera retirada ya ha tenido lugar, y seguramente ha sido mucho más honrosa de lo que Obama jamás pudo imaginar. La retirada de Irak no salva el desastre que fue la invasión ni convalida la pérdida consiguiente de vidas, como tampoco deja detrás una democracia estable, pero permite pasar una difícil página, reducir costes presupuestarios en época de crisis … Seguir leyendo
Por Joseph E. Stiglitz, catedrático en la Universidad de Columbia, premio Nobel de Economía, y autor de Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy. Traducido al español por Leopoldo Gurman (Project Syndicate, 12/01/12):
El año 2011 será recordado como la época en que muchos estadounidenses que siempre habían sido optimistas comenzaron a renunciar a la esperanza. El presidente John F. Kennedy dijo una vez que la marea alta eleva todos los botes. Pero ahora, con la marea baja, los estadounidenses no solo comienzan a ver que quienes tienen mástiles más altos han sido elevados mucho más, … Seguir leyendo
By Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the independent Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, and the author of Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India, and Japan (Project Syndicate, 10/01/12):
The launch of trilateral strategic consultations among the United States, India, and Japan, and their decision to hold joint naval exercises this year, signals efforts to form an entente among the Asia-Pacific region’s three leading democracies. These efforts – in the world’s most economically dynamic region, where the specter of a power imbalance looms large – also have been underscored by the Obama administration’s new … Seguir leyendo
By John Hannah, former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 09/01/12):
During a Dec. 8 news conference, President Obama rebuked his Republican foreign policy critics: “Ask Osama bin Laden … whether I engage in appeasement,” Obama fired back.
The president has a point, of course. The special forces raid to get Bin Laden deep in Pakistan was an extremely gutsy call. So too the extrajudicial death sentence that Obama imposed on U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki in Yemen. More generally, the president has been … Seguir leyendo
Por Walter Laqueur, consejero del Centro de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos de Washington (LA VANGUARDIA, 08/01/12):
En el incierto mundo en que vivimos se insinúan, sin embargo, algunas certidumbres por lo que se refiere al futuro inmediato. Ninguna casa de apuestas londinense aceptará una apuesta como la de quién será elegido presidente de Rusia el próximo mes de marzo, ya que todo el mundo sabe el resultado. A menos que pierdan el testigo en el camino, los jamaicanos ganarán la prueba de relevos 4×100 en los Juegos Olímpicos. Cabe estar menos seguro sobre quién será el próximo presidente francés … Seguir leyendo
By Philip Taubman, a former New York Times bureau chief in Moscow and Washington and the author of The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 08/01/12):
Over the last three years, as I delved into the world of American nuclear weapons, I felt increasingly as though I had stepped into a time warp. Despite the nearly total rearrangement of the international security landscape since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the rise of Islamic terrorism and the spread of nuclear materials and technology to volatile nations like Pakistan, … Seguir leyendo
By Robert H. Scales, a retired Army major general and a former commandant of the U.S. Army War College (THE WASHINGTON POST, 06/01/12):
Here we go again. President Obama made the same mistake Thursday in announcing his new military strategy that virtually all of his predecessors have made since the end of World War II. He said:
“Moreover, we have to remember the lessons of history. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past — after World War II, after Vietnam — when our military was left ill-prepared for the future. As commander in chief, I will … Seguir leyendo
By Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and most recently the author of The Wounded Giant: America’s Armed Forces in an Age of Austerity (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/01/12):
For six decades the United States has planned for the capacity to conduct two nearly simultaneous major ground-combat operations. During the Cold War, one of those campaigns was assumed to be an all-out struggle against the Warsaw Pact in Europe, the other a conflict in Asia. Since the Cold War, defense secretaries Dick Cheney, Les Aspin, William Perry, William Cohen, Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates have adopted some … Seguir leyendo
Por Robert J. Samuelson, periodista y columnista del Washington Post. (EL MUNDO, 05/01/12):
La opinión generalizada en EEUU es ésta: la reelección del presidente Obama está amenazada por la precaria economía y la elevada tasa de paro. Esto es lo que podría suceder: la situación económica mejora de forma gradual, y aunque el paro permanece elevado (por encima del 8%), lo que pesa a nivel político es la sensación palpable de que las cosas van encaminadas. Esto permite a Obama afirmar, como ya hace, que sus políticas están reparando lentamente la catástrofe económica que heredó de los republicanos. … Seguir leyendo
Por Rafael Navarro-Valls, catedrático y académico (EL MUNDO, 05/01/12):
Los ‘caucus’ de Iowa ya tienen ganador: Mitt Romney, con el 24,6% de los votos. No es una sorpresa. Sí lo es, en cambio, que en segundo lugar, y a tan sólo ocho votos, haya quedado Rick Santorum (un outsider al que, por sus convicciones y resultado electoral empieza a llamársele «divina sorpresa» y que el tercer puesto haya sido para Ron Paul (la «anarquía al poder»), con el 21,5%.
El maratón de las primarias en EEUU a veces acaba convirtiéndose en un sprint para algunos candidatos: los que se retiran … Seguir leyendo
By John Tirman, the executive director of the Center for International Studies at M.I.T. and the author of The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 04/01/12):
The end of the Iraq war occasioned few reflections on the scale of destruction we have wrought there. As is our habit, the discussion focused on the costs to America in blood and treasure, the false premises of the war and the continuing challenges of instability in the region. What happened to Iraqis was largely ignored. And in Libya, the recent investigation of civilian casualties … Seguir leyendo
By Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar and director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 04/01/12):
Iran’s threat to close a vital international waterway if stricter sanctions are imposed on Iranian oil exports is more than just bellicose and provocative. It is also a test of U.S. will and commitment in the Persian Gulf at a time when our role in the region is changing.
The world has grown used to chest-thumping by Tehran, and there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the exercises conducted by Iranian armed forces … Seguir leyendo
Por Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, profesor de Relaciones Internacionales de la Universidad Di Tella, Argentina (EL PAÍS, 02/01/12):
Una de las tantas paradojas actuales es que mientras en la periferia muchas sociedades y Gobiernos intentan ampliar los derechos ciudadanos, en varios países centrales se pretende desvertebrar el Estado de derecho. En América Latina y, en tiempos recientes, en Oriente Próximo y el norte de África con la llamada primavera árabe, se observan impulsos y logros importantes en el reclamo y la extensión de derechos y garantías de diverso tipo. Inversamente, en países clave de Occidente, y desde el 11 de … Seguir leyendo
By Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of the investment management firm Pimco and author of When Markets Collide (THE WASHINGTON POST, 31/12/11):
Remember America’s triple-A credit rating? The benchmark that was eroded during the debt-ceiling standoff last year? The highest-quality measure of creditworthiness matters greatly in this country and beyond. Yet it is still disturbingly unclear who is responsible for safeguarding what remains of this important national attribute.
A triple-A credit rating is what economists call a public good. By reducing borrowing costs and increasing the availability of financing, it is “consumed” and is of benefit … Seguir leyendo