Timothy William Waters

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

A Modest Proposal to End Death in the Mediterranean

MundoÁfricaEuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

The sea is vast, but the horizon is near. If you are in the water, you see hardly any distance. With every foot of elevation, the horizon recedes: Five feet above sea level — standing on a raft — it’s three miles away. So, from the deck of your foundering vessel, you might still see Libya, as your rescuers arrive.

Earlier this month, aid groups and the Italian Coast Guard rescued hundreds of African migrants off the Libyan coast. The scene was captured in sickening photos: overcrowded boats compared to slave ships, the rescued clambering over the bodies of the dead.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo TerritorialEuropaUnión Europea, , ,

In 1320, in the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland’s nobles firmly rejected rule by their southern neighbors: “For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule.” That “hundred” was rhetorical, since the declaration has only about half that many signatures, but it worked: Scotland remained independent, for a while.

Last Thursday, considerably more than 100 Scots — millions, actually — expressed themselves on an equally momentous question, if in a more mundane fashion: “Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes/No.” That was the tamer wording of the referendum in which the people of Scotland decided whether to break their bond with the United Kingdom, or not.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , , ,

"This moment requires statesmanship." That was Secretary of State John F. Kerry — a man not known for irony — in a meeting in late June with Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Appealing to Barzani's nonexistent Iraqi patriotism, Kerry asked for the Kurdistan leadership's help in fighting Islamic militants overrunning northern Iraq, and pleaded for Kurds to help form a new government in Baghdad rather than seek independence.

But what Kerry seems to have meant is, "This moment requires provincialism," because that is what the United States is asking the Kurds to remain: a province of Iraq. The Kurds aren't likely to listen — Barzani announced a referendum on independence — and the question now is: How should the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

Just a few years ago, there was guarded optimism about Kosovo’s future. Checkpoints were dismantled; the process to establish governance standards was under way. But that was before the communal riots in 2004, and before Albanians’ and Serbs’ incompatible visions for Kosovo led to deadlock last year in talks over the province’s final status. And so now, more than seven years after NATO ended Serbia’s brutal dominion over the province, the international community is about to impose a solution.

Too bad it’s the wrong one. The likely plan gives too little to Albanians and takes too much from Serbs. But there’s an alternative, if only the international community would consider it: partition.…  Seguir leyendo »