Foreign Policy

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del periódico incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de noviembre de 2006.

Nota informativa: Foreign Policy es una revista bimestral estadounidense sobre política internacional y temas globales. Fue fundada en 1970. Tiene implementado un «muro de pago» por lo que es necesario suscribirse para tener acceso a todos sus contenidos. Más información en su página de suscripción.

Russian fishing boats are moored in the harbor of Kirkenes, Norway, on July 4, 2023. James Brooks/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAsiaEuropa, ,

It’s back to the good old days of globalization in Norway—at least for some. A small town needs an investor for a major piece of infrastructure, and in certain foreign nations there are investors with deep pockets to be found. Local politicians energetically court the investor, who has money to spare and is keen to spread it around the world. Hooray! There’s hope for the town’s future!

This, alas, is 2024, and the piece of infrastructure concerned is the port in Kirkenes, Norway—which also happens to be the NATO port closest to Russia. The magnanimous investor: China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO.…  Seguir leyendo »

U.S. Army soldiers stand next to a U.S. flag as they take part in a NATO military exercise at the Novo Selo military ground, Bulgaria, on Sept. 26, 2023. Nikolay Doychinov/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAméricaEuropa,

The United States’ ability to cope with the pressures of great-power competition hinges on securing Europe and preserving the trans-Atlantic alliance. While it is true that there are serious and pressing national security problems in Asia and the Middle East, these can only be dealt with effectively once the Atlantic foundation of Washington’s global strength is secure. To conduct a future pivot to Asia, the United States needs a fulcrum in Europe—not vice versa.

Prioritizing the stabilization of Europe may seem to defy logic. Strategically, China is without any question the United States’ most capable and dangerous adversary. Politically, the Iran-Israel standoff is potentially explosive, currently grabs the most attention in Washington, and will probably continue to preoccupy U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Eurocorps soldiers carry a European Union flag during a flag-raising ceremony in front of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France, on July 15. Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad

The United States needs militarily strong European allies that are capable of holding Europe’s frontiers in the east and south against the threats of an imperial Russia and unstable North Africa.

Successive U.S. administrations have called on European allies to do more for their own defense, including higher spending, improved capabilities, and more serious deterrence. These entreaties have been met with some positive responses, especially among NATO’s eastern frontier states, including Poland, Finland, and the Baltic countries. Most other European governments, however, continue to drag their heels. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, is already backtracking from the military upgrade it promised after Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rachel Goldberg, the mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, at a rally in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Aug 29. Amir Levy/Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo

As we approach the one-year mark since the horrific events of Oct. 7, 2023, it’s time to recognize that the methods attempted so far to gain the release of the remaining 101 hostages held in the Gaza Strip—including four American citizens—aren’t working. President Biden has failed to get Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange despite months of prodding. Israeli rescue attempts have had only limited success. Israel said on Sunday that during a recent military operation, its troops discovered six hostages who had been killed by their captors, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American Israeli who had been one of the faces of the hostage ordeal—and whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month.…  Seguir leyendo »

A stretched Hummer limousine is advertised for sale Los Angeles on March 16, 2009. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,

2023 was the warmest year ever recorded, and large SUV and pickup truck sales reached new records, too, responsible for more than 20 percent of the growth in global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In the U.S. market alone, more than 12.3 million new SUVs and pickup trucks were sold, which accounted for more than 79 percent of new vehicle sales. The trend has continued in 2024. In the first half of the year, more than 7.3 million SUVs and pickup trucks were sold, up 3.2 percent compared to 2023.

According to International Energy Agency data, if SUVs were a country, they would be the world’s fifth-largest emitter of CO2.…  Seguir leyendo »

Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees who have fled from the war in Sudan carry their belongings while arriving at a Transit Centre for refugees in Renk, on Feb. 14. Luis Tato / AFP

MundoÁfrica,

Sudan, already ravaged by a disastrous war, is now suffering from a failed, politicized humanitarian response.

The ongoing crisis there has reached catastrophic proportions, yet the international community’s response remains woefully inadequate. A series of missteps and political maneuvers have undermined efforts to provide meaningful assistance to those in desperate need, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group responsible for much of the violence, has yet to be held accountable for actively destroying the country’s food reserves. The situation demands immediate attention and a drastic shift in approach from global leaders and institutions.

At the core of this failure is the United Nations Security Council’s persistent delays in addressing findings from its own Panel of Experts on Sudan.…  Seguir leyendo »

A local volunteer looks at a building damaged by Ukrainian strikes in Kursk on August 16, 2024, following Ukraine's offensive into Russia's western Kursk region. TATYANA MAKEYEVA / AFP

Europa, , ,

Is Ukraine’s surprise counteroffensive into Russia a critical turning point in the war, a meaningless sideshow, or a strategic misstep on Kyiv’s part? It has been mostly a success in the short term, but it’s the medium to long term that matters. Does it have broader implications for Western policy toward Russia in general and the war in Ukraine in particular?

The fortunes of war have shifted back and forth several times since Russia invaded in February 2022, and no outside observer has gotten everything right. For this reason, a certain amount of humility is in order. As with most wars, it is impossible to know exactly where each side’s breaking point might be, in terms of either capabilities or resolve, and it’s hard to predict how third parties will react to new developments.…  Seguir leyendo »

An officer from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sifts through packages, looking for fentanyl, in New York on June 24, 2019. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

The United States is grappling with a major fentanyl crisis. Of the more than 100,000 drug-related deaths recorded in 2023, approximately 70 percent are attributed to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. This staggering number of deaths far exceeds the annual fatalities from car accidents (almost 41,000) and gun-related violence (roughly 43,000). The amount of powdered fentanyl seized has increased by about 100 percent in the last two years. Fentanyl misuse has emerged as a top election issue, with 80 percent of swing-state voters considering it important in their voting decisions, outranking topics such as abortion, climate change, and international conflicts.

The majority of the deadly synthetic opioid and its precursor chemicals are believed to originate in China.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Long March-2F carrier rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft and a crew of three astronauts, lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert in northwestern China on April 25. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

As the U.S. presidential campaign barrels toward its big, traditional fall push, both contestants have found ways to emphasize the centrality of Washington’s competition with Beijing to the country’s future.

In her acceptance of the Democratic Party nomination last Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed that she would ensure “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century”. In recent weeks, Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump has spoken frequently of China, sometimes praising the intelligence of its leader, Xi Jinping, but more often vowing to raise taxes on Chinese imports as a way of preserving U.S. leadership in the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves a national flag atop a truck during a protest called by the opposition movement in Caracas on Aug. 17. Federico PARRA/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAmérica,

Nearly one month ago, on July 28, Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, stole an election. After a campaign period in which opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González consistently led polls, authorities quickly announced on election day that Maduro had won the race. They have yet to make official precinct-level results available for audit, as is required by Venezuelan law.

In response, the opposition gathered more than 23,000 vote tally sheets, representing nearly 80 percent of the country, and published the results online. In Venezuela, these tally sheets are normally made available to poll watchers. The opposition mobilized across Venezuela to ensure that they gathered evidence of the results, in some cases standing up to security forces and government supporters to do so.…  Seguir leyendo »

A man walks past portraits of former Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao and current president Xi Jinping at Yan'an Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Yan'an, China, on Oct. 15, 2022. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

MundoAsia

In 1999, American bombers accidentally blew up China’s embassy during an attack on Belgrade, killing three. The Chinese reacted with outrage, demanding reparations and official apologies. To prove their seriousness, they made nationalist speeches that whipped Chinese citizens into a frenzy, culminating in tens of thousands of protesters throwing rocks and encircling the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

For Chinese leaders, this was par for the course. In responding to international crises, China long hewed to a simple playbook: stoking anti-foreign protests to show resolve and pressure the other side to desist.

But today, something has changed: Chinese leader Xi Jinping, hardly averse to invoking nationalism when it suits him, has nonetheless eschewed stirring up frenzied protests when facing international crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes his oath of office in the presence of Indian President Droupadi Murmu and other South Asian leaders in New Delhi on June 9. Elke Scholiers/Getty Images

MundoAsia

When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister 10 years ago, those invited to his swearing-in included leaders of every South Asian country. This reflected his “Neighborhood First” foreign policy, which was intended to foster cordial relations and economic synergy with India’s smaller neighbors. The approach soon floundered due to border disputes and bilateral disagreements, India’s tardy execution of development projects, and rising Chinese influence in the region.

However, Bangladesh was seen as one of its shining successes. Bangladeshi then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who held power for 15 consecutive years before resigning under pressure this month, worked closely with Modi; their friendly relationship seemed to be a win-win situation.…  Seguir leyendo »

A photo taken on February 26, 2024 shows the logo of the Artificial Intelligence chat application on a smartphone screen and and the letters AI on a laptop screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology offers plenty to worry about before we get to the oft-cited risk that one day we might construct intelligent machines that could turn against us. It’s true that we could do a great deal of harm with AI, but equally we have had no problem creating mayhem without it.

Most of the near- and mid-term risks of AI hinge on malicious human actions. In a 2021 Stanford University study on the most pressing dangers of AI, researchers wrote, “The technology can be co-opted by criminals, rogue states, ideological extremists, or simply special interest groups, to manipulate people for economic gain or political advantage”.…  Seguir leyendo »

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres shakes hands with former U.S. Vice President and climate campaigner Al Gore during the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 9, 2022. Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images

MundoÁfricaReflexionesNaturaleza,

Africa, whose carbon emissions are negligible, is a victim of climate change but cannot stop it. Indeed, to get the continent’s citizens out of poverty, African economies will have to generate substantial growth, encouraged by international aid that gets both home-grown and foreign companies to invest and create jobs in Africa.

With this one simple truth, I have alienated almost everyone. Those on the political left accept that Africa is a victim of climate change, and they support foreign aid. But they are suspicious of economic growth; in fact, a burgeoning movement among well-off Western progressives posits degrowth as the answer to climate change and a host of other ills.…  Seguir leyendo »

An Honor Guard awaits the arrival of Hu Jintao, then the president of the People’s Republic of China, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on April 12, 2010. Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Internacional

Since the end of the Cold War, the role of nuclear weapons has only grown. Nuclear arsenals are being strengthened around the world, with many nuclear states continuing to modernize their arsenals. In June, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance was in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby. Robert C. O’Brien, a former national security advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump, has urged him to conduct nuclear tests if he wins a new term, arguing that it would help the United States “maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles”.…  Seguir leyendo »

How Canada Lost Our Munro

MundoAmérica, ,

Alice Munro looms large over the lives of middle-class women in Canada. Here, good mothers give her short-story collections to their daughters. Wise and knowing aunts leave them behind at the family cottage. Her works are taught to us in schools. The spines of her books are the wallpaper of a certain kind of well-appointed Canadian home—the type with an assortment of mismatched hand-painted mugs, mostly with fish on them, clustered near the sink. For many of us, it was as if the Nobel Prize-winning author wrote the diaries we never managed to keep.

All of which is to say, the news that Munro had been complicit in her husband’s sexual abuse of one of her daughters broke hard on these shores.…  Seguir leyendo »

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell listens during his re-nominations hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, January 11, 2022 in Washington. Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images

ReflexionesNaturaleza, , ,

It is clear to everyone that decarbonization is happening far too slowly. Even the best-performing high-income countries are not reducing their emissions fast enough to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives—not even close. And one big reason is that even though renewables are now routinely cheaper than fossil fuels, they are still not nearly as profitable. Returns on fossil fuel investments are around three times higher than returns on renewables, largely because fossil fuels are more conducive to monopoly power while the renewable sector is highly competitive.

Commercial banks allocate capital on the basis of profitability, not social and ecological objectives. The result is that we get massive investment in sectors such as SUVs, fast fashion, industrial animal farming, private jets, and advertising—even though we know they are ecologically destructive and must be reduced—but we suffer critical underinvestment in areas that are clearly necessary for the ecological transition, such as public transit, agroecology, or building retrofits, because they tend to be less profitable.…  Seguir leyendo »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a state memorial ceremony for his late predecessor Golda Meir at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on November 18, 2018. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo

Israel is in serious trouble. Its citizens are deeply divided, and this situation is unlikely to improve. It is bogged down in an unwinnable war in Gaza, its military is showing signs of strain, and a wider war with Hezbollah or Iran remains a possibility. The Israeli economy is suffering mightily, and the Times of Israel recently reported that as many as 60,000 businesses may close this year.

Moreover, Israel’s recent behavior has gravely damaged its global image, and it is becoming a pariah state in ways that were once unimaginable. After Hamas’s brutal attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel received a considerable and appropriate outpouring of sympathy from around the world, and it was widely accepted that Israel was entitled to respond vigorously.…  Seguir leyendo »

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Montgomery County Community College January 5, 2024 in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

MundoAmérica,

During Donald Trump’s presidency, the issue of foreign lobbying and foreign influence raced to the center of American political discourse. And understandably so; given Trump’s own sordid financial connections and how he flung the doors of his White House open to foreign benefactors and foreign agents, the United States had never seen a president as open to foreign influence as Trump.

That didn’t mean, however, that his entire administration followed suit. Ironically, and unexpectedly, some of Trump’s most prominent administration officials led the way in countering foreign influence efforts elsewhere. In the academic space, the administration opened an unprecedented investigation into elite U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Taliban security personnel ride atop a military vehicle in Kabul on Aug. 14. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Earlier this month, three of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stops were canceled in Austria after officials announced that they had arrested two men accused of plotting a terrorist attack focused on the singer’s stadium shows. One of the men was a 19-year-old Austrian citizen who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online. There have been other recent attacks and plots targeting Western nations including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, as well as Pakistan, India, Iran, and Russia.

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan has undoubtedly emboldened existing militant groups, such as al Qaeda, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), Hamas, and others.…  Seguir leyendo »