Top of the Agenda: NATO Announces Decision to Restrict Ops
A series of rogue insider attacks on foreign troops in recent weeks has prompted NATO commanders to announce restrictions on joint operations with Afghan units smaller than 800-troop battalions. The decision raises new concerns over plans to hand off security responsibilities and train Afghan forces (Reuters) ahead of a 2014 withdrawal. NATO officials said the move would affect the "vast majority" of Afghan forces, who will now be forced to function without NATO troop support. However, NATO officials say more limited training operations will continue on a case-by-case basis (BBC). More than fifty NATO personnel have been killed in "insider attacks" by members of Afghan security forces this year.
Analysis
The next 28 months of the war in Afghanistan, between now and the planned drawdown, will be defined in part by the process of handing over security responsibility from ISAF (the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force) troops to Afghan soldiers and police. Without a successful transition to Afghan control, the strategy is likely to fall apart, leaving the country without security," writes Joshua Foust for the Atlantic.
"Afghanistan's importance to the U.S. is situational, linked largely to the threat that, under the right conditions, al-Qaida might try to reconstitute its former network of assets there. But much of al-Qaida's operational network has already shifted to more fertile locations elsewhere in the world. And to be perfectly frank, if Afghanistan does not again become the main safe haven for an international terrorist network determined to wage war on the U.S. and its allies, the country will return to the level of attention it held in U.S. strategic planning during the 1990s: overlooked and peripheral," writes Nikolas Gvosdev in the World Politics Review.
PACIFIC RIM
Anti-Japan Protests Continue in China
Protests in the Chinese capital, spurred by a territorial dispute in the East China Sea, continued into their second day. Japanese businesses shuttered storefronts and the country suspended its embassy's services in Beijing on Tuesday, as tensions between the two Asian rivals intensified (AFP).
NORTH KOREA: North Korea's state news agency announced that it had negotiated a debt restructuring deal with Moscow (Reuters) on Tuesday. Terms of the loan forgiveness were not released.
SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA
Government Drops Opposition to Zardari Case
The Pakistani government seems to have dropped a standoff (Guardian) with the country's top judges over investigating money laundering charges against the President Asif Ali Zardari.
MIDDLE EAST
Aid to Egypt on Hold
U.S. aid to Egypt has been put on hold (WashPost) until after the U.S. presidential election, following anti-U.S. rallies protesting the release of an anti-Islam movie.
IRAN: The IAEA issued a statement pressing Iran to address concerns about suspected nuclear weapon research, avoiding mention of Tehran's charge that "terrorists" may have infiltrated the Vienna-based watchdog.
AFRICA
Somali Allied Forces Claim Victory in Battle Against Al-Shabaab
Residents of Kismayo, a main base of the militant group al-Shabaab, said that al-Shabaab fighters were leaving the stronghold (BBC) after clashing with African Union-backed Somali forces, while Somali General Ismail Sahareed said the region would soon come under government control. Meanwhile, an al-Shabaab spokesman denied the reports, saying they had fought off AU forces.
NIGERIA: The army said it had arrested two high-ranking members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram (Al Jazeera), while a spokesman for the group was reported to be killed during the operation.
EUROPE
French to Investigate Protest at U.S. Embassy
On Monday, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that it would investigate this past weekend's protest of the anti-Islam video staged outside the U.S. Embassy, situated off the Place de la Concorde. Interior Minister Manuel Valls told France 2 television that "I have issued instructions so that this does not happen again" (France 24).
KOSOVO: A twenty-five-nation group formally ended supervision of Kosovo on Monday. President Obama said this marked a "historic milestone" for the Balkan country; however, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic stressed that Belgrade would never recognize Kosovo's independence (BBC).
AMERICAS
Significant Drop in Bolivia's Coca Cultivation
A UN drug agency reported cultivation of the coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine, declined 12 percent (UNODC) during the past year in Bolivia. It's the country's first such decrease since 2005.
ARGENTINA: The ratings agency Moody's has lowered its outlook for Argentina to negative, saying haphazard economic decisions (WSJ), questionable official statistics, and underpayment of debt caused the downgrade from "stable."
CAMPAIGN 2012
Half of Americans Approve of Obama's Middle East Response, Poll Says
A Pew Research Center poll released yesterday showed that among Americans who followed the news about the attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East, nearly half (45 percent) approve of President Obama's handling of the situation, while 36 percent disapprove.
Mother Jones released a new excerpt of a video of GOP nominee Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser earlier this year, in which he said that a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine is not possible.
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