World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The Obama Administration engaged in a silly semantic debate today over the question of whether the US is “at war” with the Islamic State.  US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Susan Rice chose to characterize the air campaign against the IS as a “counter terrorism” activity, while the Defense Department referred to the actions as “war.”  Obviously the distinction is meaningful only in the context of the US Constitution because only the US Congress can declare “war.”  But the more salient concern for both the President and the Congress is who takes responsibility for the war if it does not go well.

Spiegel has an informative article on what is likely to happen in Ukraine.   Unfortunately, the tenor of the article suggests that Russian President Putin is just playing a waiting game, deliberately provoking and then pulling back.  Each time, however, he incrementally gains greater control over eastern Ukraine.  His goal is nothing less than to establish a Russian-controlled corridor all the way to Crimea.  He seems fully prepared to endure the price of the economic sanctions imposed by Western powers.  What we don’t know is how willing are his supporters to endure the pain of the sanctions before they withdraw their support for this nationalist move.

The United Nations does not have its own military force.  Instead, it relies on troops from the member countries to enforce the resolutions of the UN Security Council.  UN Peacekeepers are all over the world and, for the most part, they have upheld peace conditions well.  Since 1974, UN Peacekeepers have been stationed in the Golan Heights, a parcel of territory which is part of Syria but which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.  With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Golan Heights has become more volatile, and the UN Peacekeepers were attacked by some of the rebel forces.  Interestingly, the UN commanded the Peacekeepers to withdraw from their positions and not fire their weapons, but the national commander of the troops (which were from the Philippines) ordered them to defend themselves.   I suspect that the Filipinos did the right thing militarily, but the discrepancy between national and international orders is quite stark in this case.