scorecardresearch
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeGlobal PulseGlobal Pulse: What's driving Kim Jong Un's belligerence? Putin becomes Russia's longest-serving...

Global Pulse: What’s driving Kim Jong Un’s belligerence? Putin becomes Russia’s longest-serving leader after Stalin

Follow Us :
Text Size:

What’s the message behind North Korea’s belligerence?

Coming just four days after the UN Security Council passed a sanctions resolution against North Korea, its latest missile test can easily be interpreted as one of the strongest statements of the country’s defiance – “a furious rejection of the measures being imposed upon it by theinternational community.”

But strong as it may be, the latest missile, which flew over Japan’s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean, is only part of Kim Jong Un’s sustained strategy to counter the United States, which hinges on the core belief that countries without nuclear weapons are vulnerable to US hegemony. North Korean officials often cite Libya and Iraq, and the fate of Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein as examples of dancing to US tunes. If self-preservation indeed is the motivation, though, will Pyongyang trigger the very conflict that would almost certainly ensure its ruin?

Putin becomes the longest-serving leader of Russia since Stalin

With 6,602 days as Russia’s top leader, Vladimir Putin just became the longest serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin. While Stalin’s record may be at least 4,000 days away for Putin, the key difference is that Putin is a democratic leader – at least in theory – making his over 18-year long period in office somewhat unusual.

During his tenure as Russia’s leader, Putin has dealt with four U.S. presidents, four British prime ministers and two German chancellors. Despite nationwide protests a few weeks ago, Russians don’t seem to have a problem with long tenure. In fact, his approval rating remain phenomenally high, and the Russian media is suggesting that he would be nominated a presidential candidate again for next year’s elections.

Trump keeps the Iran nuclear deal intact

When it comes to his campaign promises, including on immigration, there is now an established pattern: falling short of delivering what he set out to, Trump continues to claim that the outcome is consistent with his stated campaign objectives. And he just proved that he’s following his now regular and predictable pattern with relation to Iran as well.

Trump would keep the Iran nuclear deal alive, even as he seeks to stall its growing influence in the Middle East in other ways. Trump reluctantly allowed a critical congressionally imposed deadline – to renew an exemption to sanctions on Tehran suspended under the deal – to lapse on Thursday. Doing otherwise would have amounted to effectively violating the accord, thereby allowing Iran to walk away from it. Albeit Trump has not yet publically delineated an Iran policy, officials say that there is already an attempt to refocus on military and economic leverage to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East.

 

The paranoia over Zapad suit Russia well

“Zapad is like Christmas: It comes around at a predictable time, yet the excitement and the long build-up obscure the original meaning of the event,” says this piece in Politico. And this year, the original meaning of the event – which is to practice for war and test Moscow’s military preparedness – has been mired in even more confusion than usual, with many fearing that the war games with Belarus are yet another Russian cover for assault.

The fears are not exactly unfounded considering the Crimean annexation and intervention in eastern Ukraine by Russia was preceded by the Zapad war games. But there is a crucial difference. Both of these moves were spawned by an immediate political crisis and what the Russians saw as a security threat to them. No such crisis currently exists. Yet, Europe’s fears and alarm over the war games suit Russia well, bolstering Moscow’s rhetoric about direct military action against its neighbors.

A fresh Saudi crackdown on its citizens

In the last seven days, Saudi Arabia has held 16 people perceived to be opponents of the kingdom’s new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Renowned Islamic clerics, academics, a poet, an economist, a journalist, the head of a youth organization, at least two women and one prince, a son of a former king, are some of those who have been detained, even as the goals and the exact scale of the countdown remains a mystery.

“There were no conspiracies…There was nothing that called for such arrests. They are not the members of a political organization, and they represent different points of view,” a veteran Saudi journalist said. While the exact motives of the crackdown remain unclear, its critical timing is telling. The crown prince has proposed sweeping measures to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil, leading his critics to see him as a “power-hungry upstart who is endangering the kingdom by overturning decades of tradition”.

The West could play a role in saving Cambodia’s democracy

Speaking of crackdowns, there is another country which seems to have jettisoned all pretense of honouring the democratic commitment to freedom of speech. The opposition, independent media, NGOs are all targets of Cambodia’s Hun Sen government’s crackdown on opposition from all quarters, even as the risk of alienating Western partners grows.

What is emboldening the government to clamp down on all voices of dissent? At least part of the reason could be China. In recent years, Beijing has simply lavished military aid and investments on Cambodia with 70 percent of total industrial investment in Cambodia between 2011 and 2015 being Chinese money. But Western countries including the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea and those from the European Union, continue to enjoy considerable economic leverage in the form of foreign development assistance, preferential trade terms for Cambodia, among others. This economic leverage could be used as a handy tool to urge the Cambodian government to commit itself to protecting its citizens’ human rights.

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

1 COMMENT

  1. In General The Western Media never has a Good Word to say about Vladimir Putin. Always just negativism. As I Kiwi ( New Zealander ) I lived and worked in Russia ( then the USSR. ) for 5 years. Compared to then and now their is a huge difference only bought about by Putin’s Reign !!! My wife is Russian and we visit Russia to see her family and we can see the huge difference Putin has made to Russia in general. I can remember the times when the general population was queuing up to buy food and clothing!!! Now all available. Go the Tsar Vladimir Vladimirovich !!!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular