Next month the United States will host dozens of African leaders in Washington. But unless something changes before then, we will still be without confirmed ambassadors in 14 countries on the African continent, including in such strategically important nations as Niger, Cameroon and Sierra Leone.This is not only an embarrassment, it is a security issue. Yet nominations to fill the positions continue to be held up in the Senate for no good reason.As retired generals, we can testify to the importa

In the ongoing pillage of tropical rainforests, villains are plenty. None has stoked imaginations like the Amazonian rancher. With his bulldozers and chainsaws, and herds that wander from horizon to horizon, the rainforest cattleman has emerged as Amazonia’s public enemy No. 1, his ruin chronicled in titles like “The World is Burning,” and “The Hamburger Connection.” America’s National Academy of Sciences is the latest to sound off.Now the genre may be due for revision. Deforestation, though sti

President Barack Obama doesn’t control Vladimir Putin, climate change or an opposition party dedicated to thwarting his every move. But he has extensive influence over the status of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and the course of the political battle about their fate.The Obama administration’s bumbling response to the influx of migrant children from Central America has complicated the politics of immigration. Scenes of young immigrants in U.S. custody have emboldened conservative opponents

The scandal over the Yingluck Shinawatra government’s rice-pledging program has reached another crucial stage with the National Anticorruption Commission urging her prosecution on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty. The case has been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney-General. This is no longer about rice or corruption alone. The aim is specifically to establish a new national standard for the way such programs are administered. Ideally, Thailand will end up one step closer to be

Forward-looking thinkers are already looking to 2030 even as people anticipate the coming of the ASEAN Economic Community next year. Last week saw the launch in Singapore of the book “ASEAN 2030: Toward a Borderless Economic Community.” That came with a two-day policy dialogue conference among scholars and policymakers. I’ve been privileged to be among dozens of researchers and analysts from around the region that the Asian Development Bank Institute had brought together over the last three year

NEW YORK ― When incompetence in the Kremlin turns murderous, its incumbents can begin to tremble. As news of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine trickled into Russia, people with a long memory recalled the Soviet Union’s attack, 31 years ago this September, on Korean Air Lines Flight 007, and its political consequences.Back then, the Kremlin first lied to the world by saying that it had nothing to do with the missing KAL plane. Later it claimed that the South Korean jet was o

This year marks the 61st anniversary of the Armistice Agreement that suspended the Korean War. Yet, full repatriation of ROK POWs remains unresolved. Considering these veterans detained in North Korea are now over 80 years old, their return is an urgent matter. The hostilities cannot be said to have ceased in the true sense until the all POWs held in forced custody are returned. The fundamental cause behind their detention lies in the POWs policy of the North Korea. Unlike the U.N. Forces, North

STANFORD ― Many Europeans have come to believe that they have weathered the economic and financial storm. In the last two years, deficits and debt have stabilized. Yields on the sovereign debt of the eurozone periphery’s weak economies have fallen sharply. Portugal and Ireland have exited their bailout programs. Talk of Greece leaving the euro has subsided.All of that is true, but there is a big catch: economic growth in the European Union remains anemic. GDP in Holland and Italy shrank in the l

Vladimir Putin has become a global menace.There is an irrefutable link between the Russian leader’s reckless policies on Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This tragedy is the direct outgrowth of his decision to train and arm Ukrainian separatists with heavy weapons in an effort to destabilize Ukraine.It doesn’t matter whether the triggerman thought he was targeting a Ukrainian military plane rather than a civilian airliner. More than 200 European civilians, along with dozen