Arthur I. Cyr's blog

“Taiwan Election Provides Opportunity For China”
Arthur I. Cyr
Ma Ying-jeou, leader of the Kuomintang Party (KMT) in Taiwan and former Mayor of Taipei, has been elected president of Taiwan, providing an important fresh opportunity to reduce tensions and increase cooperation with Beijing. The KMT ticket secured 58.45% of the vote, a landslide.

“NATO Summit A Distortion”
by Arthur I. Cyr

The death of William F. Buckley Jr. is a sad event, but not at all a tragedy, given the scope and impact of his accomplishments during a long life. In no way can his passing be described as “the end of an era”, because his legacy is very much alive in American political conservatism.

In 2008, presidential candidates are not giving sustained emphasis to foreign policy, but those concerns are present and candidates do make regular references to the wider world. In the Democratic debate in Los Angeles on January 31, Hillary Clinton took a swipe at Barack Obama’s declared willingness to meet with dictators.

On February 24, the National Assembly of Cuba decided to play it safe. Fidel Castro’s legacy was reaffirmed through the selection of his brother Raul as president of the nation, formalizing the acting presidential role the younger sibling has been playing.

Super Tuesday primaries and other selection events represent by far the most substantial voting of the presidential nomination process. Since 1968, the number of presidential primaries has steadily expanded. The February 5 voting has involved altogether approximately half the states in the Union. For years, some reformers have advocated a single national presidential primary.

“JFK’s Legacy Forty-Four Years Later”?
by Arthur I. Cyr

“Al Gore — Political and Environmental Renewal”?
by Arthur I. Cyr
“Environment Al”? Gore is riding high, including growing global media prominence. The Nobel Peace Prize honoring his efforts follows two Oscars for his global warming documentary, ”˜An Inconvenient Truth’. This environment of celebration is fueling political speculation.

“Pentagon Numbers on Iraq Insurgents Killed Are Misleading”?
Arthur I. Cyr
Domineering Donald Rumsfeld may be gone from the Pentagon, but his legacy lingers. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was often compared to predecessor Robert McNamara, another strong personality with a habit of making up his mind in advance of events. As the Vietnam War unfolded in the 1960s, McNamara, an accountant and statistician, fixated on quantitative measures of progress. Attrition was the order of the day, enemy body counts and weapons captured the measure of progress.

“Blackwater, Iraq and Mercenary Soldiers”?
by Arthur I. Cyr
Blackwater is bad news, currently quite literally. The firm, established in 1997, has evolved into one of the most prominent — and profitable — of a growing array of sizable corporations that provide military services, including firepower.