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The U.S. needs the UN according to a new report by Alistair Millar and Eric Rosand, of the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation titled, Building Global Alliances in the Fight Against Terrorism. Both authors spoke on Friday afternoon at the New America Foundation along with Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens. The speakers point out that if we can stress the common security interests of all nations, the UN will once again function as an effective international body. Fighting terrorism is one issue that requires nothing less than the whole world's attention, but it is also a divisive issue. The UN has so far failed to even agree on a definition of terrorism, though Eric Rosand had a good working one: "Politically motivated violence against civilians."

The main argument is that the United States is missing an opportunity to work with the United Nations in its global fight against terrorism. The speakers were careful to stress they are not suggesting the fight be handed over to the UN. Instead, the U.S. should use the platform as underlying support for its existing efforts while maintaining sovereignty over U.S. interests. They believe that many bi-lateral negotiations are perceived as American sledgehammering and may be better received through the lens of third party. Policy recommendations include the appointment of a counterterrorism czar in the White House (non-military in nature), and the formation of a global counterterrorism body.

While I agree that the U.S. cannot "go it alone" in the war on terror, the bottom line is that unilateralism is a direct result of international lack of will. The United States has gone it alone in part because of the inaction of the UN and its member states. Hezbollah is a prime example of this inaction. Under UN resolutions enacted in 2004 and 2006, Lebanese militias were to be disarmed. In April of this year, the security council adopted a presidential statement reiterating this. Instead, over the past few days Hezbollah has taken over half of Beirut.

While I like the idea of a future with international cooperation and committment to fighting terrorism, I think we need to first make sure the international community is interested in bearing the costs to achieve results. And state-sponsored terror is going to be a big obstacle in this process.

ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/AFP/Getty Images

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said today that the Russian military is "gaining in strength and power like all of Russia."

To prove it, he marched troops, tanks, and Topol-M nuclear missiles around Red Square today. The event was reportedly planned as early as January, and Medvedev was so intent on making the Soviet-style show of prowess a success that he ordered Russia's air force to make sure no clouds rained on the festivities. So they carried out a cloud seeding operation in advance of the parade. Meant to mark the 63rd anniversary of the victory of Nazi Germany, it was the first parade of its kind in Red Square since 1990.

It is right to consider the images coming out of the parade as a bit disconcerting. But press reports from the scene seem a bit over the top, with stories of "glamorous" troops and "mixed messages." This ignores the realities of today's Russian military. Moscow-based defense analyst Pavel Falgenhauer provides a good reality check:

Russia still has large stocks of Soviet-made military hardware; most of it fully or partially out of order. Only a handful of ships, tanks, and jets are truly operational at any given time.... The task of reviving defense hardware parades on Red Square will face grave technical and logistical problems and in any event will most likely produce only a pathetic imitation of Soviet military grandeur.... One can only hope that ...  no ancient building will collapse as tanks and ICBMs roll into central Moscow to serve the vanity of Russia’s leaders."

Let's not get carried away with the Cold War nostalgia just yet.

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It turns out that blatant racists aren't the only interesting appointments to Silvio Berlusconi's new cabinet. Last month, Berlusconi publicly mocked spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for hiring too many women, saying, “Zapatero has formed a government that is too pink, something that we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn’t easy to find women who are qualified.”

Well it turns out that Berlusconi did manage to find a few, including his new equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna, a former Miss Italy runner-up and topless model turned parliamentarian.  The story is actually even more ridiculous since the two have a history. Berlusconi once told Carfagna at a banquet that he would marry her if he was single and reminded her of the medieval law letting estate lords deflower virgins on their wedding night. This, in turn, provoked a public letter-writing war between Berlusconi and his wife that played out in the pages of Italy's newspapers. Berlusconi has previously remarked that right-wing female politicians are more beautiful and the fact that his new environment minister was once named "Miss Parliament" is also probably not a coincidence.

The Berlusconi show is back in town, folks.

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The chaotic drug violence in Mexico continues unabated. With more than 6,000 killed in the past few years, today we can add yet another victim: the country's national police chief, killed by gunmen outside his home in Mexico City yesterday.

Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, the public face of Mexico's offensive against drug cartels, became the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be killed since the launch of the effort 17 months ago. The assassination could give new confidence to drug cartels blamed for 6,000 killings in the past 2 1/2 years, and embolden other anti-government groups in this violence-plagued nation.

"This could have a snowball effect, even leading to the risk of ungovernability," Luís Astorga, a Mexico City-based sociologist and drug expert, said in an interview. "It indicates terrible things, a level of weakness in our institutions -- they can't even protect themselves."

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Citizens of Serbia will head to the polls again on Sunday, this time to elect a new parliament (the last one held together less than a year).  It looks to be a close election, with the pro-European Democratic coalition polling just behind the nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS).

According to Belgrade’s bookies, odds fall in the nationalists' favor. In the PM race, most people are putting their money on either the current caretaker prime minister, Vojslav Kostunica or Tomislav “the Undertaker” Nikolic (no, not The Undertaker, though Nikolic, whose nickname stems from his former profession as a cemetery overseer, is not much better).

If Sunday’s elections follow the gamblers’ gut, Serbia’s future will not be bright.  Although staunchly opposed to Milosevic back in the 1990s, Prime Minister Kostunica has proved just as power hungry, and just as willing to play on Serbia’s Kosovo myth, as was Milosevic himself. And a Serbia with Nikolic at the helm would be even uglier. Nikolic is adamant that he’s “no Milosevic,” but only because Milosevic wasn't nationalist enough for his taste. Needless to say, both men oppose European integration as long as most of Europe continues to recognize Kosovo.

Ironically,  a pro-Europe prime minister could only come out of a coalition that includes the leftist parties and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) -- Milosevic's former party. SPS isn't quite what it used to be, but its inclusion still shows how weak the pro-Europe forces in Serbia's politics are.

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

A disabled Shiite gunman roams in the streets of Beirut. Hezbollah took control over much of the city this morning.

Michael Wilkerson, writing on World Politics Review's blog, shares a rare bit of good global food news out of Chile. Scientists there have genetically engineered a new strain of rice that can be cooked with one fourth the amount of water. The discovery won't reduce the skyrocketing cost of rice but will dramatically reduce the water and fuel needed to cook it. With destabilizing food riots occurring more and more frequently, anything to give developing world consumers a break is welcome news.

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

Top Story

Hezbollah fighters have taken over the Muslim section of Beirut in Lebanon's ongoing sectarian strife. Eleven people have been killed in the fighting so far.

Middle East

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert admitted to taking cash from an American businessman during the 1990s but says he will not step down unless indicted.

Contradicting earlier reports, the man arrested in Mosul yesterday is not al Qaeda in Iraq commander Abu Ayyub al-Masri, according to the U.S. military.

Asia

Burma's government said they would be happy to accept aid for cyclone victims, but don't want foreigners working in the country to distribute it.

The cyclone continues to drive up global rice prices.

The U.S. dropped former Guantanamo commander, General Jay Hood as its proposed military envoy to Pakistan after protests from the local media.

Japan has just joined the military space race.

South America

Bolivia will hold a vote of confidence in President Evo Morales.

Chile's volcano may continue to erupt for weeks or months, experts say.

Africa

South African president Thabo Mbeki is in Zimbabwe to hold talks on resolving the election crisis, though it's not clear whether he even plans to talk to the opposition.

A Harvard study said money for AIDS prevention in Africa is being wasted.

Europe

EU foreign ministers will visit the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia this weekend to try to diffuse the crisis there.

The UK's ruling Labour Party has the lowest approval rating in British history.

U.S. Campaign

The Barack Obama campaign is shifting gears and preparing to attack John McCain.

Hillary Clinton has vowed to fight on, and controversially touted her appeal to working-class white voters.

Today's Agenda

• London's newly elected mayor Boris Johnson will meet with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
• Dmitry Medvedev will preside over Russia' victory day celebrations.

Yesterday on Passport

• Burma is still waiting
• City on Steroids
• Lebanese unrest turning back the clock

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma, the first UN World Food Program and Red Cross planes were finally allowed to land in Yangon today. U.S. military planes carrying supplies are still waiting in Bangkok for permission to fly from the Burmese government.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. The total number of casualties is anywhere between 23,000 and 100,000 depending on estimates and over 1 million people may have lost their homes. As the arresting images in FP's photo essay "Burma Picks up the Pieces" show, rebuilding after this catastrophe would be a monumental task for any state. For one as repressive and paranoid as Burma, it may be impossible.

While it might seem unimaginable to find a reason for optimism in suffering of this scale, the Burmese people can only hope that the cyclone, and the government's inept handling of it, might be the final blow that brings this odious regime to an end.

Here's another great documentary from our friends at Current. In "City on Steroids,"  American filmmaker Adam Yamaguchi tours the little-known megacity of Chongqing, China. Growing at a rate of nearly 200,000 people per year, Chongqing is the one of the fastest growing cities on the planet and an emblem of China's rapid urbanization. The clearly overwhelmed Yamaguchi takes viewers on a quick tour of this modern boomtown from brand new yuppie apartments to factory floors. Along the way he takes time to discuss "Desperate Housewives" with college students, lift heavy sacks with migrant workers, and get taken in a card game called "fighting against the landowner."

Check it out:

ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

In the second day of an escalating standoff between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, there are reports of at least one death and five injuries and the possibility of civil war seems less far-fetched.

The unrest first broke out after the government tried to cut into Hezbollah's operations by banning a Hezbollah-run telecommunications network in southern Lebanon. The network was likely Hezbollah's primary means of communication during its 2006 war with Israel. 

Then, reports that Hezbollah had installed cameras near the Beirut airport to monitor the movements of anti-Syria politicians -- possibly to assassinate them -- led the government to dismiss the airport's security chief. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to keep the employee in his post and to strike back at these affronts, irking Lebanon's top Sunni leader Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani:

We used to think that Hezbollah is concerned with fighting the Israeli occupation, and all of a sudden it is turning to be a militant force to occupy Beirut, and this is why we call upon the Arab and Islamic nations to help us and stop these harmful aggressions in Lebanon."

Meanwhile, Ya Libnan makes an interesting point that Nasrallah's campaign may achieve the very thing Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz threatened at the start of the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006: to send the country back twenty years. Hezbollah supporters' tent camps have paralyzed parts of downtown Beirut and now they are springing up along the road to the airport which will be a vital source of tourism revenue this summer. It's shaping up to be yet another example of Hezbollah's "resistance" hurting the very people it claims to fight for.

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Newly minted London Mayor Boris Johnson's first brilliant policy decision? Banning the consumption of alcohol on London's Tube system. Trouble is, just about everyone besides Boris seems to understand that getting between an Englishman and his beloved pint is a pretty bad idea. A spokesman for the Tube employees' union said transport staff will have no way to enforce such a ban, nor much interest in risking their personal safety to do so:

Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done, and maybe tell a crowd of Liverpool supporters that they can’t drink on the train.”

After Boris The Blonde made the announcement, British Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy rushed to assure passengers that the ban would only apply to London proper and those traveling longer distances wouldn't be subject to the measure. “We have no plans to introduce these measures on the national network," he said.

Johnson has himself been known to enjoy a pint -- occasionally more than one. He gave up booze in the final weeks of his mayoral campaign in what appeared to be a strategy to avoid embarrassing gaffes (others suggested it was a sign that he has a drinking problem). Of course, consuming large volumes of alcohol have never precluded British politicians from being good leaders. Winston Churchill was a notorious drinker, and 19th century prime minister William Pitt, the Younger was known to take down two or three bottles of port a day. If he enjoys his job, Boris might do better by heeding their example.

It looks like one of the last bits of business of the Vladimir Putin presidency may have been the expulsion of two military attachés from the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The move could be retaliation for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Washington in recent months. For those hoping that U.S.-Russia relations might improve under the Medvedev presidency, this is not a promising sign.

DAVID SILVERMAN/AFP/Getty Images

After last night's party, Israeli political leaders are back to the grim reality of the ongoing corruption investigation that threatens to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  A police gag order on  the investigation will be lifted this evening, allowing the the Israeli media to finally report on the full details of the case.

The New York Post revealed last week that Olmert is being investigated for money he may have received as mayor of Jerusalem during the 1990s from a Long Island businessman named Morris Talansky. Israeli media outlets are still barred from publishing Talansky's name or any other details of the case, though the easy availability of foreign news sources in Israel has made the blackout somewhat ridiculous. The ongoing confusion over Olmert's legal status has also made further peace negotiations next to impossible.

Watch this space as more details are revealed.

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Top Story

The Burmese junta is finally allowing the UN to deliver food aid to those devastated by Saturday's cyclone. U.S. groups are still blocked from entering the country. The Burmese government is reporting nearly 23,000 dead but a top U.S. diplomat said the number may be far higher.

Middle East

Hezbollah members continued to clash with government supporters amid a called general strike that the New York Times is calling Lebanon's "worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war."

Unsurprisingly, Jews and Palestinians have very different feelings on Israel's independence day.

According to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, present-day Iran is ruled by a Shiite imam who died over 1000 years ago.

U.S. Election

After disappointing results in North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Clinton was forced to loan her campagin $6.4 million.

More superdelegates appear to be breaking Obama's way.

Would Obama have won Indiana without Rush Limbaugh?

Europe

Returning Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi formed a new cabinet in Italy. The anti-immigrant North League party took several key posts.

Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's new prime minister, one day after stepping down as president.

The U.S. urged Russia to "back down" in its confrontation with Georgia.

Asia

The Olympic flame reached the summit of Mount Everest.

India and Pakistan both tested nuclear-capable missiles.

Global Economy

The World Bank blasted the U.S. for funneling its corn production into biofuels while global food prices continue to rise.

Africa

Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony will meet with mediators this weekend. He's still holding out on signing a peace deal to end Africa's longest-running civil war.

A South African observer mission said that Zimbabwe is currently "too violent" to hold a planned runoff election.

South America

The region surrounding the Chilean volcano that erupted last week has been completely evacuated.

 Today's Agenda

• Celebrations continue for Israel's 60th anniversary.
• The world remembers V-E day.

Yesterday on Passport

• This Week in China
• Israel celebrates 60 years of independence
• Saddam: Ruthless dictator or delicate blossom?

Shizuo Kambayashi/Pool/Getty Images

Politics

Chinese President Hu Jintao is visiting Japan for a diplomatic summit on Sino-Japanese relations.  Some are optimistic that Hu and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda can settle claims on undersea gas resources in the East China Sea by summer. The two leaders will also engage in some literal ping-pong diplomacy.

It’s still unclear what is causing the high number of hand, foot, and mouth disease cases in Anhui province. Almost 16,000 cases have been reported, including 28 fatalities likely linked to a coupling with the virus EV71. Government officials say that the high fatalities are not evidence of a new strain.  Infections in Singapore and Vietnam are also much higher than normal this year. The Chinese government plans to step up public hygiene efforts to combat the spread of infectious disease this summer.

The Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, charged with investigating the contamination of the blood-thinner Heparin, has accused U.S. drug company Baxter of being unhelpful in the investigation. It also maintains that the link between the drug and the deaths in the United States has not yet been proven since other countries using similar substances reported no such fatal allergic reactions.

China acknowledged that changes in visa restrictions are taking place ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games. However, the Foreign Ministry insists that the changes are “according to the practice of the past Olympics and usual international practice.” Fewer (if any) multiple entry visas will be issued and some travelers may need letters of invitation, and proof of hotel accommodations and return air tickets. Previously, the ministry had denied that any changes were planned.

Concerned about overspending on student subsidies, the Chinese government is limiting the growth of doctoral programs to less than two percent annually in favor of professional degree training programs. China is the world’s leader in turning out phD's with an estimated 60,000 in 2007, yet over half of graduating candidates end up in government rather than academia.

Economy

The Hong Kong stock market is looking abroad for investment growth and hoping to attract sovereign wealth funds. Government intervention in the Shanghai market is hurting its international reputation.

Forget poverty assistance programs, relocation is the best way to help drought-stricken farmers in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwestern China, said a local official. Around 206,000 people will be relocated over the next five years to irrigated and suburban areas along the Yellow River that can better support them at a cost of $406 million.   

China’s household spending power will surpass that of Britain’s by 2017, putting it third in the world behind the U.S. and Japan according to a forecast released by Barclay’s and the Economist Intelligence Unit today. Full report (PDF).

Taiwan

Three Taiwanese government officials have resigned as investigators searched their homes and offices for clues in the case of the missing $30 million in “diplomatic aid” to Papau New Guinea. There is a middleman on the run according to the International Herald Tribune.  

Analysis

The American Institute in Taiwan held a video conference panel discussion on Tuesday about the U.S.-Taiwan relationship in light of coming political changes in both countries. Speakers included Robert G. Sutter of Georgetown University, Alan D. Romberg of the Stimson Center, and Bonnie Glaser of CSIS. The Taipei Times reports on the event saying that experts don’t expect big changes.

Jamil Anderlini of the Financial Times looks at the latest incarnation of China’s fenqing, or hyper-nationalistic “angry youth.”

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer sits down with Der Spiegel to talk about the role of his company’s gear in the torch relay saying, “I don’t have a guilty conscience,” and stressing the company’s commitment to sports, not politics. (Hat tip: The American's Duncan Currie.)  

This week's China moment

It took forty workers 48 hours to complete the world's largest Chinese flag. The flag is roughly 200 x 300 feet (88.88 meters- note the lucky eights). The banner was so big, it needed a last-minute switch to a larger-class airplane as it left Beijing. It will follow the torch relay around the country and go on display in Beijing a day before the Olympic Games. (Hat tip: Passport reader Andrew Schorr)

MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images

At sundown tonight, Israel began celebrating its 60th anniversary. Though continuing violence in the Palestinian territories and political corruption scandals in the Knesset have left many Israelis feeling a bit cynical about the event, Israel's 60th brithday is nonetheless a remarkable milestone for a country whose very existence has been in peril more times than its citizens would like to recall.

Today, Israel doesn't face the same existential threats it once did, but that doesn't diminish the challenges and dangers it must still confront. As Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg writes:

At 60, Israel is neither a perfect democracy, nor a Jewish ghetto imperiled by Iranian Nazis, nor a puppet master indirectly controlling Washington. It is more democratic than its neighbors, more reliably pro-Western, and more successful economically and militarily. Nonetheless, it faces the classic dilemmas of a nation-state dealing with minorities, borders, and neighbors. In other words, it is best understood as a real place, not a country of myth.

For more on Israel's history and uncertain future, check out Gorenberg's cover story "Think Again: Israel" from the most recent issue of FP. You can also explore more of the country's turbulent history in the photo essay, "Israel at 60."

Nikola Solic-Pool/Getty Images

Saddam Hussein may have been A-okay exterminating thousands of Iraqi Kurds and destroying the oil economy of an entire country, but apparently life in prison was a little more than his hard shell could handle.  

The pan-Arab paper Al-Hayat (English version of its news site here) has printed excerpts from the prison diaries of Iraq’s prolific former dictator, written during his stint in custody between 2003 and 2006. In his prison time writings, Saddam describes the hardships he faced, including the personal struggle of asking for things -- like the time he asked for a flower. "It was a serious sacrifice from me to ask for the first time in my life,” he wrote.

Also, while he probably should have been more concerned about his impending execution, Saddam's main worry was actually contracting an STD . . . from his clothesline. Upon learning that his laundry was hung on the same line as the clothes of his U.S. military guards, he wrote:

I explained to them that they are young and they could have young people's diseases…  My main concern was to not catch a venereal disease, an HIV disease, in this place… What can the Americans and other invaders... bring to an (invaded) country apart from dangerous diseases?"

I knew the man was backward, but how early '90s -– if you can’t get AIDS from a toilet seat, you surely can’t get AIDS from a clothesline.

blog.ifeng.com

Zhang Ping, a senior editor of China's Southern Metropolis Weekly, recently penned several columns under a pseudonym about Chinese censorship of the situation in Tibet. One his pieces, "How to Find the Truth About Tibet," reflects on how both official and self-censorship among the Chinese media prevents Chinese readers from knowing the full story about Tibet, and laments that readers then focus their ire on perceived Western biases rather than agitating for more press freedoms. Here's an excerpt:

If the netizens [hyping inaccurate reports by foreign media] genuinely care about news values, they should not only be exposing the fake reports by the western media and they should also be challenging the control by the Chinese government over news sources and the Chinese media.  There is no doubt that the harm from the latter is even worse than the former.  When individual media outlets make fake reports about real events, it is easy to correct because just a few meticulous Chinese netizens can do the job.  When media control is exercised by the state authorities, the whole world is helpless.

There was a predictable nationalist-inspired backlash against Zhang, with Web forums labeling him a traitor and worse. Now, he's been fired.

Just after he was sacked, Zhang wrote a blog post titled, "My Cowardice and Impotence," in which he struggles with the work journalists are forced to produce in a place with so few press freedoms.

I am afraid of other people praising me as a brave newspaperman, because I know I am full of fear in my heart. I did write some commentaries on current affairs, and edited some articles that exposed the truth. I lost my job and was threatened for speaking the truth. However, to be honest, these were exceptional cases. They were my miscalculations. In my various media positions in the past decade, what I’ve practiced most is avoiding risk.

Self-censorship has become part of my life. It makes me disgusted with myself. Some of my peers are proud of their censorship skills, and like to show it off to employers. I have similar skills, and I am using them everyday. But I am deeply uncomfortable with it. I feel ashamed about it, just like an executioner knows that he is good at killing.[...]

[T]he media industry is different. I participate in telling lies to the public whenever I cancel a good news story, whenever I delete a sentence of truth, if we regard the media as a public good.[...] Even if I don’t have the courage and capacity to do more than I can do now, I should at least live honestly and conscientiously, and be aware of my cowardice and impotence.