Imagine a court with international jurisdiction to set right the wrongs of “environmental injustice.” Sound pretty far out there? According to the Daily Telegraph, a group of British lawyers don’t think so. The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year. But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the “right to a healthy environment”. The idea is apparently to give teeth to …
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is heading to Poznan, Poland, next week to take part in the U.N. climate talks being held there. Kerry will serve as one of several congressional emissaries who have been charged with reporting back to President-elect Barack Obama. But just as Kerry tells Grist magazine that he hopes the talks will lay tracks for the much heralded Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen next December (where the successor to Kyoto is expected to be hammered out), the wheels appear to be coming off of the European …
European Union ministers are pressuring Poland and Lithuania to endorse the EU’s business-as-usual approach toward Russia, despite the fact that Russia remains in violation of the EU-negotiated truce over the Russian-Georgian war. The EU apparently wants to have Poland and Lithuania on board for this scurrilous betrayal, so that it is seen to “speak with one voice” on foreign policy. Poland and Lithuania are right to stick to their guns on this one and put their principles above political expediency, not to mention their own security. Russia recently announced that …
MOSCOW — The Russian elite are clearly unenthusiastic about Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. Moscow believes Obama has adopted a stance similar to the incumbent administration’s on most of the thorny issues that are dividing the United States and Russia — missile defenses in Eastern Europe, NATO enlargement, Russia-Georgia conflict and Iran’s nuclear weapons program — and that, so far, he has no intention of making concessions to the Kremlin. Thus, the Moscow establishment is convinced it is too early to expect any progress in the U.S.-Russian relationship. In …
President-elect Barack Obama is sending mixed signals on America’s planned missile defense sites in Europe following Russia’s heated rhetoric last week. An Obama adviser said this weekend America’s next commander in chief hadn’t decided if he would continue work on the U.S. missile shield. Although Obama is still months away from taking office, now is not the time to reverse course. This is nothing new from Obama. Throughout the presidential campaign, he shifted his views on missile defense. For instance, a video he recorded for the Priorities Action Fund flatly …
Many political commentators have long predicted that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk would make a decision on stationing part of the U.S. missile defense shield there, based largely on opinion polls. Russia’s aggressive incursion into sovereign Georgian territory last week undoubtedly accelerated his decision, aided by the startling effect the invasion had on Polish public attitudes towards the deal. Before Russia’s brutal actions in Georgia, support for the bilateral U.S.-Polish deal had hovered around the 30% mark; however, a poll from Monday published in Rzeczpospolita daily, showed that 58% of …
NOTE: Remarks by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez added to the end of this post. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Victims of Communism Memorial, located a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. A ceremony this morning, presided over by Heritage’s Lee Edwards, commemorated the more than 100 million victims of communism. During his remarks, Edwards outlined a new goal: creating an online Global Museum on Communism, which will launch in 2009. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of communism’s collapse. Here is Edwards’ prepared text: …
It has only taken six years, but according to reports that surfaced today, the United States and Poland have finally reached a tentative agreement on the development of a Ground Based Midcourse defense site, which will initially include the placement of 10 interceptors in Poland. Although discussions concerning the radar site in the Czech Republic have not been concluded, the agreement between the U.S. and Poland comes as somewhat of a surprise, as the Polish public opinion looked unfavorable and requests for cooperation on security and other matters were prolonging …
