John R. Thomson

JOHN THOMSON: Ongoing flux in East-Central Europe

For nearly a century, East-Central Europe has been a perennially unsettled region. Pragmatic deals cut after World War I, with more following World War II, have kept the area in an unending state of flux.

October 7, 2015

JOHN THOMSON: In Venezuela, crumbling economy, weak opposition

Venezuela today faces terrible truths.

March 25, 2015

Fresh light on an old crisis

Since creation of the Israeli state by the United Nations in 1948, world leaders have sought to establish peace and harmony between the Israelis and their Arab neighbors, principally the Palestinians. As efforts mount to have a fresh series of negotiations between the two sides, it is past time to try a different approach.

October 11, 2009

Bravo to the brave and unbowed

The news from the State Department earlier this month was all but unbelievable. The United States announced it would not accept the results of a sovereign country's elections, unless the offending government would accept a disputed agreement that had nothing to do with the elections.

September 14, 2009

Not all that formidable

Hugo Chavez has been beating the war-scare drums since the June removal from office of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. His claims to sense the winds of war sweeping Latin America are clearly designed to boost his steadily eroding base among Venezuelans.

August 23, 2009

THOMSON: Tactical success, strategic loss

Outgoing President George W. Bush, earned his tactical spurs in Afghanistan and Iraq. There can be no doubting the stunning military victories, respectively in 2001 and 2003, that liberated 60 million inhabitants of these two blighted countries. It will become an important part of his presidential legacy.

January 18, 2009

THOMSON: Coal in the stocking

Henry Ford would be ashamed. His successors in America's largest industry groveled and begged Congress for $34 billion in "loans," which have little chance of repayment. When Capitol Hill balked, a resigned, poorly informed President Bush granted "only" $13.4 billion - original plans for $17.4 billion changed when less than $15 billion remained in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

December 24, 2008

THOMSON: Chavez’s fraud game

The kinds and extent of fraud already being applied by the Venezuelan government to the crucial elections today are unprecedented. Having originally won election to the presidency in 1999 in a remarkably clean contest, Hugo Chavez has progressively moved the process to one of unmitigated electoral larceny.

November 23, 2008

THOMSON: Wrong red line

Bustling San Salvador, capital of Central America's smallest state, bears little resemblance to 18-20 years ago, when the city was fraught with insecurity and daunting danger.

October 30, 2008

THOMSON: Will we never learn?

What is it about the human condition that we seem never to learn from the past, much less from others? Why do we keep making the same mistakes, over and over again?

October 12, 2008

THOMSON: Mexico on the brink?

Mexico, which along with Canada is America's hemispheric free trade partner, has become home to countless drug cartels. The country is awash in the blood of assassinated police, bureaucrats, drug lords and innocents. Kidnappings this year could reach 1,000. Mexico is nearly incapable of controlling its social and economic destiny, similar to the near-fatal 1980-90s Colombian crisis.

September 25, 2008

THOMSON: Pakistan’s presidential perils

Perhaps it was wishful thinking. A few days ago, it could be hoped the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as Pakistan's president would usher in a period of military-supported reform of the country's weak, corrupt, democratically elected government.

August 28, 2008

THOMSON: Hands free for peace

July marked the first anniversary of a little-known Colombian organization, Manos Por la Paz (Hands for Peace), and a very successful year it has been. The group was founded by imprisoned guerrillas of the country's two most vicious narco-trafficking terror organizations, FARC and ELN.

August 24, 2008

THOMSON: Decline of Pakistan

The decline and fall of Pakistan continues apace. Should it become a failed state, locked in an extremist embrace, Pakistan's crucial geographical position and nuclear arsenal would pose grave dangers to peace in Central and South Asia, and throughout the Muslim world.

August 20, 2008

THOMSON: A balanced plan on Iraq

A soon-to-be-published 6,600-word work deserves careful consideration plus profound praise from those genuinely concerned about the War on Terrorism and the situation in Iraq.

August 13, 2008

THOMSON: Fixing El Salvador

Strategically and centrally located within Central America, tiny El Salvador has been a striking economic success in recent years.

July 16, 2008

THOMSON: Sorry, Che, we blew it

Why did Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa, presidents, for now, of Venezuela and Ecuador, do it? What made them change - seemingly overnight - from fiery, fearsome supporters of the terrorist, narco-trafficking Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces to princes of peace?

June 18, 2008

THOMSON: With the OAS in Medellin

An air of nonexpectation permeated the recent 38th Annual General Assembly of the Organization of American States in Medellin, Colombia. A veteran attendee said, "The location changes yearly, the players less frequently. There is a sameness to the proceedings

June 15, 2008

THOMSON: Hugo not over Colombia?

In the ongoing saga between Venezuelan despot President Hugo Chavez and Colombian democratic President Alvaro Uribe, Mr. Chavez for the moment appears to have the upper hand.

January 20, 2008