December 2 - The U.N. Has "Massive Evidence" Implicating Assad in War Crimes; The Second Orange Revolution Could Oust Yanukovych for a Second Time; A Critical Analysis of China's Territorial Assertions

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission Navi Pillay saying there is “massive evidence” of crimes against humanity, as she implicates the Syrian dictator Bashar al -Assad in authorizing war crimes. With the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights release of its latest estimate of 125,835 killed in Syria’s civil war, Middle East expert Henri Barkey, who served on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, joins us to discuss this less-than-surprising finding from the UN’s commission of inquiry into Syria and how it might effect next month’s Geneva 11 peace conference.

Part 2

Then we get an analysis of the second Orange Revolution underway in Ukraine following the rejection by the embattled Yanukovych regime of an Association Agreement with the European Union. Alexander Motyl, a professor of political science at Rutgers University and author of “Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism” joins us to discuss whether the corrupt and unpopular Yanukovych will be the world’s only leader to have been twice driven out by people power.

Part 3

Then finally, as Vice President Biden visits Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul to both assure allies and reduce tensions with China, we get a critical appraisal of China’s recent assertion of territorial claims that has riled the Japanese and South Koreans. An expert on the Chinese military, June Dreyer, a professor of Political Science at the University of Miami joins us to discuss the regional and global tests of power going on in the East China Sea and the risks of escalation and miscalculation.