Foreign Policy Blogs

Archive | June, 2011

Surprises Abound in Syria

Surprises Abound in Syria

First of all, allow yours truly to apologize for the conspicuous gap in posts of late. There has been a fairly serious medical emergency with the paterfamilias which has kept me away from the blogosphere. My bad. The good news is that all is now well, and I’m back to …

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Problems in the Sinai

Problems in the Sinai

One of the less publicized issues going on during Egypt’s rebuilding process is the trouble in the Sinai Peninsula. Since the revolution toppled the former autocratic government, lawlessness and chaos have taken hold of society. The nomadic Bedouin of the Sinai, who under Mubarak were controlled and coerced in to …

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NSG to India: Um, About that Enrichment Facility…

After nearly seven years of negotiations, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, formed ironically in response to India’s diversion of civilian nuclear technology to nuclear weapons production, issued more stringent guidelines for transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies.  The new guidelines, approved during its June 23-24 meeting in the Netherlands, strengthens …

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Mexico Today

Mexico Today

I’m thrilled to join Mexico Today, a joint public and private sector initiative designed to help promote Mexico as a global business partner and tourist destination. Disclosure:  I am being compensated for my work as a Community Manager for México Today, whereby I will generate content and manage other contributors. …

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GailForce: Iraq Operation New Dawn Update Part II

I woke today to media reports that 15 American soldiers had been killed this June marking the highest monthly fatality totals since June 2008, when there were a total of 23 fatalities.  The tone of the reports was one of surprise and an underlying view that this was a new …

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The Unhelpfulness of Assassination

We’re on a slippery slope, which we first stepped onto in April 1986 when President Reagan ordered a fighter raid on Colonel Gaddafi’s Tripoli compound, in retaliation for a Libyan-inspired terrorist attack on a nightclub in Berlin. Though Gaddafi survived, one of his children died– which rather stuck …

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Indictments Issued

Indictments have been issued in the investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Four members of Hizballah are reportedly named in the case and the Lebanese government has a month to make arrests, after which the sealed indictments will become public.
The indictments come at a particularly tense time for Lebanon, …

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Guest Blog: Uzo Mokwunye on Food Sovereignty in Africa

Guest Blog: Uzo Mokwunye on Food Sovereignty in Africa

From time to time, the Global Food Security Blog will call upon experts with an informed viewpoint on topics in global food security to contribute guest posts to our blog.  The first of our guest bloggers is Dr. Augustine Uzo Mokwunye, a development strategy consultant …

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SAHS 2011

The University of KwaZulu-Natal hosted this year’s Southern African Historical Society (SAHS) biennial meeting. As a result of my travel fiascos (thanks again, Delta) I missed a good hunk of the meeting. Still, what I did get to experience over the final day-and-a-half was a wonderful combination of fellowship, intellectual …

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Bosnia fading

Unemployment at 42 percent. A “negative” credit rating from Moody’s. Widespread corruption. And now without a government for nine months. Nearly 16 years after Dayton, the New York Times reports that the country is facing its worst crisis since the war.
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Rape.

When I last mentioned the idea of utilizing rape as a weapon amongst what I admitted, privately, were generally naive people during a recent wargame I participated on ‘irregular threats’, people became uneasy. Our group’s moderator had asked us to think of divergent ways that we would foment unrest in …

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Debt Endangers U.S. Role?

Debt Endangers U.S. Role?


As the Greek parliament voted today (amid public riots) on the austerity bill required for continued bailout money from the EU, President Obama held a …

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The Hardest Working Man in the Nuke Business

That’s what I call Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares President – behind his back, of course.  He is the closest thing the arms control community has to a celeb – always camera-ready, always posed and always well-informed. And hey, he’s friends with Michael Douglas.
But, in all seriousness, Joe has worked tirelessly for …

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Europe is More Than a Soft Power- Just Look Inside!

Europe is More Than a Soft Power- Just Look Inside!

Ethnic discord, cultural and linguistic divisions, monarchy, site of the longest political crisis ever recorded; no, I am not talking about Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, or Tunisia, but Belgium, one of the founding countries of the EU, a signatory of the Treaties of Rome in 1957, the heart of the …

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The Good Stuff: CSIS "Essential Readings"

Over at the CSIS Proliferation Prevention Program, program staff have helpfully culled useful articles and such on things nuclear that they are reading.  They have separated the wheat from the nuclear chaff.  Good stuff.  The main page is here. The archives are found at Delicious.

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