Hi. My name is Derek Catsam. I am the Senior Blogger for the Foreign Policy Association’s Africa Blog. We are undergoing immense growth and transition at the FPA Blogs. One of these is to consolidate our many fine blogs (which make up the largest network of foreign affairs blogs anywhere) into coherent, managable categories. This blog will be combined with several others — Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and The Middle East — into a group of blogs under the heading “Africa and the Middle East.” I will serve as Senior Editor and will continue to blog about African affairs and may occasionally branch outward.
As part of these changes we will be adding to our bloggers. The first of the new bloggers I want to introduce is Reza Akhlaghi:
Born in Tehran, Reza Akhlaghi is a telecommunication professional and a freelance writer based in Toronto, Canada. His areas of interests are Iran, Central Asia, and the Korean peninsula. Reza has lived and worked in the Middle East, Northeast Asia, the U.S., and Canada. He speaks English, Persian, Turkish, and Korean. Reza holds a BA Honors in English Literature and Communication Studies from York University in Toronto; an MA in Communication Studies from University of Calgary in Alberta; and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.
Reza will begin blogging soon and will supplement the fine work that Sahar Zubairy has been doing on this vitally important country and its role in the region and the world.
