Reminiscent of the carefully-choreographed 2008 Beijing Olympics, China’s unveiling on Thursday of the lineup of the new Politburo Standing Committee, its highest leadership body, took every precaution to ensure an orderly transfer of power. Security in Beijing was tightened, shops were ordered to remove fruit knives from their shelves, hotels opened and inspected all stored […]
U.S. President Obama is no stranger to Southeast Asia having spent parts of his childhood in Indonesia and returning several times to the region as Commander-in-Chief. And now, fresh off his reelection to the highest office in the land, President Obama will travel to the region next week on a three-country tour culminating in the […]
As history tells it, the father of modern day Myanmar, Gen. Aung San, was assassinated in 1947 not long after the country gained its independence from Britain as he sought to forge a democracy among leaders from Myanmar’s 100-plus ethnic groups. But even 50 years of authoritarian military rule (itself installed following ethnic rivalries in […]
The port city of Sidon in Lebanon witnessed an almost unthinkable act today. The Sunni bastion in the south of the country was transformed into the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Instead of Billy Clanton and Wyatt Earp, today’s belligerents in the shootout were the bodyguard of a controversial Sunni cleric and a Hezbollah […]
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Research Council (NRC) have released a report commissioned by the CIA and various other American intelligence agencies on the security threats posed by climate change. The report’s goal is to inform intelligence agencies as to how to best carry out monitoring to anticipate climate-related disasters, help prevent […]
“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must –at that moment– become the center of the universe.” –Elie Wiesel Human rights abuses including, but not limited to, slavery, genocide, political persecution, and religious discrimination, are imperfect and irreparable stitches in a nation’s narrative tapestry. While these […]
If there is one element that Europeans can agree on is the satisfaction of President Obama’s reelection. The European Union is currently facing visceral crises such: Cameron’s attacks on the EU budget, the uncertain future of France’s economic recovery, the movements of independence, and so on. Despite what was supposed to be a tight race, […]
The year was 1967 , ten years after the United States and Imperial Iran signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement as part of America’s Atoms for Peace program. At the time Iran debuted its first nuclear facility in Tehran, a 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor, supplied by the United States and fueled by highly enriched uranium. Fast […]
In a recently published piece by Your Middle East, a leading European digital magazine covering all things Middle Eastern, Omid Habibinia, an Iranian journalist in exile, sheds light on the plight of Iranian journalists inside Iran. In his piece Mr. Habibinia underscores the bravery of many Iranian journalists who, despite widespread repression, arrest, and torture of their […]
The once-in-a-decade leadership transition in China that starts November 8 will see a new slate of top leaders installed by next spring, all eager to influence a new vision of a changing China. But the most prominent leaders to be replaced, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, are no lame ducks. Both are still […]
I grew up in a town called Lindenhurst, a relatively quiet suburb on Long Island’s southern shore located just inside Suffolk County’s border with Nassau. It’s an upper-middle class, family oriented neighborhood whose residents, for the most part, have all of their needs and wants met. When I was a boy, my mother would take […]
Europe has been these last couple years at the forefront of world media. First, the Eurocrisis and its domestic impacts have been over studied and analyzed. Second, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the EU creating an unfortunate outcry throughout Europe. Third, Western Europe has been plagued by a series […]
The possible Balkanization of Syria is an increasingly likely prospect – at least for the short-term – and could provide a historic counterpoint in the Middle East to what the West did to carve up the region almost a century ago. With the Ottoman Empire defeated after World War I, the triumphant Allies sought to ensure their […]
I don’t like saying that the majority of Americans are ignorant when it comes to foreign policy, but when you read some of the statistics that were listed in a recent article in the magazine named after this very subject, it’s disconsolately hard to deny. Take my mother for example. She is the type of […]
Looks like Putin’s infamous crane flight has claimed another victim. Two months after his unauthorised sequel to Fly Away Home, which reportedly resulted in several of the endangered birds getting killed and maimed, the Russian president has mysteriously cancelled a spate of domestic events and foreign engagements. Word on the street is of a back […]