UPDATE (February 29): Islamabad today announced that it would grant “most favored nation” trade status to New Delhi and phase out major restrictions on Indian imports by the end of this year. For all of the discouraging news coming out of South Asia – Afghanistan’s escalating turmoil, the breakdown in U.S.-Pakistani relations, and growing political instability […]
Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has issued tenders to construct new types of vessels and infrastructure for the Arctic. The tenders call for the following [1]: Light and heavy Arctic surface-effect ships: 458 million rubles/$15.7 million Ground effect vehicles for the Far North: 70 million rubles $2.4 million High-speed sea and river catamarans (“Alligators”): […]
Hardly a day goes by in Turkey without a political crisis shaking the capital city of Ankara. Turkey’s latest political crisis broke out when special-authority prosecutor Sadrettin Sarıkaya in Istanbul summoned several high level members of Turkey’s intelligence agency, the MIT (National Intelligence Organization). On February 9th, MIT chief Hakan Fidan, his predecessor, a former […]
A little under two weeks ago the Boston Herald published an online editorial suggesting that President Obama “abandon his ‘lead from behind’ stance.”[i] This facilitated some personal reflection on the President’s supposed foreign policy strategy and America’s role as the global leader. For those unfamiliar with the term “leading from behind,” it was supposedly coined […]
“How can the world do nothing?” The massacre of the Syrian people has taken place for too long now with no end in sight. In addition to the atrocious violence perpetuated by the Al-Assad regime, American and French journalists, Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, lost their lives several days ago leading to international public outcries. […]
The G20 Finance Ministers meeting to take place this weekend in Mexico City comes at a time where Europe has begun to reduce their crisis, the US and its President is singing along with better economic numbers and BRICS nations continue to roll on despite slower growth in Brazil and inflationary issues in China. What […]
Before I head off to New Haven for Convergencias 2012, hosted by the Yale Mexican Students Association, I will reflect on 5 themes that define the inner-workings of America’s relationship with our Southern neighbor: 1. Trade between these two neighbors is symbiotic. In 2010, mutual trade reached $362 billion. As I discussed in my Great […]
While most news about Central Asia discusses pipelines and transiting materiel to Afghanistan, southern Kyrgyzstan still sways uneasily in a quiet cross-breeze of mistrust and recriminations, after riots in June 2010 that killed over 400 people. After 18 months, two special commission reports, and a new president, few residents in this mountainous region believe the […]
Last week, my mom, a doctor working at a local polyclinic, was summoned along with all her colleagues to an unusual kind of staff meeting. The head nurse, a member of the ruling United Russia party, had gathered everyone to remind them of the importance to vote the “correct” way in the upcoming March 4 […]
[Map of Somalia — EthanZuckermann.com] Leaders from across the globe are gathering today with various leaders in Somalian civic society at the London Conference on Somalia. The goal of the conference is to develop a new international approach to Somalia that nonetheless keeps Somalians in the center of the dialogue and thus of viable […]
Next week, Scandinavia House, a Nordic cultural center located in New York City, will host “Greenland Week,” with three artistic and cultural programs dedicated to shedding light on the remote island. On Wednesday, February 29 and Friday, March 2, a coming-of-age movie called Inuk about a troublesome boy sent from the capital, Nuuk, to live […]
The closer we get to the presidential election, the more anti-American discourse appears in Russian media. The anti-American rhetoric is not a novelty in a country that lived through decades of the Cold War parity with the United States; it takes a long time for old phobias and fears to be reconsidered. Meanwhile, whatever is […]
The simmering ethnic tensions between those who prefer a non-Oshiwambo speaking person to become the next president of Namibia after president Pohamba’s term expires in 2013, and those who view such a call as tribalism and against the country’s slogan of “One Namibia-one nation,” has reached another boiling point. The latest tension stems from the […]
Following much anticipation, Yemenis this Tuesday headed towards the polling stations in the tens of thousands, with lines extending endlessly in the streets of the capital, Sana’a. And if so far the mood is festive, with men and women congratulating one another on what they hope will herald the coming of a new democratic era, […]
Interesting news from Iraq… the Christian Science Monitor is reporting that violence has dropped precipitously as al-Qaeda affiliates quit the field to battle President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The effects of egress have been most pronounced in Nineveh Province – the Iraqi governate borders Syria and once served as served as home to as many as […]