I recently had the opportunity to catch up with producer Matthew Tollin about his new documentary, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace. Back Door Channels is the true story of the men who brought an unlikely lasting Peace to the Middle East. For the first time ever, the filmmakers take the audience behind the […]
“It shows that the OAS cannot be relied upon as a neutral, independent arbiter of electoral disputes, because of the control of its administration by the United States government and its allies,” read a report recently published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The Organization of American States in Haiti, a study […]
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in New York recently to address the 66th session of the UN General Assembly. During her stay, she sat down for an interview with the WP. One of the topics discussed during the course of the interview was the impact of microcredit in Bangladesh. In December of last year, the […]
It’s become so fashionable to automatically diss everything Putin does that critics are rarely forced to use their brains. That’s the only way to explain the curious liberal denunciations of the Eurasian Union, a free-trade economic and political bloc of major former Soviet states that Putin is rushing to get started. After all, what liberal […]
A lot has been said about the competition for the Arctic’s natural resources, like oil and gas, fisheries, and minerals. Little has been said about using the cold as a resource. Now, of all companies, Facebook is intending to capitalize on the Arctic’s frigid climate by building a data center in Luleå, on the coast […]
Global economic developments this year, along with the impact of safe-haven investment flows have led to the appreciation of the dollar in global markets, contributed to the high level of unemployment in the U.S. and increased the chances for a double-dip recession in America. All these developments have further highlighted the international tensions over exchange […]
The Foreign Policy Association just released its latest annual National Opinion Ballot Report. Many issues have been tackled in this very interesting report, from the reconstruction of Haiti to the financial crisis to multilateralism to the Horn of Africa. Interestingly, one section was dedicated to Germany and its relevance to US interests. However none dealt […]
Last week I wrote about Olympus firing its president and CEO, Michael Woodford, over reported “cultural differences.” Olympus Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikugawa blamed Woodford for ignoring the company’s organizational structure, circumventing the hierarchy that is typical in Japan. I thought this was a strange rationale for firing Woodford, since one reason a Japanese corporation might hire […]
Despite its oil and gas resources and its vast agricultural lands, Yemen is the poorest country by far of the Arabic Peninsula with the majority of its population leaving under US$2 per day. For several years now UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies have been working in Yemen towards finding a solution to solve malnourishment […]
Russia is known for its domes, which generally sit on top of Orthodox churches. Soon, one might be on top of the world in Russia’s neck of the Arctic, this time sitting atop a city. During the Arctic: Territory of Dialogue conference last month in Murmansk, Putin reviewed plans and mock-ups for a a 5,000-person domed […]
The recent release of the FPA’s National Opinion Ballot Report once again provided valuable insights into the thoughts and opinions of informed Americans on the important foreign policy issues of the day. Among other items, the poll returned an overwhelmingly positive response to Germany’s insistence on austerity measures for the crisis stricken euro countries. By a […]
After ensuring each Minister in his novice administration took the oath of office, President Michel Martelly launched a new initiative aimed at restructuring the country’s political infrastructure, as a roaring opposition still in its infancy mobilized to reclaim power. Using the century-old daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste, the emerging opposition enumerated three areas of concern that […]
Wounded Patients in Syria’s Hospitals are Tortured, Along with Medical Staff Suspected of Treating Injured Protesters, Says New Amnesty International Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4cF7XhOnSQ&feature=player_embedded Human Rights Organization Documents Cases of Injured Protesters Being Beaten by Security Agents in Hospitals Contact: Suzanne Trimel, 212-633-4150, [email protected] (New York) — The Syrian government has turned hospitals into instruments of repression […]
Last Friday the first long-haul Mexican truck entered the United States, fulfilling its express design. Mexican trucks should have been allowed onto U.S. interstates by 2000, but lobbying by the Teamsters union kept Mexican trucks within an earshot of the border. U.S. dithering has been clearly unfair (Canadian trucks have traversed America’s highways without conditions), […]
The Canadian government recently announced the results of the bidding process to construct vessels for the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. Canada plans to spend $33 billion on 28 large combat and non-combat vessels over the next 30 years. As part of that procurement the Royal Canadian Navy is slated to receive six to eight Arctic […]