Since 1959, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna [ETA] has waged a violent campaign for Basque independence from Spain and France. The body count since the first murder in 1968 stands at 829. On October 20, ETA announced an end to its paramilitary activities in a statement that read in part, “ETA has decided on the definitive cessation […]
“Today, I take over the reins of a government of renewal and a Haitian rebirth,” trumpeted new Prime Minister Garry Conille as lawmakers crowned him head of government. “By allowing me access to the highest office of the State,” affirmed president Michel Martelly, “The Haitian people have invested their trust in me as the bearer […]
There was never a better case study of how not to conduct public policy during an environmental disaster than the way President George W. Bush and his supporting group of miscast advisors handled Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, after coming to grips with the situation in Thailand and how the administration of newly elected Prime […]
Officials said about 10,000 Turkish infantry and special forces punched into northern Iraq on Oct. 19 in an effort to destroy bases of the Kurdish Workers Party. They said the operation was in response to a PKK strike in southeastern Turkey in which at least 26 soldiers were killed. In order to understand this last […]
It is tragic to see the continuing violence and instability in Somalia. It is not clear to me if the recent development is an opportunity or a start of another cycle of violence and the displacement of millions of Somalis. In fact, what is happening today in Somalia and in the sub region as a […]
This week, Gilad Shalit, after five years of captivity deep in the recesses of the Gaza Strip without visitation from anyone, including the Red Cross, returned home to much fanfare. His family was there, his Prime Minister was there. The world was watching. Gilad of course was not the only one to return home this […]
Informed Americans about international and foreign policy affairs have voiced their frustration about U.S military interventions abroad and the potential for more of such interventions. These frustrations are undoubtedly the results of having been witness to consistent decline in the standards of living by Americans over the past decade, which have sharpened over the past […]
As the debate over the post-2014 Afghanistan gains more attention, observers fear a ‘political earthquake’ in the country where the US troops’ withdrawal coincides with the next Afghan presidential elections. With the exit of the United States, Afghanistan’s economy and sources of financing the government in Kabul […]
Liberia has finished the first phase of what is turning out to be a fascinating presidential election that also reveals just how fragile the country’s recovery from the depths of internecene warfare is. Incumbent president and recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf leads all candidates but appears set to fall short of the […]
Is South Africa’s Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula using a traditionally marginalized cabinet position as a springboard to something larger within the ANC hierarchy? Nickolaus Bauer of the Mail & Guardian thinks so. There is no reason why the Sports Ministry or any other traditionally modest post cannot provide an opportunity to shine. Competence […]
Once the shining example of Turkey’s ‘strategic depth’, the Assad regime, as a result of its repression of Syrian dissent, has moved from a ‘zero-problems’ policy to a ‘tough love’ policy in Turkey’s foreign policy outlook. During his September speech in New York, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized Turkey’s changing view towards the […]
Is there good economic news ahead for Africa? The IMF thinks there is a possibility: The International Monetary Fund forecast on Wednesday a rosy outlook for Sub Saharan Africa growth in 2012 but warned of significant risks from global financial volatility that could subdue demand and private inflows into the world’s poorest continent. Economies […]
The Foreign Policy Association has released the results of its National Opinion Ballot in which highly-informed participants in the Great Decisions (GD) program, the centerpiece of the FPA, weigh in on the various issues that GD covers in a given year. Among the issues that this year’s poll respondents addressed was the instability in the […]
How is it that Mexico got caught up in an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States? Manssor Arbabsiar had his flight itinerary diverted from Mexico City to New York, where U.S. law enforcement arrested him for plotting the murder of Adel Al-Jubeir in Washington, DC. Apparently Arbabsiar, an Iranian who […]
A portly man stands covered in glistening crude oil: this visual joke on that iconic scene from Goldfinger sets the scene for British photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews’s exploration of life in post-Soviet Central Asia. This week, she won an international photography award for a series on Naftalan, Azerbaijan, and its crude oil spa treatments. Equally […]