Having made the calculation that America’s security and prosperity would be enhanced by partnership with India, the United States over the last decade has promoted New Delhi’s admission into global governance structures. For the Bush administration, this meant doing the heavy lifting required to enroll India into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an informal cartel governing […]
The assassination of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani is a signal of things to come: the Taliban have demonstrated that they have upper the hand over the Afghan military and police. The Taliban have shown that they are not weakening and that they will not settle the conflict in Afghanistan on any terms but their own. […]
My last article theorized about the timing and reasoning behind Turkey’s complete reversal of policy towards Israel. In it, I stated that severing its relationship with Israel was stage one of its race towards regional dominance. I predicted that stage two would likely be the strengthening of ties with other Muslim nations in the […]
Zambians go to the polls today to cast their ballots. Not only do they vote for president in what is expected to be one of the most closely contested Zambian election since independence, they also will vote for their representatives for the next five years in parliament and local government. As is so often the […]
When Yingluck Shinawatra was elected Prime Minister of Thailand this past July, I remarked how this development was likely to ameliorate the tensions which had developed over the years between her country and its neighbor to the east, Cambodia. Between allegations of espionage leveled by Phnom Penh against the government of former Thai Premier Abhisit […]
Brazil has grown in confidence over the last two years regarding its formerly unknown status as a world power outside of Latin America. Brazil shared its influence with the US during internal troubles in Honduras and was one of the key sources of aid after the quake in Haiti. Brazil also involved itself in the […]
This week, the ballet of heads of state and government will open up at the United Nations headquarter in New York. This year, tensions are a little higher than the previous ones for one reason: Palestine. The Palestinian Authority will be seeking for a change of status within the UN. One of the major concerns […]
On September 14, General Walt Natynczyk, Canada’s Chief of Defence, began a three day trip to Moscow to meet with Russia’s Army General Nikolay Yegorovich Makarov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces/First Deputy Minister of Defence and General of the Army. General Makarov invited General Natynczyk to visit Russia last January when they met […]
The – formerly – most exciting city in the world has voted, bear me out in telling you how it matters for Germany, Europe and the rest of the world. As can easily be perused on the left, the Social-Democrats (SPD) won with a less than astounding 28.3%, followed by the Conservatives (CDU) at 23.4%, […]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday that he will be submitting his bid for Palestinian statehood to the United Nations Security Council at its upcoming meeting. In the last few days, the media has widely quoted Arab League President Nabil El-Araby’s statement that Abbas intended to bypass the Security Council and submit the statehood […]
Of all the things to envy about Alexander Lebedev – his billions, his international media empire, his mansion on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace – what most Russians are really jealous of is that it was he and not them who knocked out Sergei Polonsky. Sergei who? Now internationally ridiculed as the man who split […]
In November 2010 the presidents of Latin America’s two largest economies pledged to hash out a free trade agreement. Per logic, Mexico has a consumer class of 100-plus million, Brazil twice that: each country stands to benefit. Yet free trade by numbers went out of vogue in the 1990s. Still, each country had implicit motives. […]
It is a well know fact that China undervalues its currency, by pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the dollar at an artificially low level. This, along with other subsidies and mercantilist trade policies, keeps Chinese exports cheap, and thus more attractive to consumers in the U.S. and Europe. Because China is the manufacturing hub for […]
South Korea plans to propose talks with Japan over women coerced by the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy to serve as sex slaves during World War II. This comes after a ruling from South Korea’s constitutional court ruled that the government had violated the women’s rights by making no effort to take on Japan over […]
Democrats are apparently panicking, well, at least according to several news outlets who are using this week’s congressional race as a barometer of President Obama’s popularity among Jews and the pro-Israel community. In a special election held this week to replace ousted Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish neighborhood, Democrats lost the seat for the […]