“Shut up,” said President Michel Martelly to members of the national press who, in his view, kept tourists and potential investors at bay, depicting Haiti as a desolate, hostile environment. “Why don’t you just shut up,” he reportedly reiterated during a short speech at the initial launch of Magic Haiti, a magazine dedicated to promoting […]
On Tuesday, leaders of Iraq’s major political parties signed an agreement allowing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to negotiate terms of a prolonged US troop presence in Iraq. Although months of debate, discussion and endless deliberation undoubtedly remain before a final pact is reached, “after weeks of wrangling and lots of US pressure [this deal] appears […]
I am going to spare you of my thoughts on the debt ceiling circus in Washington and its foreign policy implications in East Asia. (I’ll leave that to Krugman and Richardson, both of whom I think are spot on). Instead, I’d simply like to direct your attention to a political cartoon I stumbled across recently that […]
I spent two blustery weeks this summer in Iceland. Four of those days were spent in Reykjavik, the world’s northernmost capital. 200,000 out of the country’s 300,000 citizens live in Greater Reykjavik, making this country one of the most urbanized in the world. Most people have cars, Reykjavik being a surprisingly car-friendly city. In […]
I have recently been fortunate to conduct several interviews with some very influential and interesting figures, the latest being with the former U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, David J. Dunford. Ambassador Dunford was appointed to Oman in 1992 and served until 1995. He has since retired to Tucson, Arizona, where he is an […]
Lots of stories have been cavorting around my head, with commentary as I see fit: The disaster in the Horn of Africa represents what the Mail & Guardian calls “a crisis in slow motion.” The perfect storm of famine and the political chaos in Somalia has led to a humanitarian nightmare. The west (ie the […]
The Gautrain now has round-trip between Johannesburg and Pretoria. The Joburg to OR Tambo half of the Gautrain route was completed in time for last year’s World Cup and today patrons stepped on board for the full trip between Gauteng’s two vital cities. The key, as I see it, is that the Gautrain really is […]
They may no longer be on the opposites side of the Cold War, but Russians and Americans still see the world in opposite ways. While even most blue collar Americans believe they are middle class, 45% of Russians consider themselves to be poor, according to Svetlana Kononova’s piece in Russia Profile, which relies on new […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the interesting developments in Thailand’s “deep south,” the site of a long standing Muslim insurgency seeking independence from the government in Bangkok. Soon to be Prime Miniser Yingluck Shinawatra had been stumping in the region in mid-June in an attempt to capture some crucial electoral votes for the […]
Yoshitaka Shindo, right, Tomomi Inada, center, and Masahisa Sato, rear, talk to media at Gimpo Airport in Seoul Monday. Three Japanese lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party pushing Tokyo’s claims to the Liancourt Rocks were denied entry to South Korea Monday. The three lawmakers were Yoshiktaka Shindo, the grandson of a general in the Imperial Japanese […]
First, a stunning set of pictures of North Korea taken by AP photographer David Guttenfelder, who was on a longer leash than usual during his recent visit to Pyongyang. Second, a quick detour from the realm of foreign policy into that of East Asian historical research, my other hobbyhorse. Anyone looking for the cutting edge […]
Pakistanis do know that they have an image problem. They have a unique way of addressing this tough challenge. Many in Pakistan have historically believed that electing and appointing women to key posts can help improve the country’s unpopular international image. At a time when Islamabad’s diplomatic ties with Washington have reached their lowest ebb, […]
Things are not going well for Dr. Singh The contrast could not be starker. Twenty years ago this week, Manmohan Singh, then serving as finance minister to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, championed a bold slate of economic reforms that has transformed India in ways few could have imagined back then. Quoting Victor Hugo, […]
Ouch. It’s hard to imagine South Africa’s rugby salons making any sort of major structural changes so close to a World Cup, but if I were Peter de Villiers (someone I have long defended against his many detractors) I might be keeping my resume up to date.
As Tokyo moves to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the U.S. said Thursday that it will not accept any loopholes Japan might seek in resolving the long-running source of conflict. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said, “We will not rest until we […]