In an exclusive interview with the FPA Israel Blog last week, Colonel (Ret.) David Hacham – a top adviser on Palestinian and Arab affairs to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak – unequivocally stated that Israel’s next major military campaign in the Gaza Strip will result in a complete destruction of Hamas’ terror infrastructure and outlined […]
All of us Skype-addicts can breathe a sigh of relief: No, the FSB will no longer ban the free online phone service in Russia. But the (justified) outrage over the government’s bungled plan to outlaw Skype and GMAIL overlooks some important context: Electronic communications are already rountinely compromised by most of Russia’s neighbours and democratic counterparts. […]
As Portugal taps into the bailout fund it is time to take stock of the EU’s Euro Summit of March 11, and the March 24-25 summit, which finalized the EU’s attempts to halt the euro crisis and harmonize member state economies. The results of these summits have been hailed as a “turning point” by European […]
Something I ran across on the ‘net that I wanted to share with readers. The video below was originally posted by Aljazeera in September of 2010: The past decade has seen Chinese economic growth explode across the world and the Chinese economic miracle seems to reach into every imaginable area of manufacturing and natural resources. […]
The brokerage arm of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, says an employee at a Tokyo branch swindled 16 individual investors out of a total of about 880 million yen (more than $10 million) over an 11-year period to earlier this year. The employee, who was in charge of sales for individual investors, […]
I’m not usually the biggest fan of NY Times Roger Cohen’s articles. It’s not that I question his intelligence or thoughtfulness. I just think that he rides his “hobby horse” of Israel’s intransigence a little too hard in light of its legitimate security challenges, and doesn’t seem to expend nearly the same energy taking the […]
Many foreign nationals fleeing Japan are basing their decisions on pressure from family back home and the overly bleak scenarios projected by foreign media. State Foreign Secretary Chiaki Takahashi told a press conference Thursday that foreign coverage of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima has been sensationalist and in some cases incorrect. Takahashi asked foreign media […]
In his farewell tour of greater Mesopotamia, the Defense Secretary remarked that the US and Iraq would have to negotiate the terms of any American presence, while admitting that he had dreamed up at least a couple scenarios that might keep American forces in Iraq, perhaps indefinitely.
The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and, due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous. Ahmed Mansoor is one amongst the thousands of young men to have been injured while protesting against the abhorred regime. However, if his tale is sadly similar to that of many, […]
The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and, due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous. As violence continues to escalate in Yemen, the poorest country of the Arabic peninsula, the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are losing patience. If Ali Abdullah Saleh was viewed as […]
As pointed out by an article in World Politics Review, Mexico’s major drug gangs are being squeezed between the “war on drugs” and the global economy, forcing them to turn over a new leaf. So it seems they are looking to generate revenue by stealing legal commodities. Oil tapping is perhaps the most prominent tactic […]
On Wednesday evening, NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and the Quebec Government Office in New York City cohosted a panel on economic development and sustainable livelihoods in the Arctic. The three panelists brought perspectives from the hard sciences, political science, and the Inuit to the discussion. Dr. Louis Fortier, Erica Dingman, and Udloriak Hanson each […]
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Miyagi at 11:32 p.m. Thursday. The quake was the strongest aftershock of the 9.0-magnitude quake that hit the same region Mar. 11. Two people have died and 132 were injured as a result of the quake. One 79-year-old man died of shock and a woman in her 60s died when […]
Russia’s Most Wanted (and Indecisive!) man just keeps coming back! Last year, the Chechen rebel and self-proclaimed Emir of the Caucasus resigned on youtube before changing his mind and retaking control two days later. This time, the man behind Moscow’s airport bombing was reportedly killed in a March air raid before popping up on Radio […]
It is important to keep Gandhi untarnished. The Gandhian can be negotiated with. Two developments in India during the past week convinced me of the above approach in Indian politics. American journalist Joseph Lelyveld’s book The Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India created furore in the country. The book has been banned […]