Even as the world is waking up to new images of more atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, even as Afghans are taking to the streets, outside their villages to protest what they perceive to be American aggression against Afghan soil, two more deaths of innocent civilians have been reported, this time in the […]
An ad-hoc panel of leaders from African Union countries is set to meet with European Union and Arab League officials tomorrow to discuss the way forward in Libya. The panel, which includes heads of state from South Africa, Uganda, Mali, Mauritania and Congo, along with AU Commission President Jean Ping and current AU Chairman Teodore […]
So posits Teresa de Sousa, a columnist in the Portugese daily Público, anticipating yesterday’s announcement that Prime Minister José Sócrates is resigning after parliament rejected his austerity plan. De Sousa points out that the country was poised to receive favorable terms on accessing the Eurozone’s provisional rescue fund if it adopted the EU’s so-called competitiveness […]
The economic cost of the March 11 earthquake is estimated to be between 16 trillion yen ($198 billion) and 25 trillion yen ($309 billion)–7 percent of Japan’s GDP by purchasing power parity. This estimate comes from a government report released Wednesday. According to the Cabinet Office, this could slow Japan’s growth rate to 0.5 percent. […]
The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for Foreign Policy Association, and due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous. Hit by another wave of resignations and defections, the embattled Yemeni President offered to step down by January next year. He said that he was willing to leave the presidential chair at […]
My latest piece, “Zimbabwe: New Verse, Same as the First,” has been posted for ISN Insights. Here is the abstract: The renewed crackdown against the political opposition in Zimbabwe sparked by fears of an Arab-style uprising illustrates how the illusion of a power-sharing government has merely served as plaster over a gushing wound. I hope […]
Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for political reform once again, while at the same time he rejected (again) any comparisons between his country and the autocracies now collapsing in North Africa and the Middle East. Premier Wen is right when he says that the current socio-economic conditions in China are nothing like the […]
Long op-ed in La Repubblica yesterday about the failure of Europe to resolve its Mediterranean question, defined as a lack of economic integration, the ongoing immigration crisis, corruption and environmental concerns. The piece recounts the litany of declarations, conferences and organizations over the past few decades that grapple with these issues, culminating most recently with […]
Today’s editorial in the Moscow Times accuses Putin of hypocrisy for opposing the UN mandated operations in Libya. Putin, who rightly criticised Bush unilateralism on Iraq, should have applauded Obama’s multilateral, UN-centric approach. Instead, the paper proclaims, All of Obama’s multilateralism seems to have been lost on Putin, who has proved over the past decade […]
It is a testament to the broken, intractably conflict-ridden politics in Bangladesh, that respected jurists can claim that a dictatorial move remain in place in order to allow democracy to breathe and to burn bright. Jurist Dr. Kamal Hossain argued that the the institution of caretaker governments should remain in place while parties revolve in […]
Yesterday for World Water Day PBS Newshour, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, ran an excellent piece on new approaches to get clean water to Dhaka’s explosively numerous, and growing, slum dwelling population. Here’s the video that aired, with special correspondent Steve Sapienza: Please visit the PBS Newshour webpage dedicated to this rather excellent […]
Taylor Anderson from Richmond, Va., is the first known American victim of the March 11 tsunami. The tsunami hit the Tohoku region of Japan after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast. (See timeline.) Anderson, 24, taught English as an Assistant Language Teacher in Ishinomaki, Miyagi. She had moved to Japan in 2008 as a […]
Turkey as the ‘protecting power of the United States’ in Libya ‘Turkey has agreed to be our protecting power in Libya,’ Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters today, referring to the new role Ankara will play serving US interests in Tripoli. There were signs Turkey was effectively playing such a role when Turkish […]
Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence has tabled an interim report (PDF) entitled, “Sovereignty and Security in Canada’s Arctic.” The 75-page paper discusses various aspects of Canadian Arctic policy, including domestic and international issues and multilateral regimes in the region. There are also several useful maps in the appendices, including one showing […]
Tel Aviv University, one of the strongest academic institutions in Israel, surpasses the top U.S. institutions in a key metric for universities — citations by other researchers. TAU Prof. Carlo Strenger writes in Haaretz: Tel Aviv University has been ranked number 11 worldwide in citations per faculty in 2010 – a truly staggering result. TAU […]