The cramped bathroom at this week’s Herzliya Conference sums up the Middle East situation quite nicely — Dire Straits. The 1980s rock band has not been a major player in peace process negotiations or efforts to thwart the Iranian nuclear program, but a Dire Straits concert montage continuously streamed into the facilities immediately outside the […]
One of the most difficult challenges facing the Indian state has been the inability to deliver resources to where needs exist. Thousands go hunger while food grains rot in storage facilities, enrolment rates are dismally low in Government schools even after education has become a fundamental right, medical facilities for rural population are lacking even […]
Last April, the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers announced that they had begun talks on resolving the 40-year dispute over the maritime border between their two countries in the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean. In October, Foreign Ministers Jonas Gahr Støre and Sergei Lavrov met again, in Murmansk, this time to sign an treaty on […]
On Friday, February 4th Kazakhstan’s president Nazarbayev announced that his country will hold presidential elections on April 3, 2011, almost two years earlier than previously scheduled for 2012. Nursultan Nazarbayev has held a grip on power in this Central Asian republic since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. At the age of […]
The Egypt story is vitally important and has deserved its place at the top of the headlines over the last couple of weeks and Africans are following the events as closely as anyone. But it also runs the risk of sucking all of the oxygen out of the room, especially when there are lots of […]
On the heels of an Afghan Islamic Press piece that 40 Taliban soldiers have defected to the Kabul government, the Associated Press reports that at least 900 Taliban footsoldiers and leaders have defected from the Taliban. Lured, by a new integration program that promises jobs and educational training, insurgents have laid down their weapons to join […]
Over the last few weeks—and surely in the weeks and months to come—speculation abounds about the effect recent events in Tunisia and Egypt will have on Morocco. After such dramatic occurrences, interregional comparisons are inevitable and this is not a bad thing if done in an informed, thoughtful way. (There’s an interesting perspective on this […]
The New York Times published an excellent expose on how the resurgent Taliban has resurfaced and consolidated power in parts of Afghanistan from which the government had turned away. In the absence of a local consensus goverment the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the proper banner name of teh Taliban has established a shadow government that […]
Now this can’t be right. While trying to downplay the day’s ongoing protests, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed the opposition BNP for the skyrocketing price of food and for the stock price scandal overwhelming the Dhaka Stock Exchange. According to a Daily Star report, she said: “The BNP has created issues for calling hartal by […]
President Obama’s comment that “India is not simply emerging but has emerged” charmed his Indian audience. Was President Obama’s assessment rhetorical or was he making a valid appraisal? India’s record on indices of democratic governance, economic growth and socio-political stability are encouraging if not exquisite. Yet power implies a relational aspect which makes India’s foreign […]
Disturbing news out of Azerbaijan today, where a prominent defense attorney has been effectively disbarred and a young political activist was arrested on drug charges. Osman Kazimov, a well-known defense lawyer who has defended, among others, Said Nuri, was reportedly kicked out of Azerbaijan’s Collegium, a body that functions like an über bar association. By that […]
The Frontier Post is reporting a bit of good news from an Afghan Islamic Press newswire piece. At least 40 Taliban insurgents have switched allegiances in favor of their local government. Here, from Herat: “As many as 40 Taliban including their three commanders joined the government in Pasaband district of Ghor province, officials said […]
Former Obama administration National Economic Council Director Larry Summers has mixed feelings about his portrayal in the blockbuster Social Network, although he is staying fairly mum on the economic situation in Israel. Summers spoke today at the Herzliya Conference outside Tel Aviv, and the FPA Israel blog caught up with him at a press gaggle […]
Apparently should have included this image in my previous post. The New York Times and LeMonde both came out yesterday with stories depicting “divisions” among European leaders on Egypt following Friday’s Brussels summit. But a close reading of the reports shows it is apparently just one leader who can’t quite fall in line and call […]
Dear readers, please know that the Bangladesh blog will soon invite a new writer who will be responsible for covering the business and finance news in Bangladesh. The new Bangladesh writer, my good friend, is immensely talented. He brings to the table a real hand feel for the business and finance communities in Bangladesh. […]