Thursday will decide the future of British politics, with not only a change from a Labour Government and the final reckoning of the political career of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the aftershock of years of Tony Blair, but also the birth of a consistent three party system within the world’s oldest Parliamentary Democracy. […]
The United States has renewed sanctions against Syria after considering sending an ambassador to Damascus and taking steps to normalize relations. The reasons cited for this move is Syrian intransigence in her ties with Iran, her snub of the recent Arab summits on international security, and the sale of SCUD missiles to Hezbollah. Please read […]
Texas in Africa is spending the week addressing the difference between good advocacy and “badvocacy” when it comes to Africa. Today’s post is a keeper. The money part: Africa is not ours to save. It is the height of arrogance to assume otherwise. That said, there’s a big difference: between saving someone and empowering her. […]
The 16th Summit was Bhutan’s first opportunity to host a SAARC Summit. The Summit was attended by eight Heads of States from South Asia on April 28-29. The theme of the Summit was to promote a ‘Green and Happy South Asia’. Following are some important decisions highlighted in the Summit Declaration. The leaders sought to […]
America is not the only country in the world with a broken immigration system. As the Mrs. Gillian Duffy snafu suggests, Brits too are wrestling with immigration. In today’s New York Times there is a comparative assessment of some party’s immigration proposals. The far-right British National Party has an interesting stance: pay people from “alien […]
Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is everywhere. His plan to develop economic, political, social, and security institutions has rapidly caught the world’s attention over the last year and Fayyad is slowly gaining ground among the Palestinian population — all this from a man who was appointed to his position because of the dismal popularity he […]
On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke to a group of retired U.S. navy members. He noted, “I think the concerns about the Arctic are real.” A member of the audience asked him about his concerns regarding Russia’s sizeable ice breaker fleet. The country has 18 icebreakers, compared to the U.S.’ 2-4 icebreakers, depending […]
While the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off of the coast of Louisiana may be thousands of miles from the Arctic, the consequences will be felt in the frigid waters of the north. In Canada, industry observers have asked the National Energy Board to delay a hearing on […]
Another lunatic tried unsuccessfully to explode a bomb in New York. Thank God he failed, but his failure has left all of us thinking, once again, what the heck is going on? As for as we know, the alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad had no reason to kill innocent civilians, but after his arrest, we now […]
Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the leader of the Awami League has been pushing what can fairly be called an aggressive, assertive and inviting foreign policy with the aim of attracting foreign investment in infrastructure and utilities. First there was India, then China, now the P.M. is scheduled to pay a visit […]
Working abroad has been a clear path to comfort and riches for Bangladeshi men for over twenty or more years. Mass migrations of a generation of young men to the Middle East and South East Asia have propped up Bangladesh’s economy through long spells of dictatorship and democracy. Throughout that time, remittance payments have been […]
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a regional grouping comprising of eight states- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Nine Countries – Australia, China, European Union, Iran, Japan, Myanmar, Mauritius, South Korea and U.S. – hold Observer status. 25 years ago in 1985, SAARC was initiated with the dream […]
Book Review: How Did the Persian Empire Collapse? This book review was originally published in Iran Times International in Washington D.C. Decline and fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran, Parvaneh Pourshariati (International Library of Iranian Studies), 510 pp. This is a landmark work of original scholarship that gathers […]
I received a mysterious mailing from Europe today. I assumed it was some sort of junk mail — a catalog for books or a flier for some new publication, or a new scholarly organization to join. Instead it was my World Cup Welcome Pack. I’m beginning my serious planning for my trip to South Africa […]
One of the more shocking stories regarding Iranian nuclear program I read this weekend was The New York Times’ article “U.S. Subpoenas Times Reporter Over Book on C.I.A.” The author, James Risen, who is a reporter for The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner, received a subpoena requiring him to provide documents and […]