The Bangladesh Rifles, the unit of the military that revolted against its own military officers will be changing its name to the Border Guards Bangladesh. As the BBC reports: “It is not clear how much the changes will cost. Several trials are under way of thousands of border guards accused of taking part in the […]
Ariel Sharon, George W. Bush, and Yasser Arafat were stubborn leaders vis-à-vis matters of extreme importance to their nations. Their stance on crucial issues was as clear as the sun in a cloudless day. Weary and suspicious of each other, they insisted on changes in the attitude of their counterpart before Middle East talks could […]
The virtually nonexistent peace process has been stalled and opposed by domestic factions in both Israel and Palestinian society, creating a cycle of apathy that has not been broken for a long time. Both Israeli and Palestinians have blamed each other for the delay in resuming talks, both citing the other sides intransigence in rejecting […]
How did Commodore Matthew Perry convince the Tokugawa bakufu to accept his terms and conditions, and open up Japan? A persuasive Power Point presentation, according to Hayashi Yuuji. This is just too good to keep to myself – apologies to non-Japanese readers.
Just as quickly as Japan watchers fell silent on Futenma, they’ve picked it back up. This is nothing if not expected: it wasn’t until PM Yukio Hatoyama and his party offered up a policy proposal for the protracted re-negotiations that much else could be said on the topic. They promised an answer by May, and […]
President Jacob Zuma hopes South Africa will build on the momentum gained from South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup. This might all come across as empty political rhetoric, the kind of thing we expect a politician and booster to say. But his assertion gains credence with the revelation that the country has “put aside […]
In a post on the sloppiness of America’s dealings with Somalia, Matthew Yglesias makes a salient point: One of the most pernicious aspects of the “war on terror” theoretical construct is that it’s created strong institutional and financial incentives for elements of the bureaucracy to characterize whatever it is they do as somehow really part […]
I have realized that whenever I need ironic humor, I look up Pakistani papers and almost always, there is something that puts a smile on my face. For example, I was looking at Dawn today and read this mind boggling headline: ‘Demand for Pakistani weapons increasing rapidly.’ Imagine, a country like Pakistan that is entirely dependent […]
One of the big stories in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti was the inability for supplies to reach patients and field hospitals. However, while international forces experienced efficiency challenges, Israeli medical workers used the most up-to-date technologies and exhibited unmatched success in treating the injured. The head of Israeli response teams authored an […]
United States immigration policy may not be very keen on welcoming Mexico’s huddled masses, but it has few qualms with Mexican entrepreneurs. E- and L-series visas offer a relatively quick path to legal immigration for Mexicans—provided they are willing to front the cash to open their own businesses. Capital investments of several hundred thousand dollars, […]
It seems that though I rail about the dearth of international media coverage on Bangladesh, nevertheless, I often miss important pieces that speak to Bangladesh’s opportunities–missed opportunities, perhaps–to make of itself a model, inclusive Muslim democracy. (For all my equivocations, I cannot reject the reality that both leading parties in Bangladeshi politics have long ceded […]
King Mohamed VI of Morocco through his Ministry of Interior has appointed 30 more governors for newly established provinces in the country. The king declared his move a strategic adjustment in the government on the road towards decentralization. The decree added that the new administrations will be better fitted to serve their constituencies politically, socially, […]
The Christmas terror attack in the United States raised questions on aviation security whether security programs in other countries, including Israel, could serve as a template for revamping anti-terror procedures. The Israeli government and the Department of Homeland Security are taking coordination to the next level, signing a memorandum of understanding to share information on […]
The latest IMF report on the health and stability of the Bangladeshi economy is, on the whole, quite positive. The IMF analysts claim that with respect to Bangladesh’s economy “financial contagion was contained by low levels of financial integration. Growth, estimated at 5.9 percent for FY09, decelerated only modestly from the pace recorded in recent years and […]
The International Crisis Group (ICG) recently published a report on Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). I’ve been writing about the group and their wider ties to Harkatul Jihad al Islam, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the rightist Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh. The connections, ferreted out and mapped already, span the Indian Subcontinent and have now begun to spread, taken […]