Continuing their tradition of nuclear cooperation, Russia and India signed a civilian nuclear cooperation deal on Monday. The ‘Intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy’ signed during their annual bilateral summit, will set up five new nuclear reactors in the states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Speaking at a press […]
Forgive the self-indulgence, but on Friday, April 23, 2010 I’ll be giving a talk at the Newberry Library’s Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture as part of the 2009-2010 Chicago Seminar on Sport and Culture. The title of my talk, part of a larger project on sports, race, and politics in […]
Pervez Musharraf weighs in on the Af-Pak war & President Obama’s troop surge. Zainab Jeewanjee reports Musharrf’s recommendation for a “political surge” at the Foreign Policy association.
It is my sadistic joy to follow political pundits on a regular basis. Sometimes I have I have to step back from laptop as the hot air can get unbearable. Their reactions to President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, and the speech which announced it to the nation, have been something to see, I mean, read. Pundits […]
Bangladeshi media, represented by The Daily Star, has gotten ahead of the curve on the consequences of climate and is really fighting for the claim of social justice in the Copenhagen Conference, now well on its way. This morning, December 7th, 2009 the Daily Star published an op-ed piece that is being published in over […]
Living in Washington D.C., New York, or Tel Aviv might lead you to sometimes forget that misconceptions about Jews and anti-Semitism still run rampant in the U.S., Europe, and -shockingly- in the Arab world. A new You Tube video is going viral that depicts a clearly anti-Semitic man questioning the loyalty of British Jews. His […]
*Attention: Readers, I will be taking a two week break from posting. Posting will restart December 20th* Cambodia: More on the battle between soft authoritarian leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen and Cambodian opposition leader, Sam Rainsy. Rainsy’s theatrics concerning a territorial dispute between Vietnam and Cambodia resulted in Hun Sen stripping Rainsy of his parliamentary […]
This week, Lebanon’s new cabinet issued its policy statement regarding Hizballah. With some strong reservations from a handful of Christian leaders, the cabinet came out in support of Hizballah’s continued military presence in Lebanon as a resistance to Israel. There are at least two reasons for this. First, Hizballah is the force most capable of […]
Next Tuesday, Dec. 8th, EU foreign ministers are slated to discuss the draft of a new paper criticizing Israeli policies toward the occupied Palestinian territories. The document, which suggests that East Jerusalem should be the future designated capitol of a new Palestinian state has engendered a sharp rebuke from Israel and its supporters. Although some […]
On December 1st, the treaty of Lisbon entered into force, effectively changing the leadership dynamic of the European Union’s 27 member states. “It would be impossible to have a better choice of personalities for European Union leadership,” said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in an EU briefing. Under the treaty, Herman Van Rompuy, the […]
Because the U.S. post war reconstruction plan in Iraq has been grossly mishandled and has proven to be largely ineffectual, Iraqi artists and filmmakers have decided to take cultural reconstruction efforts into their own hands. Recently in Baghdad, Iraqi filmmakers unveiled the city’s first traveling film festival, showcased at sites where explosions have ruined cultural […]
In a symbolic move towards securing Arctic sovereignty, the Canadian House of Commons today passed an amendment renaming the Northwest Passage the “Canadian Northwest Passage.” The move was nearly unanimous. Some Inuit leaders initially expressed reservations with the renaming until House members agreed to allow for a provision that would permit an official Inuktikut name […]
This year, newspapers all around the world have been dominated by one topic: Iranian post-election turmoil. Therefore, it is not surprising that an Iranian reformist leader is on the Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers. Though it is a pleasant surprise that the person is Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi. Here is what […]
The political leader of the militant Islamist group, Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) confessed to being directly responsible for the attempted assassination on the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh in August 21, 2004, when she was the opposition leader to the BNP led alliance. That attack killed 20 and injured at least 300 individuals. After being detained […]
If you thought Hamas and the Israelis couldn’t be any more divergent in their views, guess again. The way each society deals with one particular issue is relatively indicative of the mentality of both. That issue is mind altering substances, and yes, the results of the disagreement could be deadly. As the prevalence of alcohol in Israel continues to […]