Hillary Clinton’s Africa trip continues. She spent Sunday in Angola where she continued her ongoing carrots and sticks message, the gist of which is: You are doing ok; do better; we’ll try to help; no time to explain how now, I’m off to the DRC.If this current trip is simply part of laying a foundation, […]
Africa observers oftentimes weigh in on a fruitless argument that tends to break down along rudimentary, and thus almost always wrong, lines that go something oike this: “Africa is in the midst of a catastrophe, and it’s only getting worse!” “No, Africa is doing better than you think!” The discussion is fruitless in part because […]
In starting a new blog on Venezuela perhaps the first question that comes to mind is: why should those of us drawn to international relations dedicate attention to this country? Perhaps known immediately for an often boisterous president, importance in global oil production, and its array of international beauty queens, Venezuela also holds much more […]
I was really glad to read this Opinion piece by Andrew Moravcsik, Director of the European Union Program at Princeton in this week’s Newsweek, as it draws a neat conclusion on some of the stories I’ve brought up in this Blog over the last number of months. My very first blog for the FPA was […]
Officials from Hizballah and Israel have been exchanging hostile words recently. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak indicated that all of Lebanon would pay the price for any Hizballah transgressions against Israel. Hizballah representatives indicated that the guerrilla group is more than prepared for another confrontation with Israel, and is suspected of possessing over 40,000 rockets. […]
As of tomorrow, the Israeli government will cease its policy of purchasing $100 million per day. The program, started in July 2008, was meant to ensure that the worth of the shekel would not drop significantly by backing-up the currency. Due to stabilization in the economy, the Bank of Israel decided to end the program, […]
In any other news week, the title of most amusing story would certainly have gone to the BBC for comparing Putin to a character out of Brokeback Mountain: “Photographs of a bare-chested Mr Putin riding a horse through mountain scenery may of course put some people…in mind of a recent Hollywood film about gay cowboys”. […]
Three important issues to cover, let’s go! Ghani Gets a US Soapbox – Presidential hopeful Ashraf Ghani wrote a ‘why I should be President of Afghanistan and not Karzai’ piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend and he comes out swinging. Ghani argues that Karzai ‘turned’, not ‘helped’ or ‘let’, but ‘turned’ Afghanistan into […]
A senior Israeli diplomatic official in Boston authored a memo that struck an unfortunate chord with his superiors back home. Nadav Tamir, the consul general in Boston, wrote in a memo that Israel is harming its strategic alliance with the United States over the settlement dispute with the United States. In response, senior foreign ministry […]
A new INSS report describes the unique situation of a town on the Israel-Lebanon border that rests within both countries. The residents of Ghajar hold Israeli citizenship but predominantly maintain their identities as Syrian. Israel claimed the town following the 1973 war that led to the capture of the Golan Heights from Syria. Due to […]
While the second day of the trial of protesters arrested in post-election turmoil in Iran might not have provided the same shock level as the day one of the trial, it still had its share of extremely interesting confessions. Though in today’s hearing no one accused high-level reformist leaders of conspiring against the Islamic Republic, […]
Most wanted Malaysian Islamic terrorist, Noordin Mohammad Top, 40, member of the Jemaah Islaymiyah splinter group Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad, is being reported dead, although it has not yet been confirmed by the Indonesian government. He was reportedly killed in a duel raid, one on a house in Beji village, Temanggung, Central Java and another in […]
The Springboks defeated Australia’s Wallabies 29-17 today to take an all-but-insurmountable lead in this year’s Tri-Nations tournament. Peter de Villiers has had his share of missteps, but it is hard not to give him credit for what is turning out to be an outstanding Soringbok squad.
A newly disclosed document- answers to questions for the record submitted by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to the Senate Intelligence Committee in April 2009 – has revealed that Iran is at least four years away from producing nuclear weapon and Iran has been secretly helping the Afghan insurgents including the Taliban. The Washington […]
Five years after ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) and Bodo/NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) militants were flushed out from Bhutanese territory, India expressed concern that 30 cadres of these militants might have reentered Bhutan. Though Bhutan denied the evidence of any permanent camps it recognized the possibility of the militants regrouping in the […]