… in the wake of the Gaza crisis in an op-ed in the Financial Times. His comment – simply, support Arab peace initiatives, or be prepared for continued regional chaos, echoes Marina Ottaway's advice in this policy brief, “Sharing the Burden“. Her framing is slightly more diplomatic, but the message is the same: the US […]
… including “In Gaza, it is possible to work with the PA and avoid Hamas” and “The ‘West Bank first’ strategy of building up the PA is working”.
There is much happening in US-Afghanistan relations and policy in the last week. Former Clinton super diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, was chosen by the Obama administration to be a special envoy for Afghanistan-Pakistan, a region Obama called the ‘Central Front’ in war on terror. Just as I write, Obama's Afghan policy is literally hitting the ground […]
I interviewed former Lebanese President last year. You have few excerpts here: Manuela Paraipan: What are the few crucial moments that you can recall during your time as President of Lebanon and are willing to speak of? Emile Lahoud: There were more than a few such moments, during 18 years, because I was Commander in […]
ACT! 6.0 + Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 + Adobe Fireworks CS3 Samantha M. Shapiro has a wonderful piece in today's New York Times Magazine titled "Revolution, Facebook-Style," asking the question "Can Social Networking Turn Disaffected Young Egyptians into a Force for Democratic Change?" I think it's a great read for anyone wanting a brief over-view of […]
The African National Congress (ANC) and the Congress of the People (COPE) have been girding themselves specifically for the coming election for weeks now. And while the divisions, political and otherwise, in the ANC created factions at least as far back as the run-up to Polokwane in December 2007, the parties are gearing themselves up in earnest for the […]
It is nearly impossible to trace causality to a global recession or depression. But we do know that a gaping chasm between the haves and have nots always exacerbates difficult economic times. Those gaps have long existed in South Africa and appear to be getting worse as the rich continue to flourish but the poor […]
Perhaps I was wrong a few days ago in expressing pessimism, indeed, cynicism, about both the prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo and what Rwanda's incursion into the troubled eastern part of that country meant. Late Thursday a joint Congolese-Rwandan force captured Congolese Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, one of the main […]
Just in case you were wondering: The chances of a breakthrough deal in Zimbabwe are still highly unlikely. The only hope, it would seem, would be for enough SADC leaders to have come to the conclusion that enough is enough and thus to shift that body's stance toward one of applying real pressure on Robert […]
Specifically focused on Egypt. Facebook and its potential to electrify the Arab world are very much on the minds of people looking at the Middle East of late – I attended a conference on Friday on Obama and the Global Media where the keynote speaker focused almost entirely on Facebook and how students of Middle […]
… due, not to politicized censorship, but outstanding unpaid debts. Hopefully it will soon be revived. I would be on the lookout for a facebook group soliciting donations.
… and that's just one part of the Carnegie Endowment's mini-anthology of commentary from its scholars and affiliates on the election. An excerpt from al-Ghitany's piece: It took me many years to realize that human civilization from all corners of the world is essential for mankind and its existence. It also took me time to […]
I have to admit, at first I assumed that this IRIN report was simply quoting someone making up an absurd sounding number to make a point about inflation in Zimbabwe. But it turns out that while the last official figure was 231-million percent, the real figures are much higher: In the absence of credible official […]
Obama appoints George Mitchell to be the United States’ envoy to Israel and Palestine. Time magazine has a wonderful profile of him, including quotes; this one is especially good: “Please remember that it is possible for an American to disagree with you on aid to the Contras and still love God, and still love this […]