A gloriously nostalgic little photo collection in today's Guardian looks back on David Bowie's 1973 visit to the USSR. “We drank cheap riesling wine and beer (peeva) with a bunch of soldiers we met the night before. They were friendly and inquisitive as to what life was like in the west, when we asked them […]
Two events, one just passed, one pending, reveals the depths of schisms in Somalia. The first of these is the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somali territory. Normally outside troops only exacerbate conflicts in Africa, and Ethiopia's presence has been a mixed blessing to say the least. Nonetheless, the departure of the Ethiopian military has […]
Inspired by the moral profligacy of Dilbert, I’d like to shamelessly plug my recently published article in the New York Moon, the journal of ideas and flaneurism, about the history of a Russian reservoir. It is surely set to become the Doctor Zhivago of hallucinatory post-communist Russian reservoir narratives.
All things Afghanistan today: US Assistant Secretary Boucher went into the ‘Kleig Lights’ early this year in front to the press in Kabul to discuss, you guessed it, all things Afghanistan. He went over US-Pakistan relations, Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, troop deployment strategy, Obama and the US's committment to the nation, the Taliban's resurgence and governance in […]
WASHINGTON / ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: Hillary Clinton, on her first day as the secretary of state, telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari and told him that the Obama administration was appointing a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. "It was a touch-base meeting," said a senior diplomat aware of the conversation. "She felt it's necessary to […]
South Africa will host the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) members next week to discuss the Zimbabwe crisis in hopes of finding a way to get talks started again. As a result Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has announced that it will not meet with Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF before […]
At The Atlantic online Jennie Rothenberg Griz has an interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu largely about Barack Obama, the United States, and the world that is well worth reading.
I want to take just a minute to promote my friend Mark Nyandoro's new book on Zimbabwe. Mark is a Zimbabwean currently living in South Africa where he is an academic on a fellowship at the University of the North West. Development and Differentiation: The Case of TILDOR/ARDA Irrigation Activities in Sanyata (Zimbabwe), 1939-2000 is […]
Last week I highlighted (and blogrolled) Global Post, a new website devoted to foreign affairs. Mark Glaser of PBS's MediaShift has an interview with Phil Balboni, the founder of Global Post who also founded the New England Cable News channel.
Bob Herbert's recent column on Zimbabwe in The New York Times brings little new to the table in terms of either evidence or argument but it is always good to have Zimbabwe's troubles given such high-profile attention in the United States. Whether such advocacy will translate to action is another question, but there is merit […]
Another member of the younger generation has generated more heat than light through controversial comments. Young Communist League secretary Buti Manamela published an article last week in the South African Communist Party’'s online journal Umsebenzi in which he teed off on Thabo Mbeki. The YCL, the SACP's functional equivalent of the ANC Youth League, effectively […]
The corruption charges hanging over his head complicate Jacob Zuma's quest for the presidency of South Africa. But assuming he does take what he sees as his rightful place in that office, his legal fight might, according to two observers, be the least of his problems. Their argument is hyperbolic, naturally, but South Africa faces […]
Nearly a decade ago, the cover of the Atlantic Monthly featured a close-up of a gaunt Russian policeman, or was it a soldier, his eyes obscured by his cap, the words “Russia is finished” emblazoned around his waist. Reading Jeffrey Tayler's unreflective, misguided, naive and offensive tirade at my home country, I felt angry […]
… according to a recent interview with economist Edward Sayre by Brookings scholar Navtej Dhillon. His overview of the Palestinian economy, with a focus on Gaza and its future, sheds some light on just how intractable a problem the “peace process” has become. Really fascinating reading.
The original promoter of soft power, Joseph Nye, comments on the term “smart power” in the Los Angeles Times today. Foreign Affairs hosted two important “soft power” and “smart power” articles; the first,”What New World Order”, was written by Nye in 1992 and the second, “Smart Power“, was written by Suzanne Nossel in 2004. The […]