Russia is accusing the US of tying strings to its accession to the Asian Development Bank, saying that the US expects Russia to complete debt write-offs to Afghanistan and Iraq before it will sponsor its ADB membership. This new development ostensibly arrived during the ADB meeting in Kyoto earlier this month, RIA Novosti reported. Japan […]
Tensions between Australia and Zimbabwe are reaching unprecedented heights as the Aussies are unexpectedly taking global leadership in isolating Robert Mugabe's thugocracy. First Australia decided to cancel its cricket tour in Zimbabwe in September. Now the Australian government has announced that it is going to fund Mugabe's opponents to the tune of $18 million Australian, […]
Russia's Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is planning new military contingency plans in Central Asia, according to today's Ria Novosti article. The CSTO military activities include anti-terror military training exercises.
Crossposted from dcat. There is probably no better major newspaper in America when it comes to the issue of Northern Ireland than The Boston Globe. That probably should come as no surprise given Boston's affinity for and association with the Irish. The Globe's editorial this past week on the ongoing transitions in Northern Ireland, in […]
In recent weeks there have been several travel articles on South Africa. Cape Town and its environs , of course, are always popular, as recent articles in The New York Times and Washington Post reveal. But the country's hinterlands are also popular. The Eastern cape, one of my regular stomping grounds, is a wonderful and often-overlooked part […]
Just some quick updates on stories I have reported in recent days: Australian Prime Minister John Howard has heard the voices of conscience in his country and across the globe and he has announced the cancellation of the Aussie cricket team's tour of Zimbabwe that was scheduled for September. Australia's governing body for the sport, […]
In a historic first, two South African teams will face off in the finals of Super 14 rugby. Almost inarguably the best cross-national interprovincial club competition in the rugby world, the Super 14 consists of teams from South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. In today's semi-final matches the Coastal Sharks of Durban pummeled the Auckland […]
At a conference convened by the International AIDS Society and sponsored by the United Nations, 25 leaders and HIV-positive women activists from across Latin America gathered to strategize for the 17th International AIDS Conference to be held in Mexico next year. Participants emphasized the need to address the social stigma and cultural conditions affiliated with the […]
National Public Radio (NPR) reporter Lourdes Garcia-Navarro filed a report examining how Mexico City is leading the way in Latin American liberalism. Reflected by the Mexico City Assembly passing progressive measures on civil unions and abortion, local attitudes are not as they once were. With its trendy art scene, the city recently hosted controversial photographer Spencer Tunick's […]
There was a long span of time when the issue of the South African role in sport was arguably the single most contentious debate in the global sporting community and it was a discussion that came to transcend the voundaries of athletic competition to become a global concern. Sport reflected politics, sports intensified politics, sport […]
As Nathan Hamm at registan.net reminded me, today marks the second aniversary of the Andijan Massacre. Central Asia watchers know that this horrific event has intensified the conduct of internal control within Uzbekistan, and changed diplomatic discourse regarding Central Asia ever since. Andijan's heroine is Mahbuba Zokirova, the lone witness in the Andijan trials to contradict the […]
Sometimes it seems that the United Nations goes out of the way to prove its own fecklessness. The latest example? A government- (read: Robert Mugabe) chosen representative from Zimbabwe is about to be named the chair of the UN's 53-member Commission on Sustainable Development. Of course the UN is not acting alone — in the […]
Yesterday, I attended the Third Annual Sakip Sabanci lecture at The Brookings Institution, a joint presentation of Sabanci University and Brookings. The lecture series is devoted to developing scholarship concerning Turkey's relationships in the international system. The speaker was former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who has been involved in U.S. diplomatic efforts since at least the Vietnam War, through […]
US diplomacy in the developing world has often failed to capitalize on its full array of experience with national development. State and nation-building literature focuses upon the present, but the past reveals how the US accomplished its own nation-building–and how supremely difficult this 200-plus year project has been. I’m talking about the Wild West. Go ahead and laugh, because a. this will probably […]
Notes from the blogosphere: In April, I collected four posts from three blogs that take apart conventional metaphors and assumptions, either in a large way or small. These phrases have taken on the ring of tired, unhappy, and uninteresting truth–but may not be true. Their constant repetition has led to hopelessness and apathy. Yet the issues these […]