After many years and a lot of prodding from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Israelis and the Palestinians will be resuming peace talks. Both sides are moving forward reluctantly, and with little optimism toward a successful outcome. Abbas had initially demanded an official settlement freeze before coming to the table, something that Netanyahu […]
The European Coal and Steel Community, the antecedent to today’s European Union (EU), was founded in 1951 to stabilize Europe upon Germany’s resurgence. Skip forward to 2013, and the keys to the EU’s future are in German hands. Over the past 62 years, “Ever Closer Union” became the EU’s “E Pluribus Unum.” The “bicycle theory” […]
This documentary focuses on the pitfalls of groupthink in modern Russia. It shows a young woman, Masha Drokova, who skyrocketed to the top of a pro-Putin group called Nashi, a political youth organization. She was the group’s spokesperson and was a firm believer in Putin’s rule. That is, until she met some opposition journalists. What Putin’s Kiss […]
Latin America has the dubious honor of being a testing ground for many economic experiments. In the 1970s Milton Friedman convinced Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to “cut the tail of the dog” and undertake painful reforms to curb hyperinflation. In the 1980s Harvard wunderkind Jeff Sachs helped the Bolivian government introduce a variety of market […]
A third victim, 24-year-old Rolcy Ametis, the police shot in the head, neck and hip on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, while protesting the controversial death of Judge Jean Serge Joseph, succumbed to his injuries at State University Hospital late Friday July 19, confirmed officials. Among the seven victims of the forceful intervention of U.N. peacekeepers […]
A new website, Africa Check, has emerged to provide the valuable service of fact checking (and oftentimes debunking) claims from public figures and journalists. From the website: For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa […]
On Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, Russia granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden, permitting him to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport for the first time in nearly six weeks. The Obama administration immediately expressed its disappointment with the Russian decision, and some members of Congress have called for retaliatory measures against Russia. While President […]
A recent poll demonstrates that a large majority of French citizens, at 67 percent, is in favor of the creation of a European army. Such poll produced by the excellent IFOP comes as a surprise considering the long history of failed attempts to do so. Based on such result one question must be asked: why […]
Consider this striking paradox: Just as the Energy Information Administration announces that new shale discoveries are driving record increases in U.S. proved oil reserves and near-record additions in proved natural gas reserves, huge energy companies are reporting sagging production and profits. Royal Dutch Shell, for example, posted a 60 percent drop in second-quarter profits, largely because of drilling […]
By Karina Junqueira de Almeida Over the past week, several incidents have brought to light the vulnerabilities of Brazil’s security system. Pope Francis’s arrival showed the world the contrast between the heavily armed state military force that surrounded Palacio da Guanabara, the government’s administrative building where all authorities were waiting for the pope and its […]
Source: Wikimedia Commons Ever since United States Secretary of State John Kerry revealed to international media on July 19 that he had reached an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to resume direct negotiations, there has been a torrent of reactions and commentary on the issue. Some of this has focused on […]
It is typically customary for politicians who emerge victorious in elections to give victory speeches and revel in the adulation of supporters once the results of the ballot are officially called. But in the immediate aftermath of last week’s general election in Cambodia — underpinned and perhaps undermined by myriad irregularities — Prime Minister Hun […]
Some readers may be familiar with the term “expropriation,” a political risk which the Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a World Bank affiliated insurer, defines as “an action whereby a government seizes property of assets of the foreign investor without full compensation to the investor…also referred to as ‘ownership risk’ or nationalization.” More astute readers […]
The Farne Islands, England lie at 55 degrees N. Off the coast of Northumberland, they’re not too far from Newcastle, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. I took a boat trip out to the islands a few weeks ago and saw thousands of puffins. The black and white birds were diving, bobbing, and flying with fish in […]
As Edward Snowden slipped into Moscow this afternoon, asylum documents in hand, he joined another recently freed man: Alexey Navalny. Russia now has two famous cyber-whistleblowers on its hands, and hasn’t yet figured out what to do with either. One thing is for sure, Putin’s planned meeting Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit […]