The U.S. Congress is not waiting for the UN Security Council to act on calls to sanction Syria for 1) attempting to build a covert nuclear facility with North Korean support, 2) brutally cracking down on protesters calling for reform and 3) assisting Hezbollah by providing it with ballistic missiles. On August 5, House Foreign […]
I’ve written about White Roofs, Green Roofs, Solar Roofs and even Green Curtains. They’re all good. But Gary Trudeau, in his unbeatable way, brings it all back home.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, 2 August 2011, United Nations Special Representative for the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, stated that she welcomed the decision by the UN Security Council made earlier that week, which allowed for sanctions against Somalia earlier that week. “Starting today, in Somalia, if you kill, […]
As if we needed more proof that the world is now a single market, 800 British workers will lose their jobs at the nuclear fuel processing plant in Sellafield, Cumbria, UK, because of the uncertain future of nuclear power in Japan. The plant takes used plutonium and mixes it with uranium to create what is […]
As the U.S. debt crisis moves from the summer to the fall with the convening of the Congressional “super-committee,” it’s clear that everything will be on the chopping block, including one of the most important expressions of the U.S. role in the world: foreign aid. U.S. foreign aid is an interesting topic due to common […]
For those interested in conducting research about topics in food security, the New America Foundation is now taking applications for its Schmidt Family Foundation Fellowship. “The ideal candidate is a policy-minded writer with an interest in exploring how agroecology informs, or should influence, policy debates on the right to food, resilience/adaptation to climate change, agricultural […]
Amidst the protests, loss of life, and apparent lack of progress in the uncoordinated Arab Spring, a glaring issue has arisen in each state affected by the wave of tumult: there is an absence of charismatic leadership in support of the revolution. Use of violence to consolidate the revolution and move beyond the narrative of […]
I don’t generally write on chemical or biological weapons here, but I thought I would do so today to remember a friend, colleague and world-class expert on such topics. Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker, until his very untimely passing at the end of July, was the Biosecurity Education Manager at the Federation of Scientists. Jonathan passed […]
Across the globe more than 60 million girls find themselves innocent victims as child brides, despite the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulation that 18 is the minimum age for marriage. While many countries have set 18 as the minimum age, others have placed 16 as the age. Other countries have yet to […]
The Whistleblower opens this Friday in selected cities and then to a broader audience on August 12. Here’s my review of the movie, which is worth watching: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephenie-foster/whistleblower-film_b_914881.html
After several weeks of wrangling, the Kenyan government has finally allowed the opening of a new refugee camp near the Somali border on July 25th. Called Ifo II or the Ifo Extension, the camp has a designed capacity of 40,000 people, has brick houses, clean running water and even school buildings. Just up the road […]
The U.S. Senate passed the debt deal compromise today, ending this period of uncertainty about the fiscal future of America. If you are wondering what the rest of the world is making of this spectacle, this report in The New York Times offers some perspective from Europe and Asia: Political brinkmanship in Washington, pushing the […]
The high price of food has been attributed as one of the underlying causes of unrest that launched the reform movements of the Arab Spring. As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins and unrest continues in much of the Middle East and North Africa, the price of food may figure into the campaigns for […]
The folks at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) continue their quest to educate with a primer on the global nonproliferation landscape. In a two-part video, Leonard “Sandy” Spector, deputy director of Center, and director of the DC office does a great job of reviewing not only the formal, enduring nonproliferation instruments but […]
They may no longer be on the opposites side of the Cold War, but Russians and Americans still see the world in opposite ways. While even most blue collar Americans believe they are middle class, 45% of Russians consider themselves to be poor, according to Svetlana Kononova’s piece in Russia Profile, which relies on new […]