Earlier this week Stephen Walt drew the wrong lesson from the Arab uprisings: So let me get this straight: one former dictator ultimately decides not to unleash massive force against anti-government demonstrators, and eventually leaves power more-or-less peacefully, if not exactly voluntarily. His reward? He winds up in jail (maybe deservedly). Another dictator responds by […]
The situation in Lybia appears to be slowly shifting for some as it seems Gaddafi’s grip on the contry and it’s people may be loosing strength following weeks of internal conflict and air strikes by Western forces. However lost in the shaddows chaios of conflict and the media blitz that often follows is the plight of the […]
By Christina Lamb AMONG the many dictators who must be watching the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa with dismay is Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwean President has been in power 31 years and despite recently turning 87 is pushing for another five year term. While other despots have responded to the revolutionary mood […]
Hearts and minds. That’s what narrator Peter Coyote says coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan need to win over in this National Geographic offering. Talibanistan is the nickname given to the treacherous mountainous area straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is called that because of the Taliban forces entrenched there. This hour long documentary shows firsthand […]
Governments have attacked and killed civilian protesters across the Middle East. These attacks have resulted in action by the International Criminal Court and international military forces against Libya but inaction against similar atrocities in other Middle Eastern states. This discrepancy in response by the I.C.C., international community, and the U.S., have drawn cries of hypocrisy. […]
“The radicals are the people who are fundamentally altering the composition of the atmosphere.” That’s the voice of Bill McKibben at this year’s annual Power Shift conference in Washington. Power Shift brought ten thousand young leaders to hear about how to transition from the fuel-based energy economy – and the money-driven politics of the special […]
The American University in Cairo’s School of Global Affairs and Public policy is coming out with an impressive – and timely – new journal, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. Here is what they say about the journal’s mission and focus: Its primary aim is to be a focal point for policymakers, officials, academics, experts, […]
The UN Security Council should not have referred the Libya situation to the ICC, claim many on the Right, because now Qaddafi has no incentive to step down. If potential prosecution awaits after his ouster, they say, he has every incentive to hold his ground. The ICC referral, the argument goes, is a barrier to […]
“At the State Department, we recognize that stand-alone government-to-government diplomacy is no longer enough. From Secretary Clinton down, we are embracing new media and new technologies as vital tools for what we call 21st Century Statecraft.” Judith A. McHale, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Throughout the Middle East, and around the world, […]
10-year-old nets $180K for anti-malaria effort The United Nation Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign to provide mosquito netting in developing areas to prevent the deadly spread of malaria is inspiring donors and efforts at all levels, including among the young. Volunteer Katherine Commale, a Pennsylvania fourth-grader, has been raising funds for nets since she was […]
Amman is a vast, sprawling metropolis, but not very exciting. A map of the city looks like the cross section of an enormous anthill, with curving roads criss-crossing each other and leading nowhere in particular. It was an epic hassle to get to our hotel – do no Jordanian taxi drivers know how to read […]
In the post below, I wrote about the recent and instantly controversial study from Cornell that calls into question the greenhouse gas advantage that natural gas was assumed to have over coal and oil. This BBC article, for instance, points out what may seem like the obvious: As one very involved British geologist says “By […]
Tokyo Electric Power [TEPCO], the company that operates the nuclear reactors that have partially melted down at Fukushima, has announced a plan to get the reactors to cold shutdown within 9 months. Cold shutdown is defined by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as “The term used to define a reactor coolant system at atmospheric pressure and at […]
Once again I respond to a post by FPA Israel blogger Ben Moscovitch. Not to pick on him. But because we disagree on many things and it seems worthwhile to me to discuss them. Hopefully he agrees. Ben’s most recent post criticizes Obama for drawing a parallel between the Passover story and the protest movements […]
A report from the World Health Organization indicates that some 2.6 million stillbirths occur every year globally, with more than 90% of them in low or middle income countries. With an estimated 7,000 stillbirth every day, with majority of such cases happening in Sub- Saharan African countries including Uganda. The report estimated that almost half […]