UK based risk advisory company; Maplecroft has released its annual Terrorism Risk Index (TRI) for the year 2010-11. The report released recently shows some important variations in the patterns of terrorist activities on the global scale. A summary of the report released to this blog, indicates a notable increase of terrorism risk status of Greece and […]
Europe and Africa: a partnership of equals? The UN launches a $678 million appeal for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan What the average American thinks we spend on foreign aid And, since everyone seems be talking about it, the SNL (read: Andy Samberg) take on world history Enjoy! As soon as finals give me some time […]
It’s a great little world we live in …. Well, for Ella Fitzgerald and the Gershwins love was the key. Can’t argue with that. Second best? Clean tech. Here are a smattering of recent articles that show that things are indeed looking up: Special Report: Turning Over New Leaf: Get Ready For EV Era – […]
With the arrest of three terror suspects on Friday, police in the Pakistani city of Dera Ismail Khan claimed to have foiled a major attack. Dera Ismail Khan is a city situated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. According to media reports the terrorists were attempting to carry out an attack ahead of the Muharram which […]
An open letter, sponsored by forty-six of America’s leading foreign policy academics, was recently posted to the bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (previously mentioned here: http://powerpolitics.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/11/17/slashing-the-us-defense-budget-not-so-fast/ ) criticizing the Obama Administration’s exemption of defense spending from the bulk of austerity measures aimed at restoring “fiscal responsibility”. As a service to my readers, […]
Jafar Panahi, a celebrated Iranian filmmaker accused of organizing demonstrations against the government and various other crimes, delivered an impassioned defense in court last month. Panahi was imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison from March 1 to May 25 of this year. Panahi is the director of several internationally acclaimed films, including “The White Balloon,” […]
As financial markets shuddered and then nearly imploded in 2008, the Federal Reserve opened its vault to the corporate world — both domestic and foreign — on a scope much wider and deeper than previously disclosed.
There’s been a lot of discussion at Opinio Juris this week about whether Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. See their posts here, here, and here. And read the text of the Espionage Act here. Here’s a relevant portion: Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid [e.g., obtaining information respecting […]
Dr. Nick Cullather writes on the history of development and nation- building. His most recent book, The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia, was just published by Harvard University Press. He is the author of two other books, Secret History, a study of the CIA’s overthrow of Guatemala’s government, and Illusions […]
Recent attempt by global terror outfits seeking to target European interests have heighted fear within the EU that an attack in the region seems an increasing possibility. Driven by these fears there has been a renewed effort to evaluate the regions counter terror initiatives. This has led the EU’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove to […]
A bit of good news on the diplomatic front: The U.S. has persuaded Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko (known as Europe’s Last Dictator) to give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU). This is a significant win because Belarus has been a difficult country to deal with in the past, and it is a pretty […]
I’ve had a very busy day but on this World AIDS Day I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the U.S. role in fighting the global AIDS pandemic. What is the U.S. doing to fight AIDS? Let’s go from the general to the specific. First, let’s start with the State Department and the official statement […]
I went to a debate on nuclear energy on Monday evening sponsored by the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia. The Center is headed by Mike Gerrard, a force of nature in environmental law for over thirty years. “Should nuclear power be an important component of U.S. strategy to combat climate change?” The pros, […]
A serious trust has been breached on two levels. First, by WikiLeaks so that nary a foreign contact will wish ever to speak, or at least speak with candor, to even the lowliest Foreign Service personnel. But second, also by the notion, and the threat to life and limb, that we use our Foreign Service personnel as low-cost spies.
The big news coming in is about the arrest of six Pakistanis and a Nigerian by the Spanish police in Barcelona late on Tuesday. The arrested men have been accused of having links to radical Islamic cells in Pakistan. They are suspected of providing forged passports to groups linked to al-Qaeda, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in […]