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Al-Arabiya TV Director: Religious Satellite Channels 'Too Dangerous To Be Left Unrestricted'

Al-Arabiya TV Director: Religious Satellite Channels ‘Too Dangerous To Be Left Unrestricted’ In an October 18, 2010 op-ed titled “Banning Religious Satellite Channels” in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Al-Arabiya TV director Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, who is also the paper’s former editor, discusses the proliferation of Islamic “religious propaganda channels” and calls them “too dangerous […]

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Cultural Diplomacy Links

Cultural Diplomacy Links

1. American Ballet Theater Return to Cuba After 50 Years 2.  Impacts:  Does Academic Exchange Matter? – Cultural Diplomacy, Scholarly Internationalism, and American Studies since World War II (Conference of the Austrian – American Educational Commission) 3.  U.S. to Send Visual Artists as Cultural Ambassadors 4.  Modern Art was a CIA ‘Weapon’ 5.  French Diplomat […]

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In Search of Jobs, Obama Heads East

President Obama is off to Asia for a ten-day drip designed to promote U.S. commercial and security interests. After the “shellacking” his party took at the polls, who can blame him for wanting to get out of town? Actually, this trip was planned way before the election, so we can’t really read too much into […]

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A Strategic Shift in U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities?

A Strategic Shift in U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities?

Mr. Obama once dubbed himself the “Pacific president”, and rightly so. Less than two years ago, the newly-incumbent Obama Administration began to evaluate its overarching national security strategy for the U.S.. Newly appointed policymakers felt that the strategic focus of the U.S., at the time, was overly biased on the Middle East. When analyzed over […]

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Infectious Diseases – Exacerbated by Climate Change?

Infectious Diseases – Exacerbated by Climate Change?

I went to an interesting talk last night by Dr. Anthony Fauci.  He is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  The Foreign Policy Association initiated a new series with his talk:  the Dame Jillian Sackler Distinguished Lecture.  (She was married to Arthur Sackler, the research psychiatrist and art patron.) Dr. […]

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Child Trafficking in Haiti Continues to Rise

Child Trafficking in Haiti Continues to Rise

All eyes have once again found there focus on Haiti and the sate of the country’s children, as a Cholera outbreak is gripping the country and as another hurricane looms in the distance.  The country has already been met with fears of housing shortages, adoption issues, an almost completely decimated education system, and surmount it […]

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Counterinsurgency And Communism

The current situation in Afghanistan demonstrates something that may seem surprising: counterinsurgency would probably work.  The problem is, the United States has been reluctant to actually attempt it.  The policy brief, The Trust Deficit, published last month by Open Society Foundations, demonstrates this pretty clearly.  The document, created after interviewing over 250 Afghans in focus […]

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Upcoming Event

The Future of the U.S.-Turkey Relationship November 10, 2010, 12:00pm – 1:30pm Admission is free. RSVP to attend this event Panelists: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations Soner Cagaptay, Director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy […]

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Women and power dynamics and health

What does the status of women have to do with health outcomes?  Karen Grepin posted an interesting set of statistics a few days ago in her article, Men are Dogs. Aren’t they?  Most people intuitively believe that serodiscordancy (when one partner in a steady relationship is HIV-positive and the other is not) is a result of the […]

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Chorus of Emerging Markets Condemn Fed Policy

Chorus of Emerging Markets Condemn Fed Policy

A rising chorus of central bank policy-makers in emerging market nations criticized the Federal Reserve on Thursday for its decision to pump more money into the U.S. economy – a monetary policy known as Quantitative Easing – a measure that they fear could escalate the worrisome influx of cash into fast-growing economies around the world.

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Sex work in the US: a global human rights issue

Sex workers internationally face incredible stigma, dehumanization and criminalization from politicians, health workers, police officers, the media and the general population. In fact most people seem uncomfortable with the idea of sex work, and struggle to understand how anyone could “do such a thing”. The language regularly used to describe sex work manifests this disregard […]

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Haiti in the Time of Cholera (link)

Earlier this week I reported on the devastating cholera epidemic currently racing through the Haitian countryside for The Atlantic. The numbers have now climbed to 442 registered deaths and 6,742 hospitalizations, but my reporting from the Artibonite and Central plateau regions is still timely. “Cholera arrived in Haiti this month with a vengeance. Since the […]

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The East Asian Arms Race

China’s military expenditure in 2010 was officially reported at 162 Billion USD, roughly 30% of the current U.S. defense budget. That budget is expected to grow a whopping 85% to 300 Billion USD by 2018. With China surging ahead to achieve parity with U.S. defense spending, other Asian nations are making significant increasing to their […]

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Global Markets Look Past Elections to Fed QE

Global Markets Look Past Elections to Fed QE

Global Markets were shorting US futures after the results of US national elections, where the Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, and made gains in the Senate – though Democrats are still in control. The Markets are looking ahead to Fed QE policy and the G-20 meeting in South Korea later this week.

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California Does the Right Thing(s)

California Does the Right Thing(s)

Further to my post immediately below, Californians yesterday showed the world that they, living in the most-populous US state, and the eighth largest economy in the world, care enough about their public health, environment, jobs and the state of the world’s climate system to categorically reject the attempt to roll back their GHG regulations. With […]

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