I’ve wanted to touch on a major development in Indian politics: the partition of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Residents of Hyderabad and its surrounding environs claimed, in the most basic sense, that the surrounding rural areas were depriving them of its proper share of economic growth/wealth. After a dramatic hunger strike, by K. Chandrasekhar […]
The Council on Foreign Relations has published a report authored by Matthew Waxman about the responsibility to protect (R2P). Waxman asks “whether the current international legal regime with regard to the use of military force – that is, international law regulating the resort to armed intervention – is appropriate and effective in determining and stopping […]
1) The Nation, Pakistan: Pakistan may be the most talked about country in the world today. Here’s “Pakistan’s Perspective” by Tariq Osman Hyder. Note what he writes about the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 2) Der Spiegel, Germany: Really, you can’t get more brutal than this, from Klaus Brinkbäumer: The United States is now a republic of bloggers […]
I read a really good book by Steve Schlesinger a few years back called Act of Creation. It’s about the San Francisco conference at which the United Nations was born. There was a lot of intrigue and high drama, with plenty at stake. There are stories of heroes, too, like Edward Stettinius, the unsung Secretary […]
Tis’ the season of giving and time to evaluate how privileged in life you are, and see how you can help someone in need. Therefore here is a few ideas to help you in your unquenchable need to help underprivileged children, and help make a child’s life better this year. Why not pick a few […]
A London court issued, then revoked, an arrest warrant for former Israeli prime minister, Tzipi Livni. The BBC reports on the Israeli and British government responses… Livni: “What needs to be put on trial here is the abuse of the British legal system… This is not a suit against Tzipi Livni, this is not a […]
1) Greece is at serious risk of total economic collapse—Prime Minister George Papandreou is proposing dramatic spending cuts, and tax hikes on banker’s bonuses, to ease the crisis. 2) Dubai has been bailed out by Abu Dhabi to the tune of $10 billion. 3) From FP: “How we invaded Afghanistan” (the Russians) 4) The New […]
From the SCOTUSBLOG: The Court’s denial of review of Rasul, et al., v. Myers, et al. (09-227) leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ten military officers are legally immune to claims of torture and religious bias against inmates who were at Guantanamo but have since been released. […]
There’s plenty of sturm und drang coming from COP 15. The “FT” reports this morning that the African states first walked out then returned, having claimed “…that they had won some concessions.” The “Financial Times” front page this morning declared China signals climate funds shift. Apparently, the PRC “… abandoned its demand for funding from […]
The G77, a group representing 130 developing nations, has walked out of the Copenhagen negotiations. Find out more about it here. Also, find out more about the implications for global security here, where you can download CNA’s report, “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change.”
Dr. Emmanuel Navon, a member of the Likud party, knows his history. Or rather his version. As he addressed a small gathering of journalists last week at the International Press Centre in Brussels, Dr. Navon spoke on his own personal terms. In other words, what he said is officially…unofficial. The Council of the European Union […]
1) (Dawn, Pakistan) Iran Husain tackles a fundamental issue in South Asian affairs: Pakistan as a security state. 2) (The Daily Star, Lebanon) Saif Nasrawi examines a growing political trend in Egypt. 3) (Hindustan Times, India) The Indo-Chinese climate change axis. 4) (Dar al-Hayat, Lebanon) Abdullah Iskandar on the Kurdish question and democratic government in […]
Migration over the last year has been dominated by economic issues, as European migration became a balance, and sometimes a conflict, between new cultures and old cultures. Rights and migration were the questions in places like Calais and reducing illegal immigration on European beaches and discovering a new way to take in immigrants who can […]
I have not been, like most of the rest of the climate change cognoscenti, writing nonstop about Copenhagen this week. I have been working on reviewing thesis work from students in the MS in Global Affairs program at NYU where I teach on climate change. I’ve had one blockbuster thesis on how to make the […]
As we’ve come to expect from this president, Obama’s Nobel Prize lecture was sophisticated and brave, as he addressed the obvious paradox of receiving a peace prize one week after ordering a major war escalation. With a solemn obligation to address such a weighty matter, it was surprising that climate issues – commonly sidelined – […]