As you know, President Obama has not yet made a decision on whether to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan and there are any number of reports in the media about his decision-making process. The White House is signaling that President Obama is nearing his decision on Afghan war strategy: White House press secretary […]
If you are in New York City and have time for an intelligent conversations–with guaranteed humor intertwined–look into tomorrow night’s interview with Israeli writer, Etgar Keret. Keret, who is author of several books and two screenplays, will be interviewed by This American Life’s Ira Glass for NPR. Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 7:00 PM Celeste […]
Right now, with oil rising to $80 a barrel, it is important to recognize that the price of oil does not reflect the value of oil but the value of the dollar. There is still fairly weak demand for oil. Meanwhile, the fate of the greenback is being tugged in different directions by different international […]
Over the past months significant press attention has focused on the Honduran government, after the ouster of its former president. Manuel Zelaya, however, is not the only person dislocated by the political crisis. Today, a National Public Radio (NPR) story highlighted the increased northward movement of Hondurans, as they seek employment, not to mention a […]
As you know, there has been a tremendous amount of activity on climate change and energy on The Hill over the past year. The House of Representatives got going fast, even before the 111th Congress got underway. A leading progressive, hardball-playing Congressman from Los Angeles, Henry Waxman, assumed the chairmanship of the critical Energy and […]
1) John Mueller scoffs at nuclear weapons. For the most part, I agree, but we shouldn’t downplay the possibility of sub-national groups (which are inherently less beholden to the rules governing state behavior) getting their hands on nuclear material or a backpack bomb. 2) The evolution of Hamas—this is one of the biggest questions of […]
The Financial Times reports that according to a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in agriculture jumped to $3bn (€2bn, £1.8bn) annually in the 2005-2007 period, up from $600m during the 1990s. Though at first glance the numerical increase appears quite significant, on the overall scale FDI flows in […]
Natalya Estemirova‘s body was found on June 15th of this year. The award winning journalist and human rights defender was getting too close to the truth. She paid for it with two bullets. In Chechnya and indeed elsewhere in that wide expanse of impunity (see Dagestan and Russia), Estemirova was finding hard evidence of Chechnya’s […]
The announcement that Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai are not interested in a coalition government after the Afghan Presidential run-off is, in fact, not bad news. There’s no reason why a power-sharing agreement would make Afghanistan’s political system more stable, as both Karzai and Abdullah are aligned with the United States. The problems are more […]
In the summer of 2006, southern Lebanon was under a barrage of Israeli firepower. The war was nominally between Israel and Hezbollah operating out of Lebanon. What this film does – and does well – is to humanize this war story. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YbabkJPcTts” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] It shows a woman, Zeina, who has come […]
Welcome to the Euro-Atlantic Security blog, the latest addition to the Foreign Policy Blogs family. Here we’ll discuss issues related to the Atlantic security agenda, including, but not limited to: Nato: The new Nato Strategic Concept Nato’s role in Afghanistan The Partnership for Peace EU: Common Defense and Security Policy Rapid Reaction Force Eurofor Contributors […]
Southeast Asia has officially joined the ranks of Europe, the Americas, and Africa in launching their own regional human rights commission. Speculation on the proposed human rights body for The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has dominated political commentary in the region for the past year. Yet, now that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights […]
In the spirit of Step It Up 2007 and Earth Hour, 350.org reports that yesterday’s International Day of Climate Action brought people together in 181 countries, at over 5,200 events, for the “most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history.” See a great slide show plus videos and other reports here on this […]
I hope the new Nigerian peace plan works. For years, Nigeria has been the poster child for everything that can go wrong when a country discovers oil. Instead of the prosperity, thousands have died violently, the country’s infrastructure has crumbled, the Niger River delta has been environmentally devastated, the army has run amok among the […]
Africa failing to protect children from HIV/AIDS African leaders should be more serious about protecting the continent’s children from AIDS and it is time for them to change state spending priorities, Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca Machel said on Thursday. “No matter how small our budgets, we must do something. We will not get there (HIV […]