Ten years ago, The Economist ran a cover with the title “Africa: Hopeless Continent.” One year ago, The Economist ran a cover titled “Africa Rising.” The African Myth that the world’s longest inhabited continent is still one of seemingly infinite despair, has been proven wrong by the resilience of those who continue to populate it. […]
Last March, after seeing its nearly 20,000-strong peacekeeping force embarrassed by Congolese rebels in armed clashes outside of Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) second biggest city, the U.N. Security Council decided unanimously to deploy 3,000 troops to act as an “intervention brigade” in the eastern part of the country. The intervention brigade was given […]
I’ve contended in previous posts (here, here and here) that President Obama’s failure to enforce his numerous threats against the use of chemical weapons by the Bashir al-Assad regime in Damascus is a significant reason to doubt the credibility of his repeated vows to use military force to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. So is my argument undermined now […]
The first time I wrote a story about John Kerry, in 1986, he got very angry. So did his press person. It was, to paraphrase Richard Blaine, the start of a beautiful professional friendship. It has now been almost three decades since that story and the professional relationship took off, grew strong and beneficial to […]
The Inside Story of Russia’s Fight to Keep the U.N. Corrupt By Colum Lynch Foreign Policy For the past decade, Russia has attempted to stall the push to root out corruption in U.N. spending. Whether out of commercial or political interests, Russia has pushed out reformers, blocked budgetary reform and butted out watchdogs. Lynch reports […]
As immigration legislation is prodded through the U.S. Senate then likely to collect mothballs in the U.S. House of Representatives, and major Supreme Court decisions are announced, the executive branch has garnered a portion of the headlines. Ready to take on another challenge, President Obama laid out his plan to combat Climate Change – a […]
In the July/August 2013 issue of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels outline a blueprint for moving toward a more federal European Union. Berggruen and Gardels argue that Europe’s economic future depends on a more federal union. Direct election for the EU presidency, reforming the European Parliament, and reconstituting the European Council as a […]
As the slash-and-burn deforestation peat-burning agricultural practices of communities and companies in Southeast Asia continue, their peoples are suffering the worst air quality on record. Particularly hard hit are Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The fires mainly burn on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with the smoke travelling across the narrow Strait of Malacca to Malaysia […]
Ever since the nuclear power industry was born, its proponents have tried to find safer ways of using nuclear fission to generate electricity. And there is no doubt that the reactors built today are safer than those erected in the 1950s. However, the main problem with nuclear power as it stands is the inherently dangerous […]
Photo: POOL/Reuters As a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has sometimes drawn criticism for the use of its veto to forestall other nation’s interference in the affairs of its allies. Recently, Beijing was roundly condemned, along with Russia, […]
Long a controversial issue, Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers is getting renewed attention after two boats sank in the Indian Ocean last week. Although the government had been tracking both boats for days, no attempts were made to lend assistance until after they disappeared from radar. Furthermore, the government opted not to recover the bodies […]
On Sat. June 15 Iran announced the results of its latest presidential election. In what many saw as a surprise, Hassan Rowhani — a relatively moderate cleric — emerged as the outright winner. Instead of protests in the streets as followed the 2009 reelection of the hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this time Iranians took to the streets […]
What began as a peaceful sit-in to save a downtown park in Istanbul has erupted into a conflict between the forces of Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan’s government and liberal reformers. On Monday, June 17, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinic announced Turkey “will resort to calling on the military to contain these protests.” If one […]
On June 11th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than 6,000 Nigerians had fled to Niger to escape armed clashes between government forces and armed insurgents associated with Boko Haram (“Western education is sinful”). This displacement is one of the latest developments in an escalation of violence that has gripped […]
