There is an excellent op-ed in today’s New York Times, Slumdog Tourism, by Kennedy Odede. It notes the increase in “slum tourism” in places like Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and Nairobi. Slum tourism has its advocates, who say it promotes social awareness. And it’s good money, which helps the local economy. But it’s not worth […]
Thanks to Mark Overmann at the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange for the summary of this important legislation: Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) introduced last Friday the Excellence and Innovation in Language Learning Act (HR 6036), a bill that would authorize $400 million in funding for FY 2011 for the […]
USAID is to be commended for creating and successfully implementing a program in Egypt that combines the best of development policy and US higher education resources. The LEAD Program (Leadership for Education and Developoment) anually selects two students from each of Egypt’s 27 governorates to attend the American University of Cairo. The scholarships are reserved […]
For those looking for an update on the status of the Obama Administration’s Missile Shield plan, the Washington Post had a great one yesterday. Some highlights: The program will ultimately be a combination approach that will notably include Aegis-Class U.S. Navy ships and an effort to upgrade and link the missile defense systems of allied […]
Last weekend I attended the 9th Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians, held at Wroxton College in the UK. The workshop is organized by the Centre for Legislative Studies at the University of Hull and co-sponsored by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists of the International Political Science Association. The driving […]
When was the last time you heard someone thank the U.S. for our role in the world? This report in The New York Times highlights how American funding for AIDS treatment has changed lives – and saved lives – in Africa: The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. […]
The United States and South Korea have planned joint exercises in the waters off the Korean Peninsula. The move is in response to the sinking of a South Korean navy vessel named the Cheonan, which is believed to have been sunk by a North Korean attack. While the North Koreans are criticizing the move as […]
In spite of President Obama’s popularity in Europe, there is a relatively wide gap between the U.S. and Europe on several of the issues tackled at the recent G20 meeting held in Toronto on June 26-27. This phenomenon creates an opportunity for countries to attempt to bridge the divide between the two sides – a […]
In May I was invited to be an observer at the Scenarios Initiative of the Center for Global Affairs (CGA) at NYU. The focus of the session I attended was Turkey’s possible futures over the next decade. It is a fascinating and useful process, described on its website in the following way: The NYU Center […]
The oil disaster in the Gulf has revived the Obama Administration’s interest in promoting its green technology agenda. President Obama used the occasion of his recent Oval Office address to restate his view that the U.S. is falling behind China in the race to become the world’s green technology hub, with the implication that legions […]
1. Ethiopia’s Election Results and the Myths of African Politics, by MG Zimeta in the latest edition of The Atlantic 2. 50 Years of African Independence: the Music of West Africa in Robert Nolan’s excellent FPA blog, Music and Global Affairs 3. US food aid policies create 561 jobs in Kansas, risk millions of lives […]
The following video features a panel discussion examining recent global public opinion poll data and considers the question: What does Obama’s global popularity bring the U.S.? The panel was hosted by the Christian Science Monitor and brought together Pew Research Center president Andrew Kohut, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former U.S. Senator John […]
I recently authored a post regarding the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, and it has come to my attention that the piece could be interpreted somewhat differently than I intended. A clarification is in order. What I was trying to suggest was that U.S. intervention would have been pretty much out of the question no matter who […]
With the beginning of the 2010 World Cup last Thursday in Johannesburg, a large amount of attention has been focused on the quadrennial tournament, which is being hosted on the African continent for the first time since the tournament’s founding in 1930. However, there have been some other stories relating to Africa and U.S. foreign […]
Things are very bad in Kyrgyzstan right now. The Central Asian republic recently underwent a dramatic political upheaval that resulted in the replacement of a sitting government for the second time in five years, and it is now experiencing violent ethnic riots targeting Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbek population. The riots have spiraled out of control to the […]