It was a story that many people missed. United States president Barack Obama met with four African leaders in Washington in late March 2013: President Sall from Senegal, President Banda from Malawi, President Koroma from Sierra Leone, and Prime Minister Neves from Cape Verde. A positive step in the right direction for America in Africa, […]
By Sarwar Kashmeri It would be a mistake to view President Obama’s visit to Israel as just a fence-mending exercise. It is in fact part of a planned redesign of U.S. foreign policy that will change the face of American leadership around the world. The redesign began with the appointment of John Kerry as Secretary […]
Brazil’s economy has turned tepid. Last year growth was one perccent, the lowest rate of any major emerging economy. Mexico is now Latin America’s growth darling. Meanwhile Sao Paulo’s jetsetters are squirreling away their savings in Miami real estate, a trend that perhaps has less to do with the perception that U.S. real estate has […]
Each week, Foreign Policy Blogs’ editors help you catch up on the best long-form reads you may have missed.
This week the BBC was promoting a new study that redefined the traditional class structure in Britain into new modern categories. With the assistance of some U.K. universities and research institutes, they made a class calculator that can be taken online and will define in what part of British society you currently belong. You can […]
by Jennifer Norris Americans who left the theatre watching “Zero Dark Thirty” thinking that the dark stain of torture is in our past, should be cautioned by our exit strategy in Afghanistan. As a 2014 deadline for ending our combat mission in Afghanistan approaches, policymakers say that our main objective is to prepare Afghan security […]
Lebanon, a beautiful but tense country — with two civil wars behind it, has many people on edge these days. A myriad of shifting divisions and alliances, 24 years after the Taif Accord keeps the specter of violence alive. Carl von Clausewitz called war the extension of politics by other means, a truism for Lebanese […]
Depending on whom you listen to, Central Asia could be 1) the next mass target of Islamic insurgents; 2) on the verge of a client-state battle between Moscow and Beijing; or 3) fated to authoritarian leaders for the next generation. Nestled between Russia and China, and bordering Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, a glance at the […]
Anniversaries are dangerous days. There is often a flash of attention, lots of words and supposedly deep thought and meaningful promises. Then the sun goes down, and life goes on as before. The world often notes an anniversary without real thought or determination on how to take the steps needed to make it meaningful. As […]
Obama’s Crackdown on Whistleblowers By Tim Shorrock The Nation Since 2009, the World War I-era Espionage Act has been used to prosecute whistleblowers in the name of national security. Shorrock focuses on four NSA whistleblowers — Thomas Drake, William Binney, J. Kirk Wiebe and Edward Loomis — who exposed the failed system called Trailblazer. My […]
A new article from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the 25th anniversary of the chemical bombing of Halabja by Saddam’s forces draws attention to the failure of the international community in acknowledging it at the time. The article entitled “the meaning of Halabja” also talks about a similar attack on the Iranian city of […]
Diplomats of the member states of the United Nations have gathered in New York at the organization’s headquarters tasked to hash out an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The potential ATT would set standards for the global conventional arms trade, a $70 billion industry. It recognizes that arms trade is a lawful business with friendly partners, […]
The tenth anniversary of the Iraq War is upon us, and we have been inundated with reminiscences and reflections on the war’s conduct and especially on its origins. One that struck me in particular came from Charles Duelfer, who argues that the Bush administration’s case for war — in particular, the part concerning weapons of […]
By Tyler Hooper On 12 March the Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, along with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released a document titled “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.” The document outlines eight major “global threats” and numerous major “regional threats” to the U.S. Among the regional threats, unsurprisingly, is […]
The new film “Emperor” tells the story of how America made the first key decision of its post-World War II occupation of Japan: the fate of Emperor Hirohito. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) and his staff are landing in Tokyo as the film opens, ready to display some “good ol’ American swagger” and establish […]