Foreign policy scholar Robert Kagan has a new book, The World America Made, and surprise, surprise he’s out on the speech circuit promoting it. Below is a video of Mr. Kagan being interviewed by David Gregory of Meet the Press and semi-debated by New York Times columnist David Brooks. Kagan, like another historian/foreign policy scholar […]
The Greek dimension of the EU sovereign debt crisis is by now well known to all. Investor anxiety over excessive national debt throughout the EU led to demands for higher interest rates from several governments with greater debt levels and current account deficits. This in turn made it difficult for some governments to finance further […]
Growing suspicions that recently engulfed the credibility of humanitarian organizations working in Haiti could cause people to underestimate the significant initiative launched in Cap-Haitien by Hands on Haiti, Mothering Across Continent and STARS Alliance; however, their work in Northern Haiti this spring will be nothing short of extraordinary. Haiti proclaimed its independence 208 years ago, […]
The more popular narrative to explain Russia’s uncompromising support of a bloodthirsty Syria – whose draconian crack down outmatches itself one day to the next – seems to rest on two simple assumptions. First, Damascus is Moscow’s premier arms client. Second, Syria plays host to Russia’s only remaining naval stopover outside the former Soviet Union. […]
We all know that China is deeply invested in Africa. There is, at least on the surface, a mutually beneficial relationship to be had between China and individual nation states. China has money, the capacity to invest and build in Africa, and tends not to be too concerned with such niceties as human rights. Africa […]
A couple of weeks ago South Africans and people the world over waited anxiously for news about Nelson Mandela. The 93 -year-old Madiba had been admitted to the hospital, and while he was released after a weekend of testing, spokesmen assured the media that there was nothing “seriously wrong” and that Mandela was in good […]
So many of us whose work, lives and studies involve the Arab world have spent the last year making sure everyone realized that each country’s ‘Arab Spring’ experience is unique. That said, there is a need to step back and take a moment to see what unites the peoples (and their aspirations) across the region. […]
Contrary to the generally considered “successful” mission in Libya, the ongoing international intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the antithesis of a model for humanitarian missions. Though the transition to peace and democracy officially “ended” in 2006, the situation in the eastern part of the central African country continues to deteriorate. Why, […]
In this bleak economic era, the only constants that have prevailed throughout the most part of the global financial crisis are risk and uncertainty. On January 12th, Standard and Poor’s downgraded France, joint-chief compere of the Eurozone’s economic horror show and its second largest economy. The very same day, the economies of Spain, Italy, Portugal […]
I was privileged to present last weekend at the Convergencias Conference sponsored by the Yale Mexican Students Organization (YMSO), and organized skillfully by Lissy Giacomán’12 and Ana del Toro’13. YMSO successfully rounded up government officials, scholars, and talented college students from all over to hypothesize on Mexico’s future for a weekend in New Haven. I […]
What the decline of a hallowed institution says about Argentine politics, and why Chavez shares the blame. The Economist recently announced it will no longer publish inflation figures supplied by the Argentine government because of chronic underreporting of official figures—by half, according to just about every independent surveyor—and the politicization of INDEC, Argentina’s official statistics […]
Many commentators have raised the apparent inconsistency between the Obama administration’s participation in a multilateral intervention in Libya’s civil war and the lack of any comparable undertaking—so far, at least—in Syria. Inconsistency in international relations is nothing new (or necessarily alarming), yet the issue is worth examining. While there are striking similarities, especially on a […]
I was recently asked to review FPA’s Great Decisions episode on the Arab Spring, featuring columnist Mona Eltahawy and Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center and also featuring short comments from key foreign policy professionals like Madeleine Albright, General Michael Hayden, Robert Malley and Carl Gershman. U.S. Policy and ‘dictatorial […]
Great Decisions: Inside Indonesia (click for Great Decision video preview) To its credit, FPA’s annual world affairs discussion program, Great Decisions, covered the strategically-important, but ambivalent, rising power, Indonesia. With all the focus on China, the BRICs, conflict in the Middle East, Afghanistan and the like, it is easy for the average world citizen, and Americans […]
Guest post by Medair CEO Jim Ingram The current situation in Afghanistan takes the focus away from its long-suffering people. Already struggling in a violent and chronically poor country, the Afghan people are more vulnerable than ever. The need to provide crisis relief – and equally important – sustainable support that will help the Afghan […]