Luke Somers has been documenting Yemen’s revolution since late February. Below is a selection of images highlighting the role women have played in the protests, along with the twists and turns that Yemen has experienced throughout 2011. To the Western eye, it may be difficult to apprehend the significance of Yemeni women taking to the […]
It is December and that means holiday parties and awards for most companies, organizations and government departments. So here is a little award of my own. Two of Transparency International’s (TI) biggest reports were recently released. The first is the 2011 Bribe Payer’s Index (BPI). The 2011 BPI ranks 28 of the world’s largest economies […]
The two biggest developments in U.S. foreign policy this year were the Obama Administration’s efforts to lower the American profile in the greater Middle East and initiate a strategic refocus on the Pacific region. Regarding the former, this trend was most evident through the administration’s decisions to step back from the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, defer […]
Foreign Policy Association bloggers write their “Year in Review” posts for their respective topics by Dec. 1 of every year. Of course any Year in Review of Japan will be dominated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis. Summary of the Past Year The year started out quietly enough in Japan. […]
This year in Cuban history will be viewed as a significant one, having seen more economic change and reform on the island than some entire decades. But Washington’s response over the course of a year has proven insignificant. Let’s start with a brief summary of the past year. In January, the executive branch of the […]
Haitians began 2011 with heavy hearts as they approached the first anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake that crippled their homeland and crushed 316,000 lives. Haitian leaders watched a steady stream of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) invade the country, carrying a $1-billion purse collected on behalf of the victims. Meanwhile the population remained on edge, following […]
Co-Authored with William Sweet U.S.-Russia 123 and New START A relatively busy year in arms control and nonproliferation started out with two events that were set into motion the year prior: entry into force for the U.S. Russian Agreement for Civilian Nuclear Cooperation (the so-called 123 agreement) and the bilateral New START agreement. The congressional […]
Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths. In 1988, the UN General Assembly expressed deep concern over the pandemic proportions of the AIDS virus. Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of 1 December 1988 as World AIDS Day, the General Assembly drafted resolution 43/15. According to the 2011 World AIDS Day Report, […]
Mexico has been slow to mend from the repeated stabs of a drug war, declared in 2006, and the blunt pummel of America’s recession in 2008. But 2011 showed more signs of recovery than relapse. At least 40,000 Mexicans have been killed from drug-related violence over the past five years, and the number directly affected […]
Summary of 2011 For the EU, any summary of the 2011 will necessarily be dominated by the sovereign debt crisis. The crisis, starting in late 2009, seems to have no end. The past year, and the year before that, has seen a string of crisis talks resulting in an ever-increasing number of initiatives: First the […]
The Foreign Policy Association has asked the blog team to write year-end summaries and even provided a nice little template for us to follow. So, without further ado: Summary of the Past Year What an extraordinary year 2011 has turned out to be. The U.S. appears to have successfully navigated a year of extreme turbulence […]
Summary of the Past Year This year, the Arctic has witnessed a lot more cooperation and a lot less conflict. Whereas past years were marked by sovereignty squabbles, boundary disputes, and accusations of airspace intrusions, this year, events took a more peaceful turn. First of all, members of the Arctic council signed the Agreement on […]
Reflecting on 2011: where to start? 2011 has been another busy year for writers, analysts and students of foreign policy: from the Arab revolutions, to the nuclear disaster of Fukushima, to the war in Libya, to the Euro crisis, to the domestic turmoil in the US, so on and so forth. Instead of examining certain […]
Although global health in 2011 was overshadowed by the economic recession and related budget cuts by donor countries, there were a few rays of hope to be found. Much progress has been made in combating some global epidemics and more attention has been paid to others. Innovations in global health, from simple solutions to harnessing […]
Today, the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held a REALLY interesting hearing on Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based militant group—which they deem an “emerging threat to the U.S. homeland.” (Color me surprised… it is a rare occasion when US policymakers on the Hill focus on “emerging” threats instead of waiting until it’s […]