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GailForce: More on Aspen Institute’s Security Forum – Dennis Blair

GailForce:  More on Aspen Institute’s Security Forum – Dennis Blair

Probably the talk that generated the most media headlines at last week’s Security Forum held at the Aspen Institute were the comments of former Director of National Intelligence, retired navy Admiral Dennis Blair. His session was moderated by Lesley Stahl of CBS news and 60 Minutes fame. Some of the media headlines gave the impression […]

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The Voices of the Yemeni Revolution

The Voices of the Yemeni Revolution

The following is an interview that I conducted with an inspiring young female Yemeni activist. Despite being in Canada, Yusra A. has become a valuable asset of the Yemeni Revolution, inspiring her generation to follow in her foot steps and build a better Yemen. From her hometown of Halifax she has been relentlessly fighting for […]

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GailForce: Aspen Security Forum Continued

GailForce:  Aspen Security Forum Continued

As promised here are some more gems that came out of the Aspen Security Forum. I’ve already talked about the comments of Pakistan’s Ambassador and a little bit about Admiral Blair’s comments, more to follow on that but I’d like to start out talking about the very first session. It was called The Role of […]

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Arhab: The Northern Frontline of the Yemeni Revolution

Arhab: The Northern Frontline of the Yemeni Revolution

  Over the past few weeks, the Yemeni government has been pounding the village of Arhab, which is situated on the northern outskirts of the capital, Sana’a. As a result, thousands of villagers have had to flee the war zone and seek refuge in the neighboring mountains; hoping that they will be able to return […]

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GailForce: Aspen Security Forum

GailForce:  Aspen Security Forum

In my last blog, I mentioned I would be heading out to attend a forum on national security issues sponsored by the Homeland Security Program of the Aspen Institute in partnership with the New York Times. The topic of the 3 day forum is counterterrorism. On their website the institute stated: “The Forum will bring […]

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AP & Me on Stadium Security Post 9/11 (Self Indulgence Alert!)

I was interviewed by a writer from the Associated Press on the issue of stadium security ten years after 9/11 largely on the basis of this piece for The Public Sphere that I wrote about three years ago. And when you get quoted in a story by AP it ends up appearing everywhere. (My personal […]

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World Struggles to Respond to Famine in Somalia

World Struggles to Respond to Famine in Somalia

Last week the UN declared a famine in two regions of Southern Somalia and warned that it could spread to other parts of the Horn of Africa. That is a big deal. As Mark Leon Goldberg of UN Dispatch pointed out, a famine is a technical finding based or mortality, malnutrition and water consumption; they […]

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Iran’s Kurdish Adventure in Context

Iran’s Kurdish Adventure in Context

Recent news reports from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region have depicted a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty that cost Iran at least six soldiers from the elite Revolutionary Guards, and the death of senior officer in the Qom brigade. It is the latest chapter in a complex, ongoing conflict between the Islamic Republic and the shadowy […]

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Why “Success” in Afghanistan Matters Part II

Why “Success” in Afghanistan Matters Part II

Been a little slower than usual in finishing up this topic. If you’ve read my blog before you know I live in one of Colorado’s bicycling Mecca’s. Let’s just say I rode “a bridge too far” on my bike, damaged my body, and have spent most of the last few days in the only comfortable […]

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Show Me the Money: BRICS Millionaires Take their Place on the World Stage

Show Me the Money: BRICS Millionaires Take their Place on the World Stage

The discussions on US debt and European defaults have characterized much of the last month in an effort by Western governments to prevent another large recession in the American and European economies. Serious discussions on raising the US debt ceiling has been met with a great deal of resistance by Obama’s opponents in the US, […]

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This Week in Foreign Policy, July 21, 2011

This week in foreign policy, the world’s top news stories are reviewed in a new FPA video feature. FPA blogger Crystal Huskey discusses implications of the famine in Somalia, and Walter Raubeson warns of sectarian violence in Syria. Many thanks to both bloggers for their insightful input!  

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South Sudan: You Got What You Wished For! Now What?

The congratulations have rolled in from around the world. As has United Nations recognition. And a new currency. And of course a new president in Salva Kiir. People have celebrated in the streets and generally speaking a mood of hope and optimism and happiness prevails. Exiles from years of civil war and devastation have returned. […]

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Bicycles as Social Good in Sub-Saharan Africa

Is the provision of inexpensive, sturdy bicycles part of the solution to poverty in sub-Saharan Africa? I have no idea. But I can certainly see bicycles as a potential social good for a host of reasons, poverty alleviation being only one. In my research on my current book project on bus boycotts in the United […]

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What Do You Do About a Problem Like Mugabe?

Ok, so imagine for a moment that you are a member of the Zimbabwean opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change  (MDC). Within days of hammering out a deal with your alleged coalition partner in government, Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, that decided that elections would not be held until next year, you wake up one morning […]

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Into the Void on Greece

Into the Void on Greece

We now have a deal from France, Germany and the ECB: bending European Financial Stability Facility rules to allow recapitalization of banks and create easier credit terms for Euro countries; and debt rollover into longer-term (some might argue “indefinitely long” given Greek debt of 140 percent of GDP) maturities. Most chillingly, the plan bakes in […]

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