Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi By Adam Johnson GQ Kenji Fujimoto, an alias, was Kim Jong-Il’s sushi chef and sidekick for eleven years. Once he finally escaped, he became one of the biggest intelligence assets for the Japanese intelligence services on the Kim family. Johnson interviews him to dig up some wild stories about the […]
“We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans.” This simple sentence came from a speech given by U.S. President Barack Obama in Ghana in 2009. Never has this premise rung more true than right now. As Africa faces imminent threats in several regional situations, the trend seems to be […]
A U.N. report leaked last month to Reuters indicated that both Uganda and Rwanda were supporting M23 rebels in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The confidential report stated that while Rwanda’s Defense Minister, James Kabarebe, was actually commanding the rebel group, Uganda was also guilty of supplying arms and soldiers, […]
Copenhagen climate conference opened today. 1) Mayor of Kabul sentenced to four years for corruption. 2) Russia and India signed a nuclear agreement. 3) Iraq election law dispute resolved—for now. 4) Somalis are protesting the brutal bombing last week that killed three government ministers along with medical school graduates and their families. Al Shabbab, the […]
1) Iraq’s security forces must be depoliticized, and the Sons of Iraq must be better integrated into the national defense, writes former Mayor of Tel Afar Najim Abed Al-Jabouri. 2) Russia’s abstinence-based strategy on HIV is failing miserably. 3) Cutting down rows of olive trees won’t help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. 4) If we’re so […]
1) John Mueller scoffs at nuclear weapons. For the most part, I agree, but we shouldn’t downplay the possibility of sub-national groups (which are inherently less beholden to the rules governing state behavior) getting their hands on nuclear material or a backpack bomb. 2) The evolution of Hamas—this is one of the biggest questions of […]
Because really, there’s never enough guns in Somalia. If you looked up failed state in the encyclopedia, a picture of a khat-chewing Somali toting an AK-47 he purchased off the street for a hundred dollars—if that—would be plastered front and center. The government controls a few blocks of Mogadishu—at best—while raging Islamist insurgencies have claimed […]