It was a simple statement from the State Department, almost lost in the daily flurry of transcripts, very public reactions and carefully nuanced policy papers aimed at high profile flash points in the world. The statement was from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton congratulating the people of Algeria on their elections in mid-May. The […]
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reminded the world of the unchanged US support for Morocco’s “serious, realistic, and credible” compromise autonomy proposal to end the three-decades old Western Sahara conflict. Days after, two more countries officially withdrew recognition and support of the “Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic” (SADR) “the pseudo country” run […]
What a difference a few days make. Since writing my post on the demonstrations in Tunisia on Wednesday, President Ben Ali went from claiming that only terrorists and fanatics were protesting to announcing that he would not run for re-election when his current term expires in 2014. He also assured the population that […]
Today in Tunisia, amid government blackouts and Western apathy among the press and government bureaucracy, social media and second generation journalism through blogs is emerging as one of the only methods for demonstrators to tell their tale for those willing to listen.
The recent news of threats emanating from Pakistan and Algeria have spooked the American and European public milling about in great and famous cities. But the reasons behind the news that seems to single out machinations wrought in Pakistan remain murky, as they must by dint of the ways and means of intelligence. However, given […]
Many who follow or work in international affairs would hesitate to call themselves “North Africanists.” But I bet you’d be surprised that you probably are. North Africa, also referred to as the Maghreb (which literally means “the west” in Arabic), has long been a crossroads between civilizations. From the extensive economic partnerships and deep […]
President Hugo Chávez is on a weeklong trip overseas, to strengthen alliances in “the fight against imperialism”. His itinerary includes stops in Libya, Syria, Iran, Algeria, Belarus, and Russia. Freedom House, a US-based non-profit (and declaredly non-partisan) publishes “Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties”. It ranked each […]
OPEC reported a rise in output despite a pledge from the organization’s member to reduce production to meet quotas agreed to in December. Five members (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Nigeria and Angola) increased production over the past month by a total of 180,000 bbls/day, although Saudi Arabia remains within its quota of roughly 8 mln […]