Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: elections

Tunisia Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Tunisia Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

This past week, radical Islam reared its ugly head again, this time in a seaside suburb of Tunis.  On Monday afternoon, the National Guard was called in to investigate a reported terrorist hideout in the Raoued suburb of Tunis.  The 24-hour standoff that ensued resulted in the death of seven militants and one police officer, […]

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2014 African Election Preview

2014 African Election Preview

Millions of citizens of African countries will go to the polls in Presidential, parliamentary/legislative, state/provincial, and local elections in 2014. We will surely cover many of those here at the FPA. Here is an early preview of which elections are happening where (as of January 8) with brief commentary on several of them: Southern Africa:  […]

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Stakes High in Northern Kosovo as Elections Loom

Stakes High in Northern Kosovo as Elections Loom

Life has been good for Serbs living in northern Kosovo. For the past 14 years, since the NATO-led bombing campaign forced Serbia’s government out of power, some 50,000 residents in the four municipalities north of the Ibar River in Kosovo, which is mostly ethnic Albanian, have inhabited a sort of gray area in which both […]

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Election in Norway: Implications for the Lofoten Islands

Election in Norway: Implications for the Lofoten Islands

In my previous post, I noted how there isn’t likely to be a dramatic shift in Norway’s Arctic policy even though the Conservatives will now be at the helm of government. Regardless of whether Labour or the Conservatives dominate, oil will still be one of Norway’s top priorities in the Arctic. But questions remain as […]

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“Only thing left for Zim voters is hope” (Self Indulgence Alert)

“Only thing left for Zim voters is hope” (Self Indulgence Alert)

This past weekend South Africa’s Sunday Independent published a lengthy (by op-ed standards) piece of mine on the Zim elections, which are taking place today. It continues one of my prevailing themes in the last few weeks, and indeed represents an attempt to synthesize my last month’s writing on Zim here at the FPA and […]

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Uncle Sam, Uncle Bob and elections in Zimbabwe

Uncle Sam, Uncle Bob and elections in Zimbabwe

Zimbabweans will go to the polls on Wednesday to participate in an election that will be closely monitored by hundreds of foreign observers, mostly from around Africa. One country that will be watching despite Western observer missions not being invited is the United States of America. Relations between Washington and Harare are definitely nowhere near the […]

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Rouhani and the Media

Rouhani and the Media

Article VI of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitution “mandates popular elections for president and parliament.” Four years after the controversial presidential election that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power, the Iranian people have elected a new leader. On June 13, Hassan Rouhani won more than 50 percent of 36.7 million votes cast and became Iran’s […]

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Royal Pardon for Cambodian Opposition Leader

Royal Pardon for Cambodian Opposition Leader

PHNOM PENH — Sam Rainsy, the leader of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) returned to the country this past Friday, July 19th, after receiving a royal pardon from Cambodia’s monarch, King Norodom Sihamoni. The 64-year old opposition leader went into self-imposed exile in 2009 after an arrest warrant was issued for his involvement in […]

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Who is Hun Sen?

Who is Hun Sen?

Perhaps Goethe put it best when he wrote that “the romance of politics is best used to numb and to quell the fears of the uninformed.” Maybe Mr. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, is a romanticist in light of his recent comments warning of the “instability of war” if his ruling Cambodian People’s Party […]

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Change is Not a Game

Change is Not a Game

At the sound of a whistle, a Cambodian policeman clad in a sweat stained, light blue uniform and gripping a flashing baton in his hand races out into an intersection to abruptly stop traffic in all directions. The identity of the entourage coming down the perpendicular boulevard — with a police escort of at least […]

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Protests and the Politics of Futility

Protests and the Politics of Futility

Recently a peaceful election took place in Iran. While the moderate candidate won this past election and there was not a repeat of the protests that took place in 2009, the reality is that the moderate candidate was part of a group of chosen conservative candidates that were permitted to run by religious officials. The […]

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Think: ‘Independent’

Think: ‘Independent’

In its 65 years of independence, this election year was the first time Pakistan managed to vest power from one democratically elected government to the next – this being the first time the process was not interrupted by a coup d’etat. This is also the first time Pakistan saw the advent of a strong third political party. […]

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Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

Zimbabwe & the Search for the Rule of Law

What does a country in the middle of collapse look like? This was the question filmmaker Lorie Conway attempted to answer in her new film on Zimbabwe, “Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.” A recent showing by the United States Institute of Peace gave a venue for both the filmmaker and the film’s primary […]

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The Effects of Legal and Illegal Corruption: The U.S., Canada and Venezuela Compared

The Effects of Legal and Illegal Corruption: The U.S., Canada and Venezuela Compared

Many Americans feel that their current system of government is unable to get anything done in any meaningful way. Conflicts between interests in the U.S. government has blocked essential legislation from being passed, and interest groups in the political system thrive off preventing the president from passing many of his key policy initiatives. While compromise […]

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Iceland’s Election: What does it mean for the Arctic?

Iceland’s Election: What does it mean for the Arctic?

On Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Iceland, two center-right parties seized power from the incumbent Social Democrats. Iceland Review states that the Independence Party won a reported 28.5 percent of the vote, while the Progressive Party won 25.2 percent. What does this mean for Iceland’s Arctic strategy and the region at large? The EU dimension First of […]

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Foreign Policy Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. Staffed by professional contributors from the worlds of journalism, academia, business, non-profits and think tanks, the FPB network tracks global developments on Great Decisions 2014 topics, daily. The FPB network is a production of the Foreign Policy Association.