Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: freedom of speech

The Semantics of God in the Middle East

The Semantics of God in the Middle East

Nahed Hattar’s assassination sheds light on how social media is used as a weapon by the terrorists to promote their extremist ideologies.

read more

Foreign Policy in The Next Term: Finding Public Consensus?

Foreign Policy in The Next Term: Finding Public Consensus?

The only cure for the wariness that defines this year’s election is for Americans to find common ground, not so much among political operatives of left and right, but rather between those who govern and the general population.

read more

Turkey’s Turmoil : The Fight for Democracy in Gezi Park

Turkey’s Turmoil : The Fight for Democracy in Gezi Park

What began as a peaceful sit-in to save a downtown park in Istanbul has erupted into a conflict between the forces of Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan’s government and liberal reformers. On Monday, June 17, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinic announced Turkey “will resort to calling on the military to contain these protests.” If one […]

read more

Tunisia Undone: Protests, Blackouts & Twitter

Tunisia Undone: Protests, Blackouts & Twitter

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.

read more

Radical listening

North Koreans are increasingly defying their government to tap into foreign radio broadcasts, according to Peter Beck of the Wall Street Journal. In his recent article, Beck highlighted the high barriers that North Korean civilians face to receive information from foreign sources.  All radios sold in North Korea have their dials permanently fixed to the […]

read more

The right to veil?

The right to veil?

  People marked International Women’s Day yesterday in a variety of ways. In Europe, the Commissioner for Human Rights for the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, made news with the publication of his Viewpoint that bans against the Islamic niqab or burqa would violate a woman’s privacy and could potential violate the European Convention on […]

read more

Google vs. China

Google vs. China

News of the disaster in Haiti drowned out most other concerns last week but the earthquake was not the only newsworthy thing that happened in the world. Earlier the same day as the earthquake, Google posted a surprising message on its official company blog that raised the possibility the search engine giant may leave the […]

read more

Seriously Iran? Seriously?

Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that showed just how desperate the Iranian government is getting. If harassing Iranian protesters living in Iran was not enough, the Iranian authorities are now threatening Iranians living abroad. As the article states: In recent months, Iran has been conducting a campaign of harassing and intimidating […]

read more

When Fake News Meets Reality

Just in case you missed it, Maziar Bahari was on the Daily Show on Monday night. Bahari, a Newsweek reporter, was arrested in the aftermath of the Iranian election and kept captive for 118 days. When John Stewart commented, “You were imprisoned in Iran…” Bahari replied, “Yes. Because of you.” While it sounds ridiculous, it […]

read more

How did Iran do on the Press Freedom Index?

In the annual Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Without Border, it is no surprise that Iran ranked as one of the worst countries for journalists.  Iran, who was ranked 166th in 2008, has fallen to 172nd this year.  The only countries to fare worst than Iran are Turkmenistan (173rd), North Korea (174th) and Eritrea […]

read more

The People's Republic at 60

The People's Republic at 60

On Thursday, China marked its 60th anniversary of communist rule.  The expected parades took place in Tiananmen Square as communist party officials cheered China’s growing position as an economic powerhouse its military might.  But while the world watched the celebrations more closely than they have in the past, the publicity that the anniversary has garnered […]

read more

About Us

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.