Helsinki 2.0
The European security order has broken down. The conflict around Ukraine is a symptom of this larger problem.
Biden at One
The Biden administration’s first year was a major course correction after Trump. But U.S. foreign policy needs transformation, not restoration.
Biden’s Dangerous Refusal to Reverse Trump’s Western Sahara Policy
Trump recognized the wholesale annexation of one country by another. If Biden lets that stand, the global implications are deeply troubling.
The End of Dissent
Foreign agent laws in Russia, El Salvador, and elsewhere threaten the entire international edifice of laws and institutions that support the right to dissent.
Arms Down
Every year, in the last two weeks of their final semester, a group of seniors in the 20th-century world history class at my high school played a mysterious game. They were honor-bound not to tell anyone what they were doing. All we knew was that, while their fellow seniors goofed off and marked time until graduation, this group of students were completely obsessed with…something. They were constantly in whispered negotiations, passing notes back and forth, passionately gesticulating. They seemed to be involved in a very serious, very adult activity. The rest of us were all intensely envious even as we made fun of their dorkiness.
Dam and Ethnic Disputes Threaten to Undermine Credibility of Burma’s President
Between a controversial dam benefiting China and dealing with Burma’s ethnic minorities in good faith, Burma’s President Thein Sein has his work cut out for him.
Unexpected Nomination by Obama for World Bank Chief
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2012 (IPS) – In a surprise to many development and finance experts here on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Jim Yong Kim, a relatively unknown but highly regarded international health specialist to become the next president of the World Bank.
Rio+20
In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the United Nations held its landmark Conference on Environment and Development. Also known as the Earth Summit, the Conference set the global environmental agenda for the next two decades. Now, twenty years on, the world’s governments, development practitioners, and environmental activists are set to reconvene once again, in Brazil, in June 2012, for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development-Rio +20.
North Korea’s 100th–To Celebrate or To Surrender?
On 16 March 2012, North Korea announced that it would launch an earth observation satellite named Kwangmyongsong (Lodestar) 3, aboard an Unha carrier rocket sometime between the hours of 7 am and noon on a day between 12 and 16 April, to commemorate the 100thanniversary of the birth of its state founder, Kim Il Sung, and the attainment of “strong and prosperous” status by the country. The launch from a base in the north of the country close to the border with China would be pointed south, dropping off its first phase rocket into the Yellow Sea about 160 kms to the southwest of South Korea’s Byeonsan peninsula and the second into the ocean about 140 kilometres east of Luzon in the Philippines. Due notice of the impending launch was issued to the appropriate international maritime, aviation and telecommunication bodies (IMO, ICAO and ITU) and, to mark the occasion, North Korea announced that it would welcome scientific observers and journalists. The 15 April date, in the 100th year according to the calendar of North Korea, has long been declared a landmark in the history of the state, and the launch seems designed to be its climactic event.
A Bromance Made in Hell: When Mitt Met Bibi
Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu’s views on governing are mirrored by their views on investment management.
The Undersea World of Ali Khamenei
In the middle of all the discussion of the possibility of attacks on Iran and a war in the Persian Gulf region, one factor in particular has been largely overlooked. The Iranians have evidently fallen in love with submarines.
Salafists Could Roll Arab Spring Back to Arab Winter
Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu’s views on governing are mirrored by their views on investment management.
Mountains Made of Muslims
Few in the West are aware of the extent of the savagery that Christians rained down on Muslims during the crusades.
Jamming the NSA
Declare jihad on illegal surveillance.