Concerns about its support for the Taliban led Dakota Meyers to object to sales to Pakistan by the defense company for which he worked.
Medal of Honor Winner Pays for Balking at Equipping Pakistani Snipers
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Labor, Trade, & Finance
Burma’s Big Brother
Over 70 percent of Burma’s FDI has come from China, largely for development projects in ethnic-minority regions. These projects, along with smaller initiatives worth millions if not billions of dollars more in undocumented investment, have now brought tensions in ethnic regions to a boiling point. In turn, such tensions have led to the breakdown of a handful of ceasefire agreements between ethnic armed groups and the government army, which, incidentally, receives the majority of its weaponry from China.
America vs China in Africa
China’s imminent replacement of the West as the dominant international economic and political force in Africa epitomizes the most dramatic shift in geopolitics since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet the United States and Europe, Africa’s traditional trading partners, seem incapable of responding to the challenge and retaking the initiative. Instead, their response has been to wring their hands in despair and make ineffectual noises about human rights and democracy.
Turkey Not Only Sanctions, But Threatens, Syria
Not only are Turkey and Syria on the outs, but Iran is threatening Turkey.
Brazil and Colombia: An Unexpected Alliance
“When they ask me, ‘What do you want to be when you’re big,’ I respond, ‘I want to be like Lula.’” The statement was not voiced by a progressive president of the region but by the most conservative of all: Juan Manuel Santos.
Occupy Foreign Affairs
When Foreign Affairs puts inequality on its cover – and hosts a debate on the topic at the tony offices of the Council on Foreign Relations – the Occupy Wall Street movement has achieved a major victory that eclipses even the generally favorable coverage in liberal bastions such as The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker. It’s also a sign that a profound anxiety gnaws at the foreign policy elite in this country. The question is: why are foreign policy mandarins suddenly so fretful? Or, put another way, why does Foreign Affairs want its readers to take this issue so seriously?
America Is Not Broke
This report challenges the premise that America is broke. In fact, we argue that the current fiscal challenge poses an opportunity to harness our ample but misdirected resources in ways that will make the country stronger.
The Modern Gold Rush
In September of this year, the price of gold reached a record high, breaking $1,900 per ounce for the first time in history. This unprecedented spike in gold prices has come in the midst of the U.S. debt crisis and the financial turmoil sweeping over Europe. Although prices have tempered since then, hovering around $1,650 per ounce in October, the overall price of gold has more than quintupled over the past decade.
Occupy APEC with Aloha
“The time has come for us to voice our rage,” the Hawaiian artist Makana sang as he gently strummed his slack-key guitar. “Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage, to steal from us the value of our wage.”
Makana wasn’t serenading the Occupy movement; rather his audience included over a dozen of the world’s most powerful leaders, including President Obama and China’s Premier Hu Jintao, at the world’s most secure, policed, and fortified event: the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) dinner in Hawaii.
China’s Looming Economic Crisis
China’s economy has been growing at a phenomenal pace in recent decades, averaging around 10 percent a year. Few people seemed to worry, therefore, when the Chinese government announced recently that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2011 slowed to “only” 9.1 percent. Almost any country in the world would envy such growth. Yet beneath the continued robust appearances, there are signs that China is heading toward a crash reminiscent of the one that brought down the U.S. economy during 2007-2008.