Foreign Policy Blogs
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The Americas - Cuba and the power of resolver
I returned recently from several weeks in Cuba spent at a fascinating time. The Cuban government is in the middle of a gradual series of economic reforms that amount to an overhaul of the inefficient, troubled Cuban econ...
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Europe - Farewell My Lady
Margaret Thatcher, also known as the Iron Lady, has died on April 8th. The media and think tank planets have not missed the occasion to discuss her policies, attitudes and legacies. I will neither write an obituar...
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The Americas - No News Is Bad News for Brazil
Brazil’s economy has turned tepid. Last year growth was one perccent, the lowest rate of any majo...
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The Americas - NO: The Rest of the Story
If you have not seen it, you ought to check out the new Chilean movie NO. A fictionalized account of the campaign to remove Ch...
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Asia - The Iraq Endgame and the Lessons for Afghanistan: An Update
Washington is in a rush and everyone knows it The U.S. commentariat spent much of last month ruminating over the lessons of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Left unexamined were the important lessons relating t...
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Europe - An intimate conversation with HR Ashton
Several weeks ago, HR Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, announced that she will be done at the end of her mandate in 2014. In an intervi...
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The Americas - Cuba’s Little Bird Flies Free
Freedom is fundamentally the possibility of standing on a street corner and shouting “There is no freedom here!” — Yo...
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Europe - Come, All Ye Hopeful
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” That is how a famous prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi starts; the very saint that Pope Francis took his name from, a saint known for his philanthropy and love of nature. As t...
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Europe - Brave New Bailout
Writing in 1931, Aldous Huxley used Cyprus as the setting for a social experiment gone wrong in his dystopian novel “Brave New World.” The experiment had failed and se...
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Europe - Why Cyprus Matters
To American policymakers working through the sequester, Cyprus’ 10 billion euro bailout ...
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The Middle East - Iran’s Presidential Election: An Equation with too Many Variables
As the Islamic Republic of Iran approaches its eleventh presidential elections in June 2013, ambiguity and uncertainty have clouded analyses and projections regarding its potential outcomes and implications. On one hand,...
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Europe - A Meeting of Ministers: Hague to make latest U.K. Syria bid
The vice grip of prolonged violence suffocating Syria is sending the humanitarian situation there careening towards the fading lights of a blackout. With a death toll looming somewhere between 70-90,000 and a refugee pop...
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The Americas - Censoring Speech in Haiti’s Most Celebrated Agora (part two of three) – Haiti
Please read part one here first: Censoring Speech While not the first head of state...
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Africa - Somalia, Side-effect of an Overpriced ‘Panacea’
With its meager financial and human resources, the Federal Republic of Somali...
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Africa - Mandela’s Health, and South Africa’s
[Mail & Guardian] Nelson Mandela is once again in the hospital and as has been the case so often in the past, his lungs are ...
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The Middle East - Is Lebanon’s Disassociation Policy Coming to an End?
Lebanon, a beautiful but tense country—with two civil wars behind it, has many people on edge these days. A myriad of shifting divisions and alliances, 24 years after the Taif Accord keeps the specter of violence ...
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Foreign Policy - Serbia, Kosovo remain at odds
Kosovo has been a hotly contested region of the Balkans for many centuries. Adversity has often devolved into violence, especially since the collapse of Yugoslavia in early 1990s. Kosovo declared itself an indepen...
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Foreign Policy - Instability Worries — and Policy Discussion — Move to Central Asia
Depending on whom you listen to, Central Asia could be 1) the next mass target of Islamic insurgents; 2) on the verge of a client-state battle between Moscow and Beijing; or 3) fated to authoritarian leaders for the next...
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Asia - U.S. Strategic Credibility in Asia: An Update
In a post two weeks ago, I argued that the Obama administration confronts a serious credibility gap in Asia and cited as one exam...
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The Environment - At IMO Polar Code meeting, Canada calls for zero discharge in Arctic
There’s been a lot of developments in Arctic shipping lately, particularly in light of the study by members of UCLA’s Geography Department f...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Telecommuting as a Human Rights Approach
The modern workplace and the requirements of jobs in the high-technology era have brought what was an outlying issue in the past to the forefront of the debate on employment arrangements. Some major technologically incli...
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The Middle East - Argo Controversy
From heading to the theater to see the newest release to watching Academy Awards that honor the year’s best pictures, many Americans enjoy the multifaceted components of the movie industry. For approximately two h...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Violence, Peacekeeping and Negotiations: Being Part of the Solution
This past month has seen some well-written policy briefs being published on NOREF’s (the Norwe...
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Foreign Policy - The Desi Factor in U.S.-India Relations
According to a new Gallup survey, more than two-thirds of the U.S. public has a positive impression of India, a score that even e...
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The Middle East - The Meaning of Halabja
A new article from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the 25th anniversary of the chemical bom...
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The Middle East - Hate Feeding Hate
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a global Jewish human rights organization that confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity and among other things, stands with Israel and de...
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The Environment - Ahead of Arctic Council meeting, Japan appoints Arctic Ambassador
Japan has appointed an Arctic Ambassador, a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states. Masuo Nishibayashi is already the Ambassador in...
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The Environment - U.K. Energy Shortage: A Cautionary Tale
Britain is suffering its worst winter in 50 years. Everyone is grumbling about their fuel bills and wondering what has happened to spring. Soccer and rugby matches and horse-racing fixtures have been canceled. The govern...
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Europe - Reflections on Cyprus, Iran, Syria, and President Obama’s trip to Israel
On March 22, 2013, WVUM, the student radio of the University of Miami, invited me into its station in order to discuss the mess taking place in Cyprus. Despite talking for almost 15 minutes...
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Europe - End of an era as Berezovsky dies
He was the original oligarch: a talented mathematician who had used his smarts and ruthlessness to amass an enormous fortune in the wreckage of the Soviet Union. Eventually, he became one of Russia’s most powerful ...
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Asia - Camp 14: Total Control Zone (2012)
What could be worse than living in a North Korean labor camp? Apparently, not much. This documentary centers mainly on Shin Dong-Huyk, an inmate ...
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The Middle East - Israelis Show the Truth about Obama
Up until President Obama touched down in Tel Aviv earlier this week, the headlines roared for years about new tensions b...
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The Americas - On the Road to Pemex Reform
President Enrique Peña Nieto has mounted an assault against Mexico’s entrenched monopolies over the past two months. He first took on the teachers union, then the telecoms, explaining his aim was to “transform the countr...
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Foreign Policy - For Russia, it’s a Permanent Naval Port in Cyprus, Stupid!
The eurozone crisis is back on the international agenda with a very serious crisis unfolding in Cyprus right now. Some Wall Street investors might argue just in time to pull the rising U.S. stock market indices &#...
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Europe - Iraq, Stalingrad, Gettysburg and the Limits of Remembrance
“Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,” exclaims Shakespeare’s Henry V in his fervid St. Crispian’s day speech on the eve of the battle of Agincourt in 1415. In...
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The Middle East - Testimony at Congress Raises Awareness on the Persecution of Bahá’í’s in Iran
On Friday, March 15 Kenneth E. Bowers, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, testified at a hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC). The hearing featured test...
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Humanitarian Affairs - The Day the Terminator Walked into the Embassy
After nearly two decades of conflict, the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes a regular appearance in international news. The most recent chapter of the story is the conflict between the Congolese government and the M...
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Asia - China hosts talks with Kachin rebels
As foreign tourists flock to an apparently open and reforming Myanmar, ethnic conflict continues in the regions along its borders. One such conflict involves the Kachin, a Christian/Buddhist/animist people who have been ...
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Europe - The European Game of Thrones
Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, called it quite. They both announced in a matter of days that they wou...
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The Middle East - A Lesson in Alternative History from Tony Blair
Although Tony Blair has “long since given up trying to persuade people [that the Iraq War] was the right decision,” he has found...
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The Environment - The Northern Sea Route: An Iceland-China Link
Coming on the heels of a UCLA study reporting that new trans-Arctic routes could be open to shipping ...
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The Middle East - The 19th Knesset is Formed, at Great Cost to the 20th Knesset
This week Benyamin Netanyahu built a coalition, securing himself a third term as Israeli Prime Minister. He will shortly become the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel since David Ben Gurion. While his retent...
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The Americas - El Papa Porteño
Porteños (Argentines from the capital city Buenos Aires) will get quite a self-esteem boost today, March 19 when the Vatican inaugurates Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new pontiff of the Roman Catholic C...
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The Middle East - Russian Roulette: Ahmadinejad Style
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest contributing piece by Mitchel...
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Foreign Policy - Terrorism: Time For “Killer Drones” To Go Global
“When force is necessary, we will continue to do so in a way that reflects our values and strengthens our legitimacy, and we will seek broad international support, working with such institutions as NATO and ...
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The Middle East - A Coalition of the Unwilling
After weeks of negotiation, and, predictably, right before his already-extended deadline was set to expire, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a majority coalition in the Knesset (Israeli legisl...
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Modern Challenges - U.S. Employs Straw Purchaser to Transfer Lethal Weapons to Syrian Rebels: Another Violation of the Arms Export Act?
The irony, of course, is that the FSA is just an umbrella term for a loose aggregation of Sunni militias whose best units--and consequently the fighters awarded the most money and the most lethal weapons-- are, according...
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Europe - Cyprus gets a haircut on time for Spring
The press and the European public opinions are not impressed by the latest agreement made behind closed doors between the recently elected president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and the EU in order to assure a €10bn ba...
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Asia - None Dare Call it a Genocide
Never again. Remember that? The world was very determined to never allow another attempt at genocide after the Holocaust. We know now that those words were as empty and hollow as a whiskey barrel on the George Bush ranch...
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Africa - A Fight Club Approach to Policy in the Sahel
[Atlantic-Community.org] Last week Atlantic Community, “The Open Think Tank on Foreign Policy,” hosted a theme week of articles from various observers on global...
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The Middle East - The Defense Secretary and Iran: Hagel Who?
A controversial nomination, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was sworn in as Secretary of Defense on February 27, 2013. Prior to assuming office, questions regarding the Republican’s perspectives and policy prescripti...
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Foreign Policy - A Look at U.S.–Iran Relations Under the Shah
Editor’s Note: The following is a summary from an award-winning project at York University in Canada. The project entitled “U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Shah of Iran”, examined U.S.-Iran relations und...
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Africa - Tunisia: Historic Crossroads at a Critical Juncture
“There have been gains in Tunisia. Through disagreements, controversies and blunders, the new phase, once the government is fully endorsed and up and running, will usher a new realism – a wake-up call […]” – ...
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The Americas - Leadership and Social Justice in Latin America: Francis I and Hugo Chavez
Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Pope from outside of Europe for nearly a millennium, reflecting the reality of a church that has the majority of its followers in Latin America and the strong connection with societ...
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Foreign Policy - The Sun Never Sets on Britain’s Eternal Question: To Be or Not To Be a European
By Sarwar Kashmeri “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role,” former Secretary of State Dean Acheson presciently observed in his 1962 speech at the U.S. Military Academy/West Point. It is the epig...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Acronyms and Acrobatics
Tomorrow, March 15th, will mark the final day of the 57th session of the Commission on the Stat...
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Foreign Policy - How Americans Are Making Sense of Remote Warfare
Currently, remote warfare — namely, drone warfare and issues around cyber attacks — is occupying a large part of the national security debate in the United States. Developments like the Mandiant report, which...
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The Environment - Asian Arctic Expansion Seminar at KTH
Last month, I participated in a Stockholm Arctic Seminar on Asian Arctic expansion put on by Mistra Arctic Futures at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The first panelist...
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The Americas - Chavismo can survive, but will it?
Among the more important questions to surface in the wake of Hugo Chávez’s death on March 5: Will chavismo survive? The answer, usually given in the affirmative, frequently invokes a previous era of Latin American histor...
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Foreign Policy - Online Collaborative Think Tank Tackles Transatlantic Issues
The debt crisis in Europe, anemic economic growth in the U.S. , ...
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The Environment - Iran: Cutting the Gordian Knots
The good news in nuclear arms control this last week was of course China’s rather surprising decision to join in international sanctions against North Korea. The single most important thing about sanctions, almost ...
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Modern Challenges - Iran: Cutting the Gordian Knots
The good news in nuclear arms control this last week was of course China’s rather surprising decision to join in international sanctions against North Korea. The single most important thing about sanctions, almost ...
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The Environment - Coal Continues to Fuel Poland’s Growth
From the time that Poland was selected as the host country for the next round of the United Nations climate change negotiations this upcoming November, there have been many skeptics. Poland is one of the nations m...
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The Middle East - Turkey’s Press Freedom Crisis
Turkey’s poor press freedom record contradicts its main strategic goal to establish the country as a regional power and the leader of the Muslim world. The state of press freedom in Turkey has recently been in the spotli...
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The Environment - Canada names new chair of Senior Arctic Officials
Canada, the upcoming chair of the Arctic Council, has named Patrick Borbey as the new chair of the group of Senior Arctic Officials. His role will be to work with the SAOs ...
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Asia - Shahbagh: Populism and Liberalism in Bangladesh
Shahbagh: The Set Up (Part 1 in a 3 Part Series about the Shahbagh Movement, its Politics and its Moral Content) Since this p...
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The Americas - Speaking Freely Volume 5: Hugo Chávez (2008)
Now that one of Latin America’s most controversial figures has died, it is interesting to look back at his actions, actions that will reverberate in the western hemisphere for some time to come. This is a short piece (ab...
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Foreign Policy - Is the Domestic Use Question Hijacking the Drone Debate?
Up until recently, the debate over drone policy has largely been the territory of a small group of vocal critics — a persistent if not particularly high-profile media issue, but not one that particularly troubled t...
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The Middle East - North Korea Catches Up on Rhetoric as Iran Strives for the Weapons
The news media lit up late Thursday on news that North Kor...
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The Americas - Chavez: Latin America’s Most Successful Failure
“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally...
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The Environment - Canada signs $288-million definition contract for Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships
Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose announced today that the Canadian government has signed a $288 million definition contract with Irving Shipbuilding for Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships (A...
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The Middle East - The Politics of Managing Elections in Iran
Iran’s presidential election will be held on June 14. Under Iran’s election law, observation of the voting process is a crime unless this monitoring is pre-approved. Generally, presidential candidates are only al...
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The Middle East - When Censorship Turns Against Itself: The Story of Artistic Residence in Iran
Strict censorship of arts and culture in Iran emerged shortly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Through various tactics, rules and regulations the Islamic Republic managed to successfully instill fear ...
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The Americas - In Need of the New Left
Last week, Raul Castro announced that he would step down from power in 2018. The last Castro to leave the seat of power in Havana is effectively ending a half-century long novella starting in the 1950s, etching the names...
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The Environment - State Department Says XL Pipeline Won’t Affect Oil Sands Development
The Department of State has released a 2000-page draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement regarding the XL Keystone Pipeline. In the words of the executive summary, the report “concludes that approval or denial...
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Foreign Policy - Kenya Votes While Calm Reigns
In the spring of 2008, I met with a group of Kenyan human rights activists to discuss what they saw as the most pressing issues in East Africa. At one point, the conversation turned to the post-election violence their co...
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Europe - Stalin who?
Today is 60 years since the death of Joseph Stalin. How do we know this? Well, it’s on the front page of the BBC, there’s an article in the Telegraph, Reuters, the Atlantic and pretty much everywhere else. Except Russia ...
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Foreign Policy - Budget Cuts Diminish U.S. Role in the World
Like many Americans, I’ve been watching the budget impasse with a mix of consternation and disgust. It seems like our politicians are playing a game of chicken with our country’s welfare hanging in the balanc...
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Foreign Policy - A Candid Discussion with Eric Deggans, Author of “Race-Baiter”
Did America enter a post-racial era with the election of a black president? The answer still appears to be a resounding “no.” Race relations in the American media continue to be a contentious topic with many ...
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Foreign Policy - Theory and Practice, Two Sides of the COIN
As values of certain ideas fluctuate with fashion and practicality, so has that of COIN, or counter-insurgency, one of the principal war-fighting approaches in recent years for U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan...
Great Decisions Discussion Group at the Dodgeville Public Library: Iran
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