Foreign Policy Blogs
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Foreign Policy - FPA’s Must Reads (May 10-17)
Each week the editors at FPA choose five must reads from around the web and five of the best of ForeignPolicyBlogs.com. So if you're looking for reading for the weekend, we've got you covered....
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Europe - Cameron Visits U.S. in High Wire Act on Europe, Syria
The gesture itself was subtle, but as the collection of briefing notes were set to one side, so with it went a thin layer of pulped political barricade. What remained were two government leaders seated across a table, a...
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Africa - Repression in Zim?: An Election Must Be Nigh
There is an old cliche about three similar events making a trend. Well, it appears we have a trend in Zimbabwe, where, not coincidentally, there is supposed to be an election this year. In recent weeks a young activist, ...
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Modern Challenges - “Self-Radicalization,” the Boston Bombings, and Why Nobody is to Blame
I like to write my own blogs, and too often have too much to say to readers who want it short and sweet. But the push to attribute past and future attacks on U.S. citizens on U.S. to “self-radicalization” is ...
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The Environment - Will Ghana Overcome its New Energy Challenge?
Ghana has been forced to cope with increased energy shortages as a result of damages to the West African Gas Pipeline, dating back to Aug. 28, 2012. The $1 billion, 650 kilometer long pipeline, built to carry gas from Ni...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Call Me, Maybe
When asked what items they never leave the house without, many people (in the West at least) would likely answer, “my mobile (cell) phone.” It would be pr...
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The Americas - Opening Up to the BRICS Generation
When French politician Pascal Lamy set the process in motion to replace himself as the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it was an interesting outcome that the two last candidates for the position were both fro...
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The Middle East - Selling Organs in Iran
Iran’s legal system is consistently under scrutiny from outsiders who view many of the Islamic Republic’s laws restrictive and unnecessary. With its extensive censorship, women’s rights and security issues, Iran’s libera...
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Foreign Policy - No clear path for Maldives
Last April I wrote about the tiny island natio...
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Foreign Policy - Surprises in the Benghazi Talking Points
On Friday, ABC News published all 11 versions of the Benghazi talking ...
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Foreign Policy - Weighing Afghan Experience, Civil-Military Relations Debate Continues
Can military and civilians successfully collaborate in conflict zones? This has been an open question for decades, but especially recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, where new approaches and the length of the conflicts pr...
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The Environment - Arctic Council Meeting Tomorrow: Who and What to Follow
Every two years, the Arctic Council (AC) Ministerial Meeting convenes in a city in the host country. The last meeting was in Nuuk, Greenland, and tomorrow morning, the AC will meet in Kiruna, Sweden. After the short two-...
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Europe - Europe’s Ghosts
The struggle to keep the Eurozone intact threatens the future of a united Europe. It is not, however, the only ...
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Foreign Policy - Benghazi and Hillary Clinton’s Day of Dissonance
Last Wednesday was a day of extremes for the former Secretary of State, who was in Beverly Hills to pick up a public service award from a private foreign policy organization. There her tenure at the State Department was...
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Foreign Policy - U.S. Supports Syrian Online Resistance
The internet went dark in Syria last week. Although media reports blamed the outage on a...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Considering Seafarers’ Right to Communicate
For much of the world’s employed, maintaining communication with those closest to them while completing their employment requirements is not a contemplated issue. Many workers can use their own personal or workplace phon...
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Asia - Why Austerity Always Fails: Lessons from Thailand
Watching the news these days and hearing about yet another au...
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The Environment - White House releases national Arctic strategy
“We in the lower forty-eight and Hawaii join Alaska’s residents in recognizing one simple truth that the Arctic is an amazing place.” That’s how U.S. President Barack Obama begins his written statement ...
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Asia - Shadow of Afghanistan (2012)
This documentary is all over the place. It is in part a history of modern Afghanistan and also a film about independent journalists – so...
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The Middle East - Respecting Prayer in Jerusalem
A turning point may have been reached in Jerusalem with the development of a recent plan...
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Africa - ICC Rift with Africa Growing in Pursuit of Kenyatta
On Saturday, March 9, 2013, Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s richest man and son of the country&...
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The Americas - Pena Nieto’s Latest Reform
The flurry of reform continues in Mexico. On Wednesday, President Enrique Pena Nieto announced plans to ease the flow of credit to small businesses. Mexico’s sky-high interest rates have long kept small businesses from g...
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Europe - Exit Surkov: The end of postmodern Putinism?
Speculation swirls around today’s sudden resignation of Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s chief ide...
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Europe - Le 9 mai
Even though we are still commemorating great political, social and military achievements, their meanings and symbolisms are fading away. History is all around us, is present and shapes our lives everyday, but remains unk...
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Europe - Le 8 mai
May 8th, 1945 symbolized the end of World War 2 on the European continent. It is a symbol of victory over the Nazis, not Germany. This day is of supreme importance to the making of Europe as we know it. Pictures can only...
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Africa - Rich Africa? Poor Africa? Yes.
[Image from 99 FM] The current issue of Foreign Affairs has an article, “Africa’s Econo...
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Modern Challenges - Solving Syria – A dilemma for the West
With nearly 70,000 dead Syrians since the beginning of the unrest, the Syrian conflict certainly join a select group of international massac...
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The Middle East - The Fifth Anniversary of the Incarceration of Seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran
An Interview with Gissou Nia, Executive Director of IHRDC To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of seven Baha’i Leaders in Iran, on Monday May 6, the US B...
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Foreign Policy - Red Lines, Syria, and Rhetoric
“Kennan believed that language helped make policy and that vague, expansive language would lead to vague, expansive policy,” writes ...
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The Middle East - A Candid Discussion with Karim Sadjadpour
Karim Sadjadpour on Iran’s Conflicting National and Ideologica...
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The Middle East - Combatants for Peace
In Israel, Yom Hazikaron, the country’s Day of Remembrance, commemorates the lives of fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. At eleven in the morning a siren sounds throughout the country. For two minutes life stands ...
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Foreign Policy - FPA’s Must Reads (April 26 to May 3)
This week's must reads brought to you by the editorial staff at ForeignPolicyBlogs.com...
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The Americas - 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, an...
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Humanitarian Affairs - My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Here’s a little quiz to start you off with: In which profession do women make up less than 2% of the global workforce? I’ll give you a clue...
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Europe - The Qatada Question: Between a Rights and a Hardline Place
The single band of light slashed across the shelves catches the metallic detailing on the spines of the neatly lined books set upon them. The shine creates what looks to be the only source of real illumination in an oth...
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Foreign Policy - Obama’s Red Line in Syria: A Case for Intervention
The rapidly escalating conflict in Syria is raising the collective volume of voices asking, “What can and should President Obama do in Syria?” The reality is that Syria’s future is inextricably tied to the future stabili...
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Asia - Stoking Nationalism or Teaching the Consequences of War?
As territorial disputes have continued to escalate between the Chinese and Japanese over the Diaoyu/Senkaku island chain, Chinese tourists are arriving at The Eighth Route Army Culture Park in Wuxiang county, a war theme...
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The Middle East - The Amira Hass Stone-Throwing Debacle and Public Discourse on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
On April 3, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an opinion piece by its (Israeli-Jewish) reporter Am...
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Foreign Policy - Political tensions in Venezuela, Bolivia run high
Over two weeks have passed since Nicolas Maduro’s contested election victory over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Unfortunately, fair democracy appears to remain limited in Venezuela, even a...
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Modern Challenges - Jaws, Nuclear Weapons, and Cyber War
“It’s all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, ‘Huh? What?’ You yell shark, we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.” In the summer of 1975, the budding aute...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Kiobel: Repositioning the Yet Ajar Door to U.S. Human Rights Litigation
On Wednesday, April 17, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Kiobel v. Royal Du...
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The Middle East - A Candid Discussion with Trita Parsi
Trita Parsi on Sanctions and Iran’s Strategic Imperatives...
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Europe - Prisoner of the Mountains (1996)
The conflict between Russia and the territory of Chechnya is the backdrop for this film. In it two Russian soldiers ar...
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Asia - Pillage, Plunder, and Western Hypocrisy
By now, most people have come to the realization that the global economic order is under the unrepentant control of neoliber...
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Foreign Policy - Defending “The World America Made”
Earlier this month, two prominent figures in the defense community – Retired Gen. David Petraeus and Brookings Institu...
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Asia - Savar, Bangladesh as One Photograph
The photograph above of a man and a woman found dead at the collapsed ruins of Rana Plaza, the eight-story building in Savar, Bangladesh was sh...
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Asia - Seven Pictures of Savar, Bangladesh and Its Rescue
Two days ago an 8-story building collapsed in Savar, a suburb of Dh...
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The Americas - Latin America’s Economy Projected to Grow 3.5% in 2013
Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) recently published its growth forecasts for Latin America’s economies in 2013. With a few exceptions, the news is disappointing. The 3.5 percent projected gr...
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The Middle East - A Candid Discussion with Ramin Jahanbegloo
Ramin Jahanbegloo on Iran’s Crises of Ethics and Institut...
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Modern Challenges - GailForce: United States/China: A Slight Thaw in Cyber Relations?
I’ve been reading an awesome book about Winston Churchill called The Last Lion by William Manchester and Paul Reid. One of the many things in the book that jumped out at me was a quote from a speech Churchill gave...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Will there be SDGs to transition to from the MDGs?
April 5 symbolized a significant date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), as it marked 1,000 days remaining to Dec. 31, 2015, the agreed upon date to reach its targets. The MDGs encompass eight targets that span ...
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The Environment - Will there be SDGs to transition to from the MDGs?
April 5 symbolized a significant date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), as it marked 1,000 days remaining to Dec. 31, 2015, the agreed upon date to reach its targets. The MDGs encompass eight targets that span ...
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The Americas - Venezuela Election Wrap-Up
The new president will be puppeteered out of office quicker than he was put in The election played out as many opposition supporters of Henrique Capriles supporters feared. Government candidate Nicolas Maduro won...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Seeking an End to Global Child Abuse
Every day across the globe millions of children are abused and neglected. These innocent children are the victi...
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Asia - As NATO Draws Down, Feuding Neighbors’ Elections May Heat Up
As NATO troops leave, Afghanistan and two of its northern neighbors will undergo national elections. Should we be worried? While some observers expect an uptick in Afghan border infiltration after the upcoming NAT...
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Asia - Political Pakistan
In preparation of the elections scheduled for next month (amidst talks of postponement), officers in charge of scrutinizing election nomination papers have questioned candidates on their knowledge of religion, as is requ...
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The Middle East - Is the U.S. Preparing Israel to Attack Iran?
For years, the U.S. has seemed bent on preventing a green-lighting of an Israeli attack on Iran. Both Presidents Bush and Obama stood firm in their opposition to Iran becoming a nuclear state. But Bush outright vetoed Is...
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Europe - Boston Bombers: Is America’s Skewed Asylum System to Blame?
As a Russian who first came to America as a small child and later spent his university years in Cambridge, Mass., I felt particularly gripped by the ongoing Boston bomber saga. There remain so many questions about why th...
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Africa - Lights, Camera, Distraction – Polisario U.N. Theatrics Prolong Humanitarian Drama
The U.N. Security Council is currently debating a draft resolution on whether or not to extend...
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The Americas - Theories on the Rise of Diabetes in Mexico
One fact that is often presented in the classroom of fresh MBA students is that out of all the markets for carbonated beverages in the world, Mexicans stand as the number one consumers of sodas. So much is the love of th...
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Foreign Policy - The Thatcher Legacy and Complex Pictures of Friendship
Beneath a vaulted marble sky adorned in constellations of angels, dragons, man and beast, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s coffin spent the evening before her funeral cloaked in the Union Jack inside the...
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Humanitarian Affairs - Growing hope in India
News reporting on India, more specifically news regarding women in India, has recently been somewhat unsettling. Horrific cases of sexual abuse, ...
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The Americas - Haiti: Summing all Fears about Haiti’s Humanitarian Assistance
“Of course, there is a lot of resistance to change, especially when some of the largest recipients of contracts in Haiti are the for-profit development companies that hired a lobbyist to push back on these reforms,” decl...
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Foreign Policy - Venezuela: Chavez protege wins, or did he?
The latest twist in the drama that is Venezuelan presidential politics concerns the highly contentious election of last Sunday, April 14. In an election called for by the constitution following the death of sitting Presi...
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Modern Challenges - U.S. Scrambles to Control Boston Marathon Investigation and Control Media Coverage. Why?
Bostonians are stunned by the marathon “pressure cooker bombings” that killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured hundreds of others — spectators and participants — with the...
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The Middle East - Fazıl Say Case: A New Low for Turkey’s Democracy
An Istanbul Court found Fazıl Say (pronounced as Sai), an internationally-renowned Turkish pianist and composer, guilty over “insulting religious values” over messages Say posted in his Twitter last year. Condemned by Eu...
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The Environment - Alaskan Senator Mark Begich advocates creating U.S. Arctic ambassador
Last month, I discussed Japan’s designation of Masuo Nishibayashi as Arctic Ambassador...
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The Americas - Venezuela Results- Recount or Political Theatre?
The results of the April 14 presidential election in Venezuela were polemic but not surprising. The real test comes in the da...
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Africa - Security in the Sahel: Atlantic Memo #43
A few weeks back I contributed to an Atlantic Community theme week ...
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Asia - Why Asia Matters for America
Asia really does matter for America, and the East-West Center initiative Asia Matters for America / America Matters for Asia has the empirical data showing it. However, thi...
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The Middle East - Sectarianism in the Arab World
Division, a word so simple yet characterized by many intricacies has led mankind through its political evolution. The development of the modern nation-state, which was birthed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 was based...
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The Middle East - This Is Not a Review of “This Is Not a Film”
This Is Not a Film, the 2011 documentary by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, recently and belatedly worked its way to the top...
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Asia - America and North Korea — Relax
The insufferable Thomas Friedman has been ranting in recent columns about how North Korea threatens to step over a “re...
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The Middle East - Iran and the Sanctions Dilemma
On August 6, 1945, President Truman announced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He said: It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been l...
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The Americas - Unexpectedly Close – Venezuela’s Presidential Election
A Surge in Energy – and Poll Points – for the Capriles’ Campaign. When the presidential campaign of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles began two weeks ago there were legitimate doubts about stamina, both his an...
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The Middle East - Repurposing Anonymous’ #OpIsrael
The hacker collective Anonymous this week launched a massive cyber attack against thousands of Israeli webpages–including sites for the Prime Minister’s Office and the Holocaust memorial museum Yad Vashem. De...
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Europe - Three Films about Margaret Thatcher
There have been many movies made about Margaret Thatcher in recent years. Now that she has passed, here is a review of three of them. We s...
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Foreign Policy - Innovation in the U.S., Innovation in China
President Obama’s decision to take a five percent pay cut to express solidarity with federal workers affected by the sequ...
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Africa - Obama’s 2013 Africa Visit
It was a story that many people missed. United States president Barack Obama met with four African leaders in Washington in late March 2013: President Sall from Senegal, President Banda from Malawi, President Koroma from...
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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...
Wayland Library Great ecisions - MA
World Affairs Council of Western Michigan Great Decisions - MI
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