Regions

Whereas ancient philosophers pondered if a falling tree makes a sound if no one is around to hear it, technological advances in the past decade have raised a similar question: If something occurs and it is not posted on Facebook, Twitter, or somewhere else in cyberspace, did it actually happen? The Internet and social media […]

Bashar Assad, let me introduce you to Slobodan Milosevic. Technically, you cannot shake his hand – at least today. Milosevic died in his cell in The Hague, after the nation that he led into war and ruin emerged to form a tentative democracy. The new Yugoslav leadership traded Milosevic for economic and political benefits with […]

I’m currently in Tromsø, Norway where the Arctic Frontiers conference is taking place all week at the local university. Today’s program featured several high-level politicians, including the foreign minsters of Norway and Sweden, the Canadian Minister of Health and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, the Deputy Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, and the Lieutenant […]

Do you remember the term “disappeared” from the Cold War days? It was a common phenomenon in countries with a less than stellar record on human rights and democracy in the second half of the 20th century. Many people — sometimes outspoken critics of the government, sometimes not — would simply vanish. One day they’d […]

The upcoming Israeli election, scheduled for the 22nd, has Jews, observers, and government officials all over the world nervous.  Polls suggest that the ultra-right wing is projected to be given a significant boost, in particular the new radical Habayit Hayehui party and its young charismatic leader Naftali Bennett.   But Rabbi Dov Lipman, the top activist […]

“The worst thing we can do, the most dangerous thing we can do is continue to isolate nations, is to continue to not engage nations. Great powers engage.” Foreign Policy compiled a list of “Ten Hagel Quotes You Need to Know,” including the above quote from a keynote speech at the Israel Policy Forum in New […]

Finally, the French government has launched a military operation, under the code name Serval, in Mali after a distress call by the Malian President and in accordance with the U.N. Charter. The degradation of the internal situation in Mali and the growing risks of terrorism in Mali and its spread throughout the Sahel have been […]

In earlier posts (here and here), I argued that Pakistani politics would be fraught with turbulence in 2013, with one of the key casualties being the fragile détente process that has recently emerged between New Delhi and Islamabad.  Two weeks into the year, events are already conspiring to validate this assessment. Pakistan, the most important […]

Following on former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination to serve as President Obama’s third secretary of defense, Foreign Affairs has made available his 2004 essay “A Republican Foreign Policy.” Reading it with the benefit of eight years of hindsight, the essay reveals how Sen. Hagel’s worldview appeals to the Obama Administration. His views on the foundational […]

  While ties between China and its neighbors have long been strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Beijing’s policy has typically been one of self-restraint coupled with patient diplomacy.  But when the Japanese government announced the purchase of the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, from private citizens late last […]

The new headquarters for the Northern Sea Route (NSR) will open in Moscow on January 28. The new, state-owned enterprise will have a budget of 35 million rubles (about $1.1 million) and will set forth tariffs and regulations regarding “navigation safety and the prevention, reduction, and control of pollution in the marine environment,” according to a […]

Last Wednesday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario asked China to explain its deployment of a patrol ship to guard disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Chinese patrol ship left Hainan island for the South China Sea on Dec. 27, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The move by China comes […]