This week, the big story regarding Republican lawmakers and their inappropriate outfits in Israel has centered around a group of approximately thirty members of a GOP House delegation, their staff and their families drinking and taking a swim in the Sea of Galilee. The incident took place almost exactly a year ago, but has just […]
What would Jinnah think about what the country has become? South Asia last week harkened back to the events of August 1947. The 65th anniversary of Indian and Pakistani independence brought forth the expected homage to the ideals that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj. Yet even amid the high-minded rhetoric, unanticipated developments in […]
“Violence in Haiti is systemic, that is to say, it’s related to the abandonment of the state, the abandonment of society by public institutions that fail to provide basic services.” “I reject the ontological definition of an inherently violent Haitian,” declared Anthropologist Rachelle Charlier Doucet at Port-au-Prince’s Hotel le Plaza on Friday, June 29, 2012. […]
In this week’s shameless FPA self-promotion, my piece about Pussy Riot somehow infiltrated today’s International Herald Tribune and got a few angry looks. So, is it hypocritical for Western mainstream media to champion a group of anarchist feminists over in Russia for behaviour that it would almost certainly not approve of at home? Read on […]
Whether drowned out last week by the U.S. presidential campaign, or the crash of August waves at the beach, a rare but notable news item may have missed most readers. A suicide bomber in eastern Afghanistan killed four Americans, one of whom was a civilian aid worker, only the second such U.S. professional to lose […]
Four years after the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, the event is back in the news, in Russia if not here. Moreover, it appears to be tied to a power struggle, and the news also resurrects old questions about exactly how that war started. Understanding the precise order of events is key to understanding the war, […]
History is rife with examples of minority ethnic groups getting the short end of the stick. Such a metaphor glosses over some highly egregious human rights violations, but to go into detail in every such instance would take a long time. However, it is a fact to state that non-titular groups are, at this moment, […]
Introduction by Azadeh Moaveni: Scheherezade Faramarzi is a celebrated veteran correspondent whose over three decades of reporting for the Associated Press (AP) has spanned from North Africa to Pakistan. Long respected in the field for her profound understanding of the Middle East and keen reportorial eye, she remains one of the most authoritative journalistic observers of […]
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will spend this weekend campaigning in Florida, long a power player in the realm of swing states. Representative Ryan’s success there will depend mainly upon his appeal to two voting groups: seniors and Hispanics. This includes the Cuban-American community. Following the announcement of Ryan as Romney’s running mate and a […]
As I mentioned in my previous post, Putin’s administration is busy readying the Northern Sea Route for increased maritime traffic. In order to maintain control over the shipping lane, Russia will need a first-class navy and naval bases. Plans are underway to equip the navy with eight new nuclear submarines by 2020. Last month, at […]
An Emerging Power? The Council on Foreign Relations recently published an interesting memorandum titled “Renewed Violence in Iraq.” The contingency report, authored by Douglas Ollivant of the New America Foundation, offers suggestions as to how the U.S. can help the Iraqi government cope with myriad internal security threats. Ollivant begins by identifying the major social/national fault […]
Fresh tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership Last month’s agreement on NATO supply routes provided some hope that the two-year long free fall in U.S.-Pakistani relations was at an end. But new serious tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership. One sign of the tensions that remain is Islamabad’s mounting accusations that the U.S.-led NATO coalition […]
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