Regions

This week I met with an Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, about Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s leadership.  While he lauded his economic acumen and abilities as a politician, the official continually said that Bibi is insincere about peace with the Palestinians and unable to make the tough and unpopular […]

In the final installment of her fascinating radio series looking at Russia 20 years on from the Soviet collapse, veteran journalist, critical Russophile (and long-suffering friend of the FPA Russia blog!) Brigid McCarthy looks at a thorny issue: that Russia has still not yet figured out its identity. Brigid talks to Russian TV host Felix […]

Part two Please, read part one here first: Occupy Haiti (I) Armageddon, two years on… Reconstruction year 2012… “There was hope that the quake would bring an opportunity to break the country’s fatal cycle of struggle, catastrophe and indifference,” wrote the AP’s Jonathan M. Katz on the quake’s first anniversary last year. “But promises were […]

While the eyes of the American public are often turned toward the Middle East or Asia on foreign policy matters, America’s interaction with Mexico is perhaps the most ingrained foreign policy relationship. The Foreign Policy Association (FPA) emphasizes this partnership in its 2012 Great Decisions Television Series, aired by PBS. In Episode 3 – “Beyond […]

Last week as I was scanning the paper, I came across the tragic news coming out of Ethiopia, a country I deeply indebted to. In the Afar region, gunmen have killed five foreign tourists for unknown reasons. The Ethiopian government’s quick and inaccurate placement of blame is cause for concern. It is, of course, bad […]

On January 18, Russia’s Ombudsman for children, Pavel Astakhov, and Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated that they would seek an official moratorium on adoption of Russian children by American families. Cooperation on adoption between the two countries has seen its ups and downs following the pattern of U.S. -Russia relations, but the public discourse on […]

Earlier this month, Denmark appointed Klavs A. Holm as the new Arctic Ambassador, an office which will become permanent. At the same time, Danish Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal announced the closure of the embassies in Iraq, Benin, and Zambia. This move gives a strong signal that Denmark is putting forth a more visible diplomatic presence […]

I wish I had uploaded this back in mid-November, but here it is. S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University, presented his advice for American leadership in Central Asia.His presentation is a overview of US strategy and possibilities in a time of constrained resources and authoritarianism. Yet the US […]

Latin America’s technocrats spent the second half of 2011 on mushy footing, unsure what effect the euro zone crisis might have on the region and afraid that China might experience a “hard landing.” Now some of the region’s wonks are expressing more confidence. “Latin America has never been better equipped to move forward,” said Guillermo […]

Until the Arab spring movement and its legion of revolutionaries came to clash with President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime, demanding an end to decades of autocracy and repression, the Americans considered Yemen’s autocrat a “bulwark” against terrorism, a strategic ally in the region in the fight against al-Qaeda, the well-known Islamic organization. When it became […]

As policymakers, international affairs experts and enthusiasts, we talk a lot here about Africa. But now, those on the African continent are increasingly using tools to make themselves part of the #conversation. This week, a first-of-its-kind study, “How Africa Tweets” was published by Portland Communications and Tweetminster which examined more than 11.5 million geo-located tweets […]

In the recent South Carolina GOP Presidential Primary, Fox News’s Brett Baier asked an extremely misleading question to Rick Perry about Turkey’s ‘Islamist oriented’ government, and what policies should the U.S. have towards it. This is how Baier started his question: “Since the Islamist oriented party took over in Turkey the murder rate of women […]