Regions

Norway and Russia On July 7, the Treaty on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which delimits the long-disputed boundary in the eastern Barents Sea between between Norway and Russia, will finally go into effect. Yesterday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Russian Prime Minister Sergei Lavrov exchanged […]

Before I start off today’s post I want to thank the OLLI program of Portland for having me yesterday. I gave a presentation there on my experiences in Syria, and could not have had a more pleasant experience. It’s very rewarding to get the opportunity to speak with such an involved and engaged group of […]

In light of the upheavals in the Arab world, the EU’s failure to foster economic and political liberalization in the southern Mediterranean has been made obvious. In spite of the launch of the Barcelona Process (aka the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP)), in 1995, intended to foster a “secure and stable Euromed region, underpinned by sustainable development, […]

The Following piece is written by a Yemeni-based journalist who writes for the Foreign Policy Blogs network and, due to serious security concerns, remains anonymous. The Joint Meeting Parties, a coalition of various political factions united in their opposition to the Saleh regime, has extended an invitation to the government to discuss the transition of […]

(Author’s Note: The following is a selected passage from a chapter that will hopefully appear in a compendium on neoliberal globalization in the Fall/Winter 2011). In many ways, the implementation and subsequent repudiation of neoliberal policies in Thailand is emblematic of the bitter divide along class lines that has afflicted the country for years and […]

Rising food prices globally coupled with a sustained drought locally spells potential disaster in East Africa.

It bullied rivers over their banks, invaded roads, paralyzed cities and collapsed many houses, sending thousands of people seeking shelter, but it was not done. The week-long rain caused landslides and massive floods; still, it swamped vulnerable camps, trapped many people and, as of Tuesday, tallied 23 bodies for Haitian families to collect while six […]

Rumors that Robert Mugabe’s health might be faltering notwithstanding, Mugabe himself claims that he is going to live to be 100. So the myriad conflicts and problems plaguing the country in its recent past are probably not going anywhere soon. Indeed recent days have shown the gamut of Zimbabwean problems ranging from fresh threats against […]

The Finance Minister of Bangladesh, AMA Muhith recently angrily thrashed out the Center for Policy Dialogue, a well-respected think tank, for questioning the official government sponsored GDP projected numbers for fiscal year 2011-2012. GDP, the gross domestic product, is a measure of a country’s economic growth and as such is a bet of how politics […]

In politics “who’s now” is never as exciting a topic as “who’s next.” Thus at Business Day Peter Bruce argues (not at all convincingly) that South Africa is looking at another Polokwane moment when the current leadership is bound to be overthrown for someone else. Of course the ANC will not choose its next president […]

Obviously the situation across what I’ll call Greater Sudan is not good. Civilians are increasingly caught up in violence over the increasingly fraught border(s) between Sudan and South Sudan, which is supposed to gain autonomy in a matter of days, with Abyei the key flashpoint. Here are some assessments from people who know a lot […]

The Russian military has finally achieved a quantitative edge over its erstwhile Cold War enemy. While America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of some 6000 troops over 7 years, Russia has managed to lose nearly double that number of soldiers, in peacetime! According to NGOs cited in a distressing recent BBC […]