Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) spokesman Hajime Motojuku claimed the “condition is stable” at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 reactor. Another TEPCO spokesman, Naoki Tsunoda, said they are close to completing a new power line that could end the crisis. This seems at odds with the surge in radiation levels, unexplained white smoke and spent fuel […]
Last Sunday, Saad Hariri’s March 14 coalition held a rally in Beirut to commemorate the six-year anniversary of the group’s founding. In front of a crowd of thousands, Hariri questioned the usefulness of heavily armed non-state actors in Lebanon, and said that the Lebanese state should have a monopoly on the use of force. Hariri […]
A number of news organizations reported today that Azerbaijan is threatening to shoot down civilian airliners if they use the new airport in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital city of Stepanakert. The re-opening of the airport, closed in the early stages of armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the fate of Karabakh in 1991, was announced […]
The world continues to focus on events in the Maghreb and beyond. And while I don’t want to get into any unnecessary hierarchy-of-suffering debates, I will maintain that what is going on in Cote d’Ivoire is every bit as important and more potentially destabilizing than what is going on in Libya. Violence continues to spread […]
Tomorrow, March 17th, the Asia Society in New York City is hosting a discussion entitled “The Future of Central Asia: A New Great Game?” Its focus is on current dynamics in Central Asia and how today’s developments will impact the region’s future featuring Philip Shishkin, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society and a […]
India has an inclination for strengthening democracy as opposed to spreading it. With the recent flurry of popular protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other countries of the Middle East it looks like balancing support for democracy with strategic national interests has emerged as the central theme for contemporary global relations. The United States while expressing […]
Human Rights Watch reported on Tuesday that it was forced to shut down its operation in Uzbekistan after a 15 year presence in the country. For an unspecified reason, the Uzbek Justice Ministry moved to revoke HRW registration earlier this week which necessitated the organization to close its offices in Tashkent, the country’s capital. “With […]
Last week’s ruling by the WTO Appellate Body on the U.S. trade remedies regime went mostly unnoticed, due to the dramatic developments in Japan and Libya. However, its implications could be significant… thought not immediate. The Appellate Body reversed a previous panel decision which allowed the U.S. government to apply higher tariffs to imports from […]
Joe Biden made a pit stop in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, during his recent trip to Europe. On paper, the visit was designed to acknowledge the people behind the tiny former Soviet satellite’s minor color revolution (and some say first Twitter revolution) in 2009. But nothing happens in Eastern Europe without a Russian subtext, […]
Timor Leste officially applied for membership to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) last week in an effort to reap the economic and political advantages that come with membership to the regional organization. Despite the backing of Indonesia, the current chair of the ASEAN, Timor Leste’s path to membership will be arduous with […]
After three weeks of protests, where enthusiastic demonstrators took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Tangier, and Marrakech, demanding a freer and more transparent political process, word came that His Majesty King Mohammed VI would appear on state television to deliver a speech. I was on a bus from Agadir to Rabat when I got the news and I made a mad dash to reach the nearest television, hoping to hear what would be a historic oration.
Two explosions at Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear power plant have caused the nuclear situation to deteriorate rapidly. The explosions follow Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara referred to as “tembatsu,” divine retribution, for the greed of the Japanese people. (This is the same man I referred to in Sunday’s post. I […]
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