Regions

The NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day is of the Arctic Sea Ice Extent from 2009 to 2010. The image on the left is from September, when the sea ice usually reaches its minimum. On the right is the sea ice maximum for the year, which usually occurs during the month of March. Sea […]

Two day SAARC Summit to begin on April 28 in Bhutan. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) 16th  Summit will be held in Thimphu, Bhutan on April 28-29. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Conservation of Environment and Climate.’ Leaders from the eight member countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, […]

Manasi Kulkarni (Kakatkar) has a very informative piece on FPA’s India blog about India’s growing role in Afghanistan. Here is a piece: The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit last week, seems to have produced positive results for India. The US ambassador to India, […]

Nigeria’s domestic political situation might be perilous, but the country just received a foreign policy coup. Interim President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent visit to the United States resulted in his country being removed from the US’s Terrorist Watch List. Color me impressed by Jonathan’s tenure thus far, even if I am skeptical as to whether the […]

We have passed the fifty day countdown point for the World Cup. There are certainly still concerns. Crime, of course, including worries about human trafficking being exacerbated by the presence of thousands of foreign tourists, remains a major concern, though general violence is far more of a worry than any other sort of crime. All […]

In theory, the 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence ought to be a time for celebration. But really, is anyone feeling particularly joyous about what has befallen the country? Plenty of crises still loom, the power-sharing agreement seems no closer to bearing fruit now than it did when it was first implemented, and Robert Mugabe calling […]

The government of Bangladesh has nearly completed prosecuting members of the Bangladesh Rifles for February 2009 mutiny that led to the death of 74 people, among them high ranking officers of the military and workaday civilians. The Times published an edited Associated Press write up that provides just the fact ma’am: “A court in southwestern Bangladesh […]

Howard W. French, a long-time observer of African affairs and the author of the fine book A Continent for the Taking, has an important piece in The Atlantic Monthly on China’s attempt to establish a de facto neo-colonial empire in Africa. And while you’re looking at long-form reportage on African affairs, you may as well […]

Even though the Obama administration has publicly clashed with Netanyahu administration, resulting in what some have called a crisis, the White House has floated the idea of drafting a new peace proposal. Some reports indicate that U.S. and Israeli officials have secretly begun ironing out differences, with the top state department Middle East advisory traveling […]

As the turf war for the European diplomatic service (EEAS) continues, MEPs are claiming High Representative Ashton is inexperienced and that she is incapable of handling the task of setting up the new diplomatic service. Ashton is “simply out of her depth” says German Christian Democratic Union MEP Inge Grässle. Grässle adds that the EEAS […]

Author’s note: a previous version of this article appeared on the MEA website. Israeli officials claimed last Thursday that they had intelligence indicating that Syria has been arming Hizballah with SCUD missiles. If so, it would mark a significant departure  for Hizballah in terms of military strategy and weapons capability. Now, nothing should come as […]

Even the Arctic has not emerged unscathed from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. A conference that was to be held in Moscow, Russia, called “The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue,” has been postponed until September due to the thousands of flight disruptions. The Russian Geographical Society will host the event, which is to supposed to mark the […]