Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has announced that his country will host a conference on Arctic sovereignty on March 29 in Quebec. The purpose of the conference, which will take place right before the G8 summit in Muskoka, is to encourage a discussion on new methods of economic development and environmental protection in the Arctic. […]
Foreign Policy Magazine has produced some memorable photos documenting the Marja offensive: Check out more here.
Likely a further sign of his government’s economic woes, President Hugo Chávez’s administration is offering oil contracts to foreign companies. The response to the bidding for concessions was not as strong as it has been in the past, as many companies have been burned by Chávez’s expropriation of assets. Still, Chevron and Repsol (of Spain) […]
It seems that my interest in Northeast Asian rapprochement is shared with many others. Indeed, since writing a recent post on Japan’s effort to rein in its historical rows with its neighbors, I’ve discovered a number of interesting takes on the issue. Anyone interested in understanding Sino-Japanese relations and the latent historical tensions that affect […]
Sometimes I feel like I could run the show better at the Israeli Foreign Ministry than its current occupants. Last month, the Israeli government managed to apologize to Turkey after Turkish media depicted Israelis in an anti-Semitic context. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon refused to shake the hand of a Turkish ambassador, leading Israeli officials […]
The New York Times just published Phillip Bowring’s latest op-ed on politics in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The piece is fine; it takes up general points on the strong dynastic trend in political leadership in the region. As he writes, “Bangladesh has Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the murdered first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.” […]
In the past few days the Dubai Chief of Police released CCTV footage of a hit team that took the life of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh on January 19, 2010. This footage has sparked an international man hunt for the 11 people identified by their passport photos. Mabhouh was a senior member of Hamas and one of […]
A report issued on Monday by the Mexican Council of Bishops expressed concern over the militarization of many Mexican cities and venality among law enforcement. Human rights, the report argued, were increasingly at risk of violation because of the protracted presence of federal troops in Cuidad Juarez, and elsewhere. The report comes in the wake […]
Every year, February 11-or 22 Bahman in the Persian calendar-is celebrated with great fervor in Iran, because this is the day when the 1979 revolution succeeded in toppling the dictatorship of Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The annual holiday is a deeply significant and symbolic date for the regime as it provides them with the […]
2010 is the Year of the Tiger. But according to the World Wildlife Fund “one of the world’s largest tiger populations could be wiped out this century as rising seas threaten to engulf their dwindling habitat in the coastal mangrove forests ofBangladesh, researchers said on Jan. 20. A projected sea-level rise of 11 inches (28 […]
Russian people are used to humiliation and oppression, but they always draw the line at Lake Baikal. This is a lesson that PM Vladimir Putin should have considered carefully before giving his chum and Russia’s richest man Oleg Deripaska (pictured above) the green light to begin polluting the UNESCO-protected national treasure. When the Soviet government […]
The Joint World Bank and IMF Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP) has just published its latest report on Bangladesh’s financial sector. Since 2003, when the last FSAP was published, Bangladesh’s financial sector has been improving steadily. Non-performing loans have decreased steadily throughout that time, while the total assets of banks doubled and credit given to […]
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