Regions

  The West may have stood by and watched Russia chop off Georgia's breakaway regions, but it prevented Putin from applying the same treatment to Mikhail Saakashvili's nether ones. A transcript of a conversation released today shows that the embattled Georgian president, dubbed by Britain's Daily Telegraph “the man who lost it all”, came perilously […]

This month's Arab Reform Bulletin was just released; Oussama Safa, Director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, has an article therein called “How Should the U.S. President Pursue Democratization?”. He bravely puts a positive spin on the admittedly troubling circumstances under which Barack Obama will assume the Presidency: This angry, hostile, and unstable Arab […]

Everybody loves a good feather-ruffling. The European Commission should frankly be thanking Czech President Vaclav Klaus for the disparaging remarks he made on the Lisbon Treaty during a state visit to Ireland. At least Lisbon is back in the press, right? Characterized as a “victory banquet” by the largely Eurosceptic media in Brussels, the anti-Lisbon […]

Energy independence become a key buzzword in the US presidential debates. The European Union has now launched a new initiative to reduce its member states’ dependence on Russian oil – a controversial move published just at the conclusion of the EU-Russia Summit, which concludes on Friday. The Financial Times is reporting new EU plans to […]

South Africa's highest court has unequivocally rejected Thabo Mbeki's application to have the decision that effectively cost him his Presidency (or at least provided the excuse for his antagonists to unsheath the knives) reconsidered. The National Prosecuting Authority is appealing the same case, albeit on different grounds, but ultimately, Mbeki's long-shot effort has failed, and […]

In a move that should surprise no one at all, leading members of Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF have been pushing Mugabe to form a new government immediately with a composition favorable to the party. Mugabe is likely to comply, which will sound the final death knell of the negotiations with Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC and will accomplish […]

The documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell is receiving wonderful reviews in the United States. The movie reveals the ways in which brave groups of Liberian women mobilized to demand peace in their beleaguered nation. Liberia seems tentatively to be on the right path in no small part because of what these women did […]

The financial crisis that began in the United States has made its presence felt around the globe and Central Asia is no exception. How is Central Asia’s greatest economic power, Kazakhstan, handling this economic crisis and how is the economic downturn affecting the stability, security, and development of the region. These were the main topics […]

At World Defense Review J. Peter Pham speculates as to what an Obama administration might mean for Africa (and what Africa might mean to an Obama administration. Here is a sample: Senator Barack Obama's election as the forty-fourth President of the United States is, of course, a historic milestone in America. But it is also […]

Generally speaking, a delay in holding an African election is a portent of bad things to come. And this seeming truism might hold with regard to Cote d’Ivoir, where leaders have announced that the approaching elections, scheduled for November 30, will be delayed. The rationale behind the delay, however, seems reasonable and sound: Simply put, […]

Historically, the Interior Minister in Mexico has been the second most important politician in the country. Last week, Juan Camilo Mourino, the Interior Minister and a close ally of President Calderon, died in a plane crash. He has been replaced by Fernando Francisco Gomez Mont Urueta, an influential lawyer and high-ranking member of the ruling […]

Oil prices dipped to $57 a barrel; OPEC is contemplating another cut in production. Iraq announced a $3.5 billion deal with the Chinese government's oil corporation, CNPC, to develop the Adhab oil field. It's the first such agreement with a foreign country since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in 2003.