Well it looks like I didn't live up to my promise, but better late than never right? The Olympics in China have made quite a splash; in the pool, in the Caucasus's, Bush's speeches and church visit, and in the Xinjiang Province, where on Sunday a multitude of attacks occurred all over the city of […]
Symbolism seems to always precede Russia into war. In the winter of 1994-5, Chechnya's capital, Grozny, bloodily fulfilled its Russian translation as “fierce”: thousands died in the wake of Yeltsin's callous Christmas day invasion. But Gori, the name of the first Georgian city bombed by Russian aircraft this weekend, translates simply as ‘grief’. When, at […]
In the next year, China will edge out the US as the world's largest producer of manufactured goods – an achievement that is coming 4 years earlier than originally expected. A substantial reason behind this premature development is the weakening US economy. Stats from last year showed the US produced one-fifth of all manufactured goods, […]
The European Union's ‘Strategy for a New Partnership with Central Asia‘ has now passed its 1st year of existence and therefore must immediately be judged! Here are its original stated goals and origins and here is a one year assessment by ISN's Robert M Cutler. Now the 'strategy’ is a decade long process that hopefully […]
Its already a tradition to spend few days in Bint Jbeil every time I am in Lebanon. The Bint Jbeil also called Hizballah's stronghold and the capital of liberation. Aside from the connection to the party, Bint Jbeil is a wonderful, calm place and the people truly friendly. You can safely walk everywhere and get […]
As the tragedy in Ossetia unfolds, Mark Almond's sobering and essential antidote to prevailing interpretation cautions against seeing the Russian incursion into Georgia as a replay of Prague 1968. Instead, he suggests a parallel with Britain's role in the Falkland War. Importantly, he also reminds readers that: Unlike in eastern Europe, for instance, today in […]
Is the longstanding animosity between hostile neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea about to flare again? The Council on Foreign relations fears as much.
There is some apparent good news for the South African economy. Business confidence appears to be up marginally since June. Just what impact this will have on the economy at large is far from clear. Nonetheless, since the economic elites outside of government tend to be those who are most pessimistic about South Africa, this […]
The controversy over the role of the elite special investigations unit known as the Scorpions has festered in South Africa since almost the inception of that organization. Because of the way in which the Scorpions have been kept separate from the regular police services there has been considerable tension between the SAPS and the new […]
Optimists aver that a power sharing agreement might be close in Zimbabwe. I will believe it when I see it. Michael Georgy asks and answers a series of questions speculating about what's next. I hope that the participants can reach an agreement, but the questions that Georgy and no one else has answered are what is […]
On August 7th, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced that he will propose a new bill to Congress that includes the implementation of life imprisonment for kidnappers. The proposal is a result of a new wave of kidnappings that has shocked Mexican society in the last few weeks. In the most recent case, a 14 year […]
Defense Secretary Bob Gates has announced the US support for doubling the Afghan army to 120,000 troops in the next five years, a plan initially proposed by the Afghan government. The plan will require about $20 Billion dollars, which will mostly be paid by the US, but there will be some assistance from other NATO […]
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