On August 20, the first of ten new Russian search and rescue centers along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) opened in Naryan-Mar in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO). The governor of the NAO, Igor Fyodorov, and Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) Aleksander Chupriyan, opened the center. The EMERCOM sites will stretch from Murmansk, at […]
Seven spots are up for grabs this weekend in the penultimate phase of African qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. Ten teams will fight for five remaining spots in knockout playoffs next month. Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian provides a good overview of the state of play, which includes a number of squads […]
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has just returned from his second visit to Asia, only two months after partaking in the Shangri La Dialogue back in June, and his second visit to Asia in six months since becoming secretary of defense. Acknowledging the immense human suffering and tragedy that continues to unfold in Syria […]
There are few places in the world that do not afford its citizens basic human rights, or at least a garb of human rights. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (or better known as “FATA”) are one of those areas. FATA are the semi-autonomous areas in the northwest frontier of Pakistan, bordering both the […]
As I watched Secretary of State John Kerry stand before the lectern last Monday afternoon and give an impassioned speech decrying the use of chemical weapons in Syria, I was briefly transported back in time to about two years ago. I was in the Vietnamese town of Gia Nghia in the province of Dak Nong, […]
If you are reading this in the United States, Happy Labor Day! For the rest of the world, Happy Monday! (And n.b. Labor Day is a holiday in which we celebrate those who toil by not toiling.) In recent weeks I took a bit of a late-summer hiatus from blogging, but I plan to be […]
The idea of being a yakuza (Japanese mobster) is attractive to many men. Belonging to a secret society, making ludicrous amounts of money, having your every whim catered to, controlling others through intimidation, not worrying about diplomacy when dealing with outsiders is oddly appealing to our baser instincts. However, the reality isn’t quite so glamorous. […]
Metal surrenders to the heat, slinking away to dust. The remnants, lumped on the floor, are loomed over by an audience of intelligence agents — dispatched to watch the burn and all too pleased with the task – and journalists confounded by the absurdity of the scene. As if ripped from the old celluloid of […]
Argentina’s economy is on pace for five percent growth in 2013, and the country’s stock market is trading near all-time highs. What happened to the economic basket case that is inching toward sovereign default? It’s still there, but as I argue in a recent piece for Nearshore Americas, a number of factors have converged to […]
McKinsey and Company recently collaborated with the Munich Security Conference to release a report: The Future of European Defence. It recommends how European Union (EU) nations might improve the cost efficiency of military operations. The report raises, but does not address directly, broader political challenges facing the EU that encompass its efforts on defense. First […]
Tokyo Electric Power Co has warned some toxic liquid may have flowed into the ocean, according to an AFP article by Shingo Ito. Around 300 tons of toxic liquid was believed to have escaped from one of the tanks that hold water used to cool the broken reactors. TEPCO workers are scrambling to check for […]
On July 3, 2013, in a move that shocked some members of the international community, the Egyptian military forcibly removed from power President Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). With overwhelming support from Egyptians, the military deposed Morsi’s government, maintaining that they stepped in as a response to serious political and social unrest triggered […]
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