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Today the U.S. Senate will finally take up New START. There will be a lot of activity on this issue until the final vote as amendments are considered. Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) believe they have enough votes to secure passage (which is to say, enough to prevent a filibuster), and The […]

I’ll be on holiday break until after the new year.  In the meantime, the WWI Christmas truce story never fails to get me in the holiday spirit.  Perhaps it will do the same for you.  Click here to give it a listen. Until next year…

The Children’s  Rights Writer/Blogger and Bridge to Freedom Foundation, which works to enhance and improve the services and opportunities available to survivors of modern slavery, Executive Director Cassandra Clifford has written her first piece for the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).  Cassandra will now be writing for ISN Insights on a monthly basis, and […]

Discontent from “land grabbing” in Africa has struck in Ethiopia, where the BBC reports that “opposition activists claim that a number of arrests and the killings of 10 local farmers are as a direct result of” the Ethiopian governmental policy to lease 3 million hectares of land – an area the size of Belgium – […]

Overview 2010 is nearly gone, so what’s in store for the world’s rising powers and their status quo partners?  2011 threatens to be a year of discord.    Keep an eye on two fronts: economic policy and geopolitics.  Will the great and the good continue to coordinate policies to improve the functioning of the global economy […]

An interesting debate has begun over at Foregin Policy. Last Tuesday, Israel’s vice premier and minister of strategic affairs Moshe Ya’alon wrote a provactive article that blames Palestinians for stalling the peace process. He writes that Palestinians, “instead of concluding a deal with Israel…have demonstrated a total unwillingness to compromise, often favoring terrorism, as witnessed […]

That’s what people call California.  If you’re thinking about the glitter and the shine of that precious metal and how California reflects it in its forward-thinking, economically smart and environmentally sound approach to climate and energy, then you see what I see.  The clean tech vision and environmental ethic are embraced all along the political […]

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, the arc of history is long, but in terms of international relations, it remains unclear to which direction it bends.  A continuation of the nation-state system?  A move toward world government?  A hybrid of the two?  In 2010, we’ve seen movement.  But toward what?  The International Criminal Court (ICC) […]

The Economic Commission for Latin America Monday said it expects GDP growth to slow in the region to 4.2% from 6% this year.  This forecast makes sense.  A slowdown will be driven by tighter macro policies across the region that seek to stem inflationary pressures, as well as slower growth in the advanced economies and China, limiting demand for […]

The incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen signaled a few weeks ago that State Department and foreign aid programs will most likely be cut when she assumes the chairmanship in 2011. In a recent statement, Ros-Lehtinen laid out her agenda, “I have identified and will propose a number of cuts to […]

The question last week was whether or not renewables were going to be left behind in the tax deal in Washington.  It is a testament to the maturity of the industry that they were not.  The key federal grant program, and some other supports for renewables, were extended.   One perspective has it that thousands of […]

Two new recent U.S. intelligence reports, called National Intelligence Estimates, which represent 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, highlighted many of the challenges in Afghanistan, while also showing some progress against the Taliban has been made. However the chances of successfully putting an end to the insurgency in the country have been limited by the Pakistan’s inability […]