Obama and the ICC
February 3, 2010 5 min. read

So it seems the Obama administration has decided not to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), a decision that comes as no surprise.  The news comes from Jurist, which reported last week about a talk given by the U.S. Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp: Speaking at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, […]

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Crackdown on BAE
February 3, 2010 2 min. read

Last week the UK’s Serious Fraud Office brought bribery charges against an agent of British defense contractor BAE. These are the first criminal charges to be brought against a company that has been under investigation for more than five years. The status of BAE is highly contentious. Unlike Siemens, another major company accused of bribery, […]

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Iran's Cinema: A Glimpse into a Fascinating Country
February 3, 2010 1 min. read

“Iranian filmmakers- despite heavy restrictions – have over the years provided an intriguing and provocative look at Iran’s dynamic social, religious, and political culture.” That from fellow FPA blogger Sahar Zubairy who takes a look at two new films that define the new Iranian cinema. “Kick in Iran” is a documentary about Sara Khoshjamal-Fekri, the […]

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Negative-Carbon Building
February 3, 2010 1 min. read

You can’t beat that.  Catching up on my reading, I came across this terrific article, Construction plant, from the FT from a couple of weeks ago.  Hemp is the building material that can work wonders.  (This reminds me of biochar, one of the most exciting developments in agriculture and horticulture to come along in a […]

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Without the King (2008)
February 3, 2010 2 min. read

Swaziland is Africa’s last absolute monarchy. It has the world’s highest HIV infection rate and its citizens have a life expectancy of 31 years. King Mswati III, who was installed in 1986, appears to be out of touch with his people who live lives of devastating poverty. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/o37iJhBo7VU” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]  This documentary […]

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Reading List: The Myth of 'Rational Markets'
February 3, 2010 2 min. read

Chronicles the rise and fall of the efficient market theory and the century-long making of the modern financial industry, Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market is as much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the purveyors, the perils and possibilities of financial risk.

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State repression in Iran
February 3, 2010 2 min. read

January 2nd was the National Annual Journalism Awards Day.  But for many Iranian journalists, it was just another day behind bars.  Aidan White, secretary-general of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said at a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels that three board members of the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ) had been […]

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Miscellaneous Detention Links
February 3, 2010 1 min. read

These all come courtesy of Security Law Brief: A Canadian victim of rendition is appealing to the Supreme Court. Five American terror suspects are alleging that they were subjected to various forms of torture including electric shocks by the FBI and Pakistani police. Latvia will take one of the U.S.’s Guantanamo inmates. Marc Ambinder theorizes […]

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On Our Bookshelves: George Orwell, Yasmin Khan, Zheng Yongnian and J.K. Rowling
February 3, 2010 7 min. read

Larissa Douglass Recently, one of my friends told me that the anglosphere is dead and the future lies in Asia. Beyond the condition of the world economy that this fashionable attitude reflects, the fashion is actually typical of the anglosphere itself. The term “anglosphere” became briefly popular in conservative circles around 2003-2004, reviving Churchillian values […]

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Carl Bildt Invented Email
February 3, 2010 1 min. read

Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minister, sometimes PM, and general foreign-policy badass, has a rather self-aggrandizing and content-free editorial calling for Internet Freedom in the WaPo recently. There’s not a lot on which to comment. Dictators on the wrong side of history, etc. The main significance, I think, is that it riffs on Hillary’s Internet Freedom speech. The […]

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I.C.C. Update: Bashir Decision Tomorrow
February 3, 2010 3 min. read

From the I.C.C. Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: In this situation, three cases are being heard before the relevant Chambers: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo; The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda; and The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. The accused Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui […]

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Fearmongering in a Scary Cyberworld
February 2, 2010 2 min. read

Ars Technica, one of my favorite geeky news sites, has a great scare piece on the Hobbsian state of nature in cybersecurity. (No, not this Hobbes. This one.) Go read it, and after deciding that eArmageddon 2.0 is on the way come back before you start building your disaster preparedness kit. The report comes from […]

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