U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of a “Biofuels Interagency Working Group” to be composed of the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). The working group will be tasked with supporting the U.S. biofuels industry through funds to support existing refiners, new loans to increase crop production and the building of […]
Take a look at this video report from MSNBC about a new tactic the U.S. is using to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. The U.S. is attempting to interrupt the flow of money to the Taliban by burning the poppy fields. There’s no doubt that in a traditional war this would make sense: attack the […]
A photojournalism exhibition you do not want to miss if you are in the New York area is Brent Stirton’s “The Last Gorillas of the Congo” on display through August at Fovea. Stirton is an award-winning and otherwise highly-accomplished photojournalist. A senior staff photographer for Getty Images, his work is published in National Geographic, Newsweek, […]
It is legitimate in foreign affairs to employ both the carrot and the stick. Both policies can secure a nation’s interests; the trick (and difficulty) is to employ the strategy a given situation warrants. In spite of partisan name-calling, whereby stick-wielders are called warmongers and carrot-salesmen weak, all Great Powers, all statesmen (and women), must […]
Africa is on the move. Here are a few facts from this terrific website you won’t hear about from the mainstream media or foreign aid workers who peddle Africa as perpetually dependent or in crisis.
The Influenza A H1N1 virus (also known as “swine flu”) outbreak continues to challenge the globe, despite a pronouncement by the CDC’s acting director of “encouraging signs” concerning the severity of the outbreak. Still, various countries and international organizations are dealing with the possible spread of the virus and the effects on the world population. […]
Yesterday I wrote about US Secretary of State Clinton’s statements from last week explaining her concern that China, Russia and Iran are seeking to gain influence in Latin America. One example of Iran’s growing clout in the region was this week’s planned trip by President Ahmadinejad to Brazil and other nations in the region. It […]
Al Jazeera has published a “breaking news” report about the evangelical Christians serving in the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Of course – as Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, the U.S. Army is not intentionally involved in “promoting religion.” On the other hand, and as the media is now […]
The following was originally published by the author on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009, on the Examiner, in a follow-up to the piece posted Wednesday, April 29th, 2009, The United States and The Rights of the Child, the debate on the United States has heated-up once again. US opponents of the UN Convention on the Rights […]
Friday was an important day in U.S. domestic politics. Supreme Court Justice David Souter informed the White House that he would be stepping down when the court term ends in June. This provides an opportunity for President Obama to appoint a new justice who will shape the direction of the high court for years to […]
A recent analysis of China’s media censorship practices deftly analyzes and explains the country’s system of repression and control of the media by using the threat of economically punishment. The piece, published on May 2 in the Far Eastern Economic Review, is aptly titled “China’s Commercialization of Censorship“. The piece not only explains how China […]
Democracies with weak and/or fragmented party systems seem to produce sub-optimal public policies, including heavy government debt burdens. From Israel to India, Italy to Japan, Brazil to Belgium, governing coalitions held together by paying off key constituencies have yielded chronic deficits and high debt. By contrast, countries with a small number of strong political parties […]
Popular from Press
