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The outspoken "NY Times" columnist, Tom Friedman, takes some serious shots here, Dumb as We Wanna Be, at two of the three Presidential candidates for their recommendation on suspending the 18.4¢ a gallon federal excise tax on gasoline during the heavy summer driving season coming up.  "The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example […]

In what can only be seen as a move by Pentagon lawyers to get ahead of the issue before the Supreme Court weighs in this summer, the war crimes tribunal  at Guantanamo Bay gave permission to the former driver for Osama bin Laden to communicate with his fellow inmates asking them to describe the nature […]

Every year some 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders and some 27 million people remain enslaved across the globe, over half of which are children. Romania is in no way an exception from the scourge of modern slavery, as children, are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation and forced begging. Roma girls are especially vulnerable […]

According to Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler, the release of intelligence on the Syrian nuclear site at al-Kibar, has had adverse effects on the negotiations with North Korea. Unfortunately, this development came at time when significant progress was being made. Blake Hounshell of FP Passport rightly points out evidence of North Korea actively aiding Syria […]

The British government has set up a new research center between six different colleges associated with the University of London. They’re going to be studying a broad range of international development subjects based in both the natural and social sciences including: Climate change Agriculture Growth Health Governance in challenging environment and Longer term development opportunities

These days, the two connected concerns of this blog — foreign opinion of the U.S. and how U.S. Presidential candidates would deal with it — are in the background while America struggles at home. The economy overshadows Iraq as America's chief concern. The dead-heat race for the Democratic nomination is in turmoil over the inflammatory […]

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz  faced the Iraqi High Tribunal Tuesday on war crimes charges for the execution of 42 business men who protested rising food prices in the wake of U.N. sanctions on the former regime. Aziz, widely recognized by his coke-bottle glasses and bombastic English, surrendered to U.S. forces shortly after […]

This week UNICEF has launched "Unite for Child Survival: Advocacy Week" , a full week dedicated to raising awareness to all of the issues facing children around the globe. Part of the campaign is focused on encouraging citizens to use their voice to influence lawmakers and make an impact in saving children's lives. The U.S. […]

Harvard professor Joseph Nye and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week on their Smart Power initiative. Joe Nye has been writing about smart power and its earlier version soft power since The “smart power” concept was first introduced to the Senate Foreign Relations committee by Admiral […]

Sunday marked the two year anniversary since the International Criminal Court issued its first arrest warrants against Sudanese officials suspected of war crimes in Darfur.  To mark the occasion, Facebook (yes, Facebook) launched “Wanted for War Crimes Watch List” application to its users.  The point of the project is to generate public awareness along the […]

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. As Ghosts of Alexander reminds us the United States finds itself battling the radical sentiment it helped proliferate to fight the Soviets. Pakistan's President Musharraf, addressing the 88th National Management Course, noted the growing extremism , which he fears "the spread of Talibansation beyond […]

I touched on an important subject here earlier in the month when I mentioned a new study purporting that the spread of black carbon , or soot , from industrial and transportation sources, and from developing world cooking practices, is having a significantly more potent impact on climate change than previously thought. This release from […]