2013 has been a year fraught with many challenges for democracy. One could circle the globe and find democratic struggles in every corner of it- from Maldives to Thailand, in Egypt and Iran, Venezuela to Burma, and of course the United States (I still shudder when thinking about the October government shutdown). Many of these […]
The Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Justice has released his year-end review, “Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Justice.” Up there on the list of “challenges” facing the DOJ? Domestic use of drones, particularly by law enforcement. IG Michael Horowitz emphasizes that while unmanned systems will undoubtably prove to be hugely […]
In one of the odder efforts to “protect” Fourth Amendment rights, a small town in Colorado has taken to the practice of “drone hunting.” Led by Phil Steel, the Deer Tail drone hunters have proposed an ordinance that seeks “to defend the sovereign airspace of the Town of Deer Trail, Colorado, and that of its […]
Last Friday, December 13, Google announced its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, a prominent robotics manufacturer. Boston Dynamics is most famous for producing robots resembling animal-like quadrapeds and bipeds with remarkable agility and balance. Despite a streak of other robotics company acquisitions in the past half year, Google’s purchase of Boston Dynamics is significant in that […]
In an effort to speed up the “formal verification”—the process of checking whether a design or model adheres to a certain set of requirements—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants you to play online games. DARPA’s Crowd Sourced Formal Verification (CSFV) project, as per their website, “seeks to replace the intensive work done by […]
A couple of months ago I attended DARC, the Drones and Aerial Robotics Conference, at New York University. The conference brought together a mishmash of computer nerds, drone aficionados, engineers, policy wonks and a handful of (mostly friendly) robots. One of the strangest debates—one that is playing itself out among the American public and policymakers […]
Should those (mostly women) who do not participate in the labor market, instead remaining at home to look after the house and raise children, receive compensation for their work? It’s a thorny issue which is as divisive as it is complex. In the final referendum of 2013, Swiss voters were asked to share their opinion […]
Photo Credit: Village Earth Press The world just commemorated World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, 2013: the 26th World AIDS Day. As we observed events unfold, from Kuala Lumpur, to London, Washington, D.C. and Cape Town, one common thread was apparent: partnership. If there is to be a common denominator in each thriving battle against […]
For a large number of refugees fleeing Syria, life in the place they end up is no less a struggle. Many Syrians looking to escape the ravages of war in their home country have made their way to Bulgaria (via Turkey) — the country I now call home. The problem is that the influx has […]
Hosted by Sarwar Kashmeri, the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions podcast series will headline issues together with the leaders whose decisions today will mold the foreign policy of tomorrow. Each podcast will tackle a different Great Decisions topic in the 2014 series, a list of which can be found here. The Great Decisions podcasts can also […]
In my update on Thailand and Maldives a few weeks ago, both countries were on the precipice of making decisions that would determine the direction of their democracies, or lack thereof. Let’s see how things turned out. Thailand On Monday, Nov. 11, 2013, Thailand’s senate made a strong statement against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who […]
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