More than any other nation, America helped create today’s Republic of Korea (ROK). A U.S.-led U.N. coalition defended the South following the North’s invasion in June 1950. It negotiated the terms of the armistice signed sixty years ago this month. It defended the ROK as a communist frontline through the latter half of the 20th […]
The recent international shipping scandal involving the Chong Chon Gang, a decrepit, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-flagged (DPRK) cargo ship with a dodgy track record has raised many important questions involving contemporary issues on the international laws of international security, maritime law, human rights, and labor rights. This high-profile incident occurred not long after the […]
Syria long ago became a source of a steady trickle of bad news but recent reports coming from several UN agencies working in Syria highlight just how dire the humanitarian situation there has become. First up is a new report from the World Food Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that found as […]
India is anticipating a massive wave of refugee migration from neighboring Bangladesh. This feared population swell – India already has 1.2 billion people of its own – would come not from anticipated political corruption, but from climate change. India projects that rising sea levels will yield an unprecedented number of Bangladeshi “climate refugees” seeking basic […]
Two weeks after Mohamed Morsi was ousted as the leader of Egypt, chaos still reigns. According to state-run media, seven people died on Monday, July 15, in violent skirmishes between Morsi supporters and opponents. An interim government is trying to instill some sense of ruling stability, but the widely supported Muslim Brotherhood (Morsi’s party) and […]
This past week was one that offered sharp reminders that – under the veneer of white papers and white lies — reality can bite. In other words – hello, why are you surprised at these “surprises.” Let’s start with an easy one. Who is surprised that at least some elements of Pakistan’s government probably […]
After the fall from power in 2011 of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s de facto ruler for forty-two years, there was no lack of backslapping bonhomie among NATO country members who had helped overthrow the despot from power. Indeed, the West’s bombing sorties had been skillfully executed, with France and Great Britain playing key roles in a campaign […]
Lac Megantic, Quebec, is a little town near the border with Maine, and it’s the kind of place where news doesn’t get made. Unfortunately for the people there, the town made headlines on July 6 when a number of oil tanker cars somehow rolled a few miles from the train’s locomotive, derailed and exploded. The […]
In which sector of the economy are women disproportionately (over)represented? And even though they are in the majority, still get paid less than their male counterparts? There may of course be more than one answer to these questions, however for the purposes of this blog post, the one I’m going with is “the informal economy,” […]
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have made progress in improving their accountability and transparency over the last five years, but more can and should be done. That’s the assessment of Dr. Edwin M. (Ted) Truman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former senior Treasury and Federal Reserve official. Truman’s pioneering […]
As old as Cortez and colonialism, the quest to satisfy modern appetites underlines economic scarcity and, increasingly, political instability. Mining in less-mature economies runs the same risks as its fossil fuel cousins. Over several days in late May, protestors in Kyrgyzstan cut off power to its Kumtor gold mine, vital to the country’s economy; they […]
The impact of Edward Snowden’s revelations is broadening in scope. When his initial leaks appeared in late May, they were greeted as a forcing event. Whether one saw Snowden as a patriot or a traitor – he’s certainly a lawbreaker – his revelations appeared to be an attempt to bookend the changes in intelligence policy […]
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