Yesterday’s massacre in Egypt: the military, the long standing power there, struck back against the supporters of the democratically elected despot, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood. 525 people were killed; no doubt the toll of the dead will soon rise. Thousands were injured, many of those thousands gravely so. A replay in one day of […]
I don’t know who deserves the attribution as far as the coining is concerned, I only know—like the terms Islamism, sharia, and jihad — so-called political Islam is a loaded term that stirs storms of controversy. Despite that baggage, it is the prevalent concept that defines all political parties and movements with Islamic references. This […]
“When force is necessary, we will continue to do so in a way that reflects our values and strengthens our legitimacy, and we will seek broad international support, working with such institutions as NATO and the U.N. Security Council.” – President Obama (2010 National Security Strategy) Is it time for other nations to participate in […]
Effective Networking If you are like most job seekers these days, you have likely spent hours and hours searching the internet for organizations with job openings that match your skills and experience. If you’re lucky, those searches eventually uncover a job posting perfect for you. You then spend even more time assembling an application […]
Soldiers of Misfortune By Colum Lynch Foreign Policy David Bax, a former military engineer, came to Somalia to teach American-backed peacekeeping forces to avoid al-Shabab’s bombs. He’s stirred up controversy in his effort to save a crew of relief workers from an attack by militants in Mogadishu. Instead of receiving an award, his U.N. career […]
Trying to say something upbeat about U.S.- Russian relations this week entails the same risks as going to a wake intent on offering words that will cheer up the deceased’s widow. The observation that, “At least you won’t have to put up with his snoring anymore” may be accurate enough, but in the grand scheme […]
Retired Admiral James Stavridis talks “smart power,” Latin America, and Snowden With one-liners like, “We are excellent at launching Tomahawk missiles; we need to get better at launching ideas,” it is not hard to appreciate why The New York Times labeled recently retired Admiral James Stavridis a “Renaissance admiral.” Labels like “innovator” and “thought leader” may be overused, […]
The Irish playwright Brendan Behan once opined that, “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse.” Behan was hardly an unbiased commentator, having misspent his youth in activities that assured a mutual antipathy between the literary giant and the law enforcement community, but the findings of Transparency […]
Secretary of State John Kerry has the Israelis and Palestinians talking again. In the context of all that is happening in the Middle East, that qualifies as a positive. Kerry does not give up. That has been well documented before. While many see the Israeli-Palestinian issue as a morass, Kerry believes the United States […]
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The language of war could swell volumes with what would at once be the most depressing and coldly technical glossaries of chaos ever scribed. The intersection of political calculation and unrelenting violence is formed by an endless stream of words. Open-air condemnations and closed-door strategizing. Shouts and whispers, threats and rumors. Uncapped fury and profound […]
After receiving and reviewing an advanced copy of the Organization of Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2013 report Aid for Trade at a Glance: Connecting to Value Chains, I am intrigued by the ongoing process of replacing a portion of direct foreign aid with viable bi- and multi-lateral trade agreements that help in economic development, especially […]
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