Image Credit: www.catholica.com.au Last summer I was intrigued by a book review about Alain de Botton’s “Religion for Atheists”. In the review, that was partly an interview with the author, Botton explained that being an atheist didn’t mean you had to hate religion, but that you could learn lessons from it, seeking knowledge wherever it can […]
Editor’s Note: The following is a contributing piece by Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Mr. Chandrasekhar is a well-known and independent member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, representing the state of Karnataka. He was elected in May 2006 and was then unanimously re-elected for a second six-year term in March 2012, making him […]
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Regular readers of Foreign Policy Blogs may be familiar with the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Trevor Keck and Joe Gurowsky, for instance, have touched on the topic in earlier posts. Having been approved by the General Assembly after two decades of advocacy, the treaty will open for signature on June 3. It will go into […]
By Sarwar Kashmeri United States’ intelligence agencies and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are still not certain the Syrian government of President Assad has used chemical weapons against its opposition. Nothing has yet emerged from France, Germany or Britain to unequivocally confirm this charge either. But the clamor among the hawkish segment of Washington lawmakers to get […]
There is a good rule taught in newsrooms early in one’s reporting life that goes along the lines of why one should listen to so-called crazy people. It is because, sometimes, they actually say the truth. By dint of luck or perhaps true insight, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stumbled into that equation. He warned […]
The Rise of Big Data By Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger Foreign Affairs The Internet may have transformed the way we do business, live and govern, but a lesser-known technological trend, “big data,” has also been making waves. The premise — that we can learn more from a large body of information things than […]
Masai Ujiri took an unconventional route to the pinnacle of National Basketball Association (NBA) team management. Now he is watching his Denver Nuggets’, a team he built in just three seasons as general manager, attempt to make a run at an NBA championship. Ujiri grew up in the central northern region of Nigeria, in the city of Zaria, a city that has […]
Syria is deteriorating before the world’s eyes. What is being done to stop this? At the U.N., a new crisis appeal entitled “Enough” features the heads of U.N. humanitarian agencies appealing for support in alleviating the humanitarian situation in the country and imploring an end to the diplomatic standoff that is fuelling the violence. The video […]
Even Violent Drug Cartels Fear God By Damien Cave The New York Times Magazine “If the economy worked for the common good, there would be no Zetas. There would be no cartels,” says Robert Coogan, the chaplain at Cereso. Here the Zetas, Mexico’s most feared crime syndicate, run operations from the inside. And they […]
Beneath a vaulted marble sky adorned in constellations of angels, dragons, man and beast, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s coffin spent the evening before her funeral cloaked in the Union Jack inside the neo-gothic Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft. Parliament, the starting block of Thatcher’s rise to iconic power, hovers above the Chapel in […]
Years of patient diplomatic efforts by China with its belligerent neighbor North Korea seemed to be coming to an end on Saturday, following Beijing’s public announcement of an agreement with the U.S. on ridding North Korea of nuclear weapons. The action comes after last Sunday’s early warning shot by China’s President and CCP Secretary General […]
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