Even while American news outlets drone on about the November presidential elections at least 4.7 million people in South Sudan are at risk everyday of severe food shortages. That’s half the population of the newest country in the world, having wrested independence from Sudan. In the Nuba Mountains alone, more than 1million people are starving. Suffering […]
In my first post as part of the Foreign Policy Blog Network, I summarized Peruvian President Ollanta Humala’s efforts to appease the markets through pro-business Cabinet appointments. In two well-respected placements, Luis Miguel Castilla became Finance Minister, and Julio Velarde stayed on as Central Bank Head. Humala hoped to marry economic growth with […]
An aspiring writer in the 1940s, Carlos Fuentes was cautioned by his diplomat father to get a real job. Instead, Carlos threaded the needle: he satisficed padre by acquiring a law degree. Then he spent two decades as a Mexican diplomat, managing to resign twice for more or less the same reason: in 1968 he […]
In a recent discussion on Argentina’s expropriation of YPF there was much commentary on how the Falklands issue was still one of great importance. Seeing Argentina as independent and able to move ahead, despite having poor relations with the Europeans, created a healthy debate on the issue. As the moderator of the posts I create, […]
Obama’s Endorsement is Already Creating New Political Realities NEW YORK – Engaged gay couples are the newest group to be courted in the Mid-East Conflict. A massive outdoor mural in Manhattan’s West Village depicts two men holding hands while looking at scales that weigh the gay rights enjoyed in Israel versus the homosexual persecution in […]
There were many dangers faced by reporters during the four-year Bosnia war. Gunfire. Freezing. Food poisoning. Checkpoints manned by drugged out crazies. Yet one fear stood out, and it was usually away from the fighting. That was going to Zenica, a city in the central part of the area controlled by the Bosnian government. The […]
How do you tell the story of the latest notice of violence in Syria, the devastating twinned car bombs in Damascus that killed at least 55 people, of Syria’s politics and the illegitimate government’s repression against its own people without admitting that one way or another the terrifying status quo–8000 people, or many more, dead– […]
Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, pundits, politicians, and casual observers have all wondered and speculated what the effects of the uprisings will mean for Israel. Will the peace-treaty with Egypt hold? What will happen on the Syrian border? What is going on with Israel’s own Arab population? In this episode of Understanding Israel I speak […]
Pedestaled by the Andes at 12,000 ft above sea level, Bolivia is one of the most closed off countries in the world. Since coming to office in 2005, President Evo Morales has increased the isolation by implementing a range of measures to discourage foreign investment; most recently, on May 1 he announced the nationalization of […]
Last November during Eid-al-Adha, a week-long holiday when the Haj culminates, I was able to escape crowded Kabul for the western city of Herat. An old city-state linked historically with the Persian empire, Herat was known in its 1500s heyday for poetry and miniaturist painting. It’s also famous for the fine tilework on its mausoleums and […]
I have yet to address Argentina directly in any of my entries, but fear has brought the nation’s business climate to the front of my mind. The deluge of press on President Kirchner’s nationalization of oil producer YPF has resurrected old demons. The act looms like the self-inflicted wounds that caused the currency crisis in […]
On May 6th, Greece will have the most important election of its post junta era. The sovereign debt crisis has humbled the country and the EU imposed austerity measures have angered the people. Unlike the Koskota scandal that led to the 1989 coalition government between Nea Dimocratia (ND) and the Communist Party, the stakes are […]
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