Today’s announcement of Qaddafi’s death is a reminder of the remarkable geopolitical shift taking place in North Africa and the Middle East, one that has the opportunity to radically alter decades of static rule, corruption and oppression. The Arab Spring, or Arab Awakening, or Great Uprising certainly also creates vast challenges, and for the international […]
Suffice to say, the Foreign Policy Association’s National Opinion Ballot confirmed an attitude that’s prevalent in the foreign policy community. Key findings suggest that some defense budget cuts are necessary, global financial regulatory regimes are welcome and opposition to military adventurism is robust. Perhaps most importantly, disillusionment with the huge costs and uncertain outcomes of […]
On August 16, Ecuador police commander General Wilson Alulema announced that the nation’s 42,000 police officers will each take lie detector tests. The rule stems from the September 30, 2010 incident when large numbers of police verbally and physically abused President Rafael Correa, culminating in the army’s rescue of the President from a hospital where […]
This week FPA.org presented the results of the FPA’s National Opinion Ballot Report that surveyed many policy experts on key issued related to US foreign policy. With over 200,000 policy experts contributing to the survey, it was found that respondents were in favour of an increase of counterinsurgency efforts as opposed to funding traditional warfare […]
Watched an extraordinary episode on PBS last night on how the women of Liberia stopped a long running civil war in Liberia. Its part of a series PBS is doing and is definitely worth watching. Here’s the summary of the program from the PBS web site. Introducing Women, War & Peace Episode 2: Pray the […]
The main political parties in the UK have just finished up their annual conferences, and by and large, they were rather dull affairs this time around. However, along the fringes of the Conservative Party conference, the Scottish branch was preparing to, possibly, go out of business. The Tories in Scotland, officially known as the Scottish […]
Whether it provides an opportunity, or compromises our right to food, many of the currently used bio-fuel crops such as soybean, sugarcane and corn are traditionally used as staples. These staple food crops also have various other uses, such as animal feed, and for all intents and purposes, occupy the same soil or agricultural land. […]
Market analysts and economists can never fully judge the promise of an incoming president, but in Latin America they provide a welcome unbiased gauge for doing so. In the case of Peru, said analysts and economists are confused. The numerical confusion reflects the conflicted vision of President-Elect Ollanta Humala: maintain Peru’s revered economic prosperity while […]
The following is a report from the Israeli newspaper, Haartez: The list of Palestinian prisoners due to be released as part of a exchange deal that would secure the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit includes many names rejected by past Israeli governments as being too dangerous to release. One of […]
According to the official Hamas website, Marwan Barghouti, along with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary General Ahmad Sa’adat, will be released from Israeli prisons. The two are part of a deal that is believed to bring the release of about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad […]
According to reports from various media outlets and Hamas and Israeli officials, Hamas and Israel have reached a prisoner swap agreement that will see the release of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. Officials from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have confirmed the talks. Corporal Shalit was abducted by Hamas during a cross border […]
Today’s announcement that President Sirleaf of Liberia has won the Nobel Peace certainly must have come as great news to the head of the Unity Party’s reelection committee in Monrovia. What a gift to have your candidate win the Nobel Prize just days before a hotly contested election. I think it is fair to question […]
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