“Boeing 777 will struggle to maintain altitude when fuel tanks are empty” ran a CNN headline on March 31, 2014. Across America, millions of eyes were glued to the television set. “This is the most outstanding and life-changing story that I’ve ever had the privilege of watching,” said no one. “What trailblazing, groundbreaking journalism!” said … Read more
With its recent annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the Russian Federation has amazed the international community once again. The permanent member of United Nations Security Council, which should logically preserve international law protecting national sovereignty, impudently violated and annexed a sovereign country’s territory. A majority of international leaders have condemned Russia for its actions. However, … Read more
The unrest that dethroned Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure and his administration in 2012 has marred the country for the past two years, generating a stream of conflicts involving the military, the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), and Islamic fundamentalist groups. Several towns have been taken over by combatants, who in … Read more
In the spring of 1994, South Africa overcame mountainous obstacles to end apartheid and elect Nelson Mandela as its first black president. Twenty years later, it’s facing many more challenges, this time without the leadership of the man who united and healed a nation bitterly divided. Mandela left behind a legacy of democracy that in … Read more
“We will not stop until we have a revolution!” yelled several protestors, collected in Piazza Castello in Turin, Italy. It was December 9, 2013 and the movement known as “I Forconi” (the Pitchforks) was at the peak of its strength, paralyzing many Italian freeways, commercial centers, and other strategic hotspots. With leafleting, demonstrations, and violence, … Read more
In November of last year, Iran and a six-nation group that included the U.N. Security Council and Germany signed a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Regardless of whether a permanent deal can be reached, the apparent policy shift on the part of Iranian leaders seems to validate the sanctions imposed by the United States, … Read more
Much of the international attention on Russia’s incursion into the Crimean Peninsula has focused on narratives of Russian strength and American weakness. Commentators from Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post to Foreign Policy CEO and Editor-at-Large David Rothkopf have issued both implicit and overt criticisms of the “weak” American response to Russian aggression. The prevailing … Read more
On Monday, March 10, a Russian Soyuz vehicle currently docked with the International Space Station is due to land in Kazakhstan with three passengers onboard. One of those three, Colonel Michael Hopkins, is an American astronaut that has been aboard the orbiting laboratory since September of last year. Under normal circumstances this would be a … Read more
It reads like something out of a Cold War drama: a former Soviet satellite convulsing with protestors; a communist sympathizing President ousted from power; statues of Lenin toppling across the country; and a battle for influence between old-time geopolitical foes. In the balance hangs the future of Ukraine, along with the fortunes of its 46 … Read more
On February 26, Egypt’s most powerful man, Minister of Defense and Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, declared that he would not run for president, according to a Reuters-documented government source. After months of speculation, the Egyptian people, weathered by three years of sporadic revolutionary activity and starved of much-needed economic and political change, were looking … Read more