On December 28, The United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced that the December 31 deadline for complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons will not be met. Citing “a number of external factors,” the announcement by the UN and the OPCW signals a failure of the international community to meet a … Read more
Even as the Somalian pirate movie Captain Phillips receives rave reviews, airwaves that had been rife with Somali pirate stories are now strangely silent. At first glance, piracy in the once perilous Gulf of Eden seems to have gone AWOL as camera lenses refocus on land conflict between the Somali government and Islamist terror group … Read more
One of the more interesting, if underreported, elements of China’s recent rise is its development of a sophisticated domestic space program. While China’s history in space goes back to the 1970 launch of their first satellite Dong Fang Hong I (“The East is Red I”), the most politically significant phase of the program began in … Read more
Editor’s note: For another perspective, check out staff writer’s Andrew Ma’s article, “Europe’s Decline.” If the 19th Century is known for European hegemony, the 20th Century is known for European division. For decades, the continent served as a center of multilateral conflict, ethnic tension, and wildly divergent foreign policies and ideology. Now, however, for the … Read more
Editor’s note: For another perspective, check out staff writer Nicholas Bonstow’s article, “Europe’s New Rise.” Nowadays, when we think of the UN, we think of old Westerners sitting at a table, working out issues for some unfortunate and unrelated country that direly needs foreign aid. A general sense of Eurocentrism permeates these images of international … Read more
Editor’s note: For another perspective, check out staff writer Nicholas Bonstow’s article, “Europe’s New Rise.” Nowadays, when we think of the UN, we think of old Westerners sitting at a table, working out issues for some unfortunate and unrelated country that direly needs foreign aid. A general sense of Eurocentrism permeates these images of international … Read more
Editor’s note: For another perspective, check out staff writer’s Andrew Ma’s article, “Europe’s Decline.” If the 19th Century is known for European hegemony, the 20th Century is known for European division. For decades, the continent served as a center of multilateral conflict, ethnic tension, and wildly divergent foreign policies and ideology. Now, however, for the … Read more
Violence, lawlessness, and impunity—these words are common in the international vocabulary that surrounds the Central African Republic. As one of the least-developed countries in the world, this former French colony of Ubangi-Shari, sitting between the DRC, Sudan, and Chad, had been crippled by three decades of military misrule until the establishment of civilian government in … Read more
Several days after the news of an interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) penned an editorial summarizing many conservative criticisms of the agreement. Partisan politics aside, Republicans have consistently been much more hawkish on the issue of Iran, as evidenced by moments such as John McCain’s famous “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” gaffe … Read more
[LETTER FROM ACCRA] Sabria, a 17-year-old young woman from the Northern Region, came to Accra in early 2013 to make some money to provide for herself and her then one-year-old baby, Rashid. She now works as a head porter at Agbogloshie market, one of the major trading centers in the city. After becoming pregnant at … Read more