Beyond the debt, the rallies, and the latest Republican remarks, one may have noticed two quieter developments in Eastern Africa recently. In the course of the past week, two military interventions have emerged in this region. One originates in the United States, where 100 military advisers were just deployed to Uganda for the purpose of … Read more
In the context of the Arab Spring, issues of minority rights in the Middle East have become increasingly relevant. The challenge of creating a pluralistic democracy that recognizes and respects the rights of all religious, ethnic, and cultural groups is substantial in countries with a long history of having systematically abused those rights. Recently, the … Read more
“In a country of contradictions, a generation leads double lives.” The white words hang starkly against a black background in the trailer for My Tehran for Sale, the film that has landed lead actress Marzieh Vafamehr 90 lashes and a year in prison. The film was an official selection in the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 … Read more
“In a country of contradictions, a generation leads double lives.” The white words hang starkly against a black background in the trailer for My Tehran for Sale, the film that has landed lead actress Marzieh Vafamehr 90 lashes and a year in prison. The film was an official selection in the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 … Read more
Last week, following intense negotiations between Likud and Hamas, Binyamin Netenyahu announced that 1,027 Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006. The agreement was brokered by Egypt, who received a formal apology from Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak in reciprocation. This news was met … Read more
Leading water conservationist, Amy Vickers put it rather succinctly: “America’s biggest drinking problem isn’t alcohol, it’s lawn watering.” Rare, yet essential to life, fresh water is the precious elixir we take for granted. Among all of the environmental specters confronting humanity in the 21st century – global warming, destroyed rainforests, over-fished seas – the catastrophic shortage … Read more
Anwar Al-Awlaki is dead. We killed him. The man who we fingered as a siren of terror, who allegedly brought scores of converts to Al-Qaeda, including the Underwear Bomber, Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab, and the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan. To phrase it less positively, the United States government without trial, judicial oversight, or even a … Read more
The Chinese television show Super Girls, an American idol knockoff that airs in China, had over 400 million people tune into its season finale in 2005 and continued to command a large viewership. Even as a proportion of the Chinese population, such a level of success in the United States would be roughly equivalent to … Read more
Throughout history, many people have posited the “end of history” as a certain form of government, whether communist, absolute monarchy, or most recently, liberal democracy, that is the ultimate formulation of human society and to which, no other legitimate contenders can or should arise as challengers. Most recently, this concept was laid forth by Francis … Read more
When the Euro was introduced, many analysts predicted that centralizing monetary policy over such an economically diverse area would make the common currency unsustainable and prone to financial collapse. Why they were right, why they’re being ignored, and what must be done about it. In 1999, when the Euro was introduced into circulation, economists were … Read more