Is the Muslim Brotherhood dying? In Egypt and throughout the Arab world, Brotherhood-affiliated parties are suffering an unprecedented series of setbacks that cast real doubt on the long-term viability of that version of Islamist politics. Read Here – The National, Abu Dhabi
For Arvind Mayaram, India’s push to avoid having its credit rating cut to junk means he’ll have to forgo caviar and a two-meter-long flat bed in first class on his flight from New Delhi to Washington D.C. this week. Read Here – Bloomberg
An unmistakable sense of unease has been growing in capitals around the world as the U.S. government from afar looks increasingly befuddled — shirking from a military confrontation in Syria, stymied at home by a gridlocked Congress and in danger of defaulting on sovereign debt, which could plunge the world’s financial system into chaos. Read […]
As president, (Barack) Obama has put all his knowledge of and experience with pop culture to work. His great insight has been that by being part of pop culture—being a celebrity himself—a president can influence how pop culture portrays him. Read Here – The Commentary
For over a quarter century, the one figure that dominated discussion of China’s economy was this: eight percent. Beginning in 1982, when leader Deng Xiaoping established the percentage as necessary to quadruple the size of the country’s GDP by 2000, China has seldom failed to achieve it—even in 2009, when the world was enduring the worst downturn since the Great Depression. […]
Obama’s failure to don a batik shirt for the closing photo shoot of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit changes little. In addition, if the past is any guide, China’s leaders will once again overplay their hand. For many of its neighbors, China’s uncompromising stance on sovereignty over various disputed atolls and islands is just too alienating. Read […]
Twenty years ago on October 4, months of political conflict climaxed when President Boris Yeltsin ordered the army to shell and storm the country’s legislature. Read Here – The Atlantic
The heart of Facebook’s experiment lies just south of the Arctic Circle, in the Swedish town of Luleå. In the middle of a forest at the edge of town, the company in June opened its latest mega-sized data center, a giant building that comprises thousands of rectangular metal panels and looks like a wayward spaceship. […]
The departure of Gambia and the fight over the Sri Lankan summit reveal how weak Commonwealth institutions have become. The secretariat is accused of actively dodging any politically sensitive issue, and its reticence to speak out means that the Commonwealth suffers from a very low public profile. A 2009 poll in seven countries showed than […]
President Obama’s trimming of stops on a trip to Asia this month has raised questions locally about the US government’s two-year-old re-balancing of resources to the region, a shift embraced by allies such as Japan and the Philippines as their common rival China looms larger. Read Here – Christian Science Monitor
