When Hassan Rohani won Iran’s presidential election in June, he garnered more votes than his predecessor did when he swept to power eight years before. The 64-year-old lawyer, cleric, and former diplomat will take on an economy that under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was defined by falling oil exports because of international sanctions, accelerating inflation, a […]
It would be perversely ironic if Edward Snowden’s crusade against the U.S. government Internet surveillance programs resulted in less Internet freedom in Russia. Read Here – Moscow Times
(China and the United States) have a deeper intractable challenge that will, in the longer-term, get worse. What’s interesting is that they’re the inverse of each other: in the U.S., wealth and private sector interests capture the political system. In China, politicians capture the private sector and the wealth that comes with it. Read Here […]
Two groups of people — The Muslim Brotherhood and the military — will determine Egypt’s future and it is important understand which direction events could go, writes Omar Ashour Read Here – Bloomberg
General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military strongman and once Washington’s trusted ally in the war on terror, may soon be prosecuted, the first time in the country’s history that a former army chief will face legal action for violating the constitution and tampering with its democratic institutions. Read Here – The Hindu
In March 1898, a 23-year-old Winston Churchill published his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force. In it, he advanced the best advice yet given on how an outside imperial power should deal with a country like Afghanistan. Read Here – RealClearWorld
As the United States seeks to navigate China’s rise, analysts have suggested several grand swaps between Washington and Beijing — sweeping deals, either tacit or explicit, in which the U.S. would back away from one of its long-standing Asian commitments in exchange for Chinese assistance on a separate matter of strategic importance. Read Here – […]
It does not resolve the fierce social and political struggles that have unfolded in Egypt in the two years since the removal of Hosni Mubarak. Instead, this latest turn is likely to further polarise Egyptians, already bitterly divided over the identity of the state and the role of the sacred in the political. And it […]
On July 8, 29 countries—the U.S. plus 28 countries of the EU—will begin negotiating The Biggest Trade Deal Ever. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will affect 30 percent of global commerce, eliminate $10.5 billion in tariffs, and boost trade by an estimated $280 billion a year. Read Here – Businessweek
Picture the Maldives, and you’re probably imagining crystalline waters and perfectly groomed white beaches. Yet outside the five-star resorts, real life is very different and the image of an idyllic paradise has been tarnished by the growing problems of gang violence, drug addiction, unemployment, political corruption and religious extremism. Read Here – The National
