IMF Scares With Global Slowdown Warning
World economic growth will struggle to accelerate this year as a U.S. expansion weakens,China’s economy levels off and Europe’s recession deepens, the International Monetary Fund said. Read Here – Bloomberg
The New Killing Machines
More and more, unmanned machines such as drones are waging war. So far, governments kept humans as the operators. But now militaries worldwide are developing armed autonomous robots with the capacity to use lethal force on their own. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Myanmar’s Mad Monks
Myanmar is home to a growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment, as seen in the troubling 969 movement. The numerical significance of the digits is rooted in Buddhism’s Three Jewels (Tiratana), which comprise 24 attributes: nine special attributes of Lord Buddha, six core Buddhist teachings, and nine attributes of monkhood. Read Here – The Diplomat
Iran: New President, New Reforms
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 […]
Is Digital Sovereignty The Right To Spy On Citizens?
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
Inverse Dilemmas
(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 […]
For Egyptian Army It’s A Choice Between Turkey and Algeria
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
A Trial That Pakistan Needs
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
Churchill And Afghanistan
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
Please Think Small
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 – […]
