In the run-up to Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997, the world wondered what officials in Beijing would do with the place. Would Hong Kong’s dynamism and openness catalyze change in China, or would the Communist Party try to remake the freewheeling city-state in its image? Read Here – Bloomberg
When the Black Death exploded in Arabia in the 14th century, killing an estimated third of the population, it spread across the Islamic world via infected religious pilgrims. Today, the Middle East is threatened with a new plague, one eponymously if not ominously named the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV, or MERS for short). Read Here […]
Underneath all the anger in Egypt lies a basic fact: The country’s economy is in deep trouble. Normally a country in such a bad way would go to the IMF for support. Instead, it has tried to play the fund and Gulf donors off one another to stay afloat. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
There is no doubt that Mr. Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who has leaked voluminous documents about U.S. programs to monitor communications, has damaged the United States, but not in the ways that he had anticipated. Read Here – Japan Times
Africa‘s thriving democracies and economies, and its alarming transnational security threats, make it more important than ever to the United States. Obama, however, has largely ignored the continent. Regardless of who wins in November, Washington cannot afford to continue on the president’s current path. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Millions of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of President Mohamed Mursi‘s inauguration to demand that he resign in the biggest challenge so far to rule by his Muslim Brotherhood. Read Here – Reuters
The efforts to re-establish ancient routes are tied up with the pragmatic needs of new nation states along the routes, such as in the former Soviet Union, for modern infrastructure and this millennium’s goals for development. Today, Unesco is perhaps less persuasive than the realpolitik of Uncad, UNDP, Unescap and ADB pooling their might to […]
Germany‘s Federal Prosecutors’ Office confirmed to SPIEGEL on Sunday that it is looking into whether systematic data spying against the country conducted by America’s National Security Agency violated laws aimed at protecting German citizens. Read Here – Der Spiegel America’s National Security Agency (NSA) is apparently spying on Germany more than previously believed. Secret documents […]
The recent rush of regional political activity is very different from Gulf states’ more established soft power initiatives. writes Francis Matthews Read Here – Gulf News
As events in Turkey affirm, repression tactics such as threats, arrests, the deployment of riot police, use of gas bombs, rubber bullets and water cannons are combative tactics that escalate conflict rather than subdue protesters. This escalation is marked by an increase in the number of groups and individuals pulled into the conflict and the […]
