By Kevjn Lim
Many intelligence agencies were caught off guard by the Arab Spring in 2011. Similarly, many agencies failed to anticipate the Islamic State taking over Mosul in 2014. Yet, the reasons behind these instances of strategic surprise weren’t new at all. They were already apparent over 25 years before prior to the Iranian Revolution, and still pervade contemporary intelligence work.
Read MoreBy Zenna Johar
The United Nations recently called for its member states to show increased commitment to building sustainable and inclusive societies through the implementation of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The third goal is to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” by reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.
Read MoreBy Mina Al-Oraibi
Ten years ago today, 9.7 million Iraqis ignored the naysayers and, braving threats of violence and bombs, voted in a referendum on their new constitution.
Read MoreBy Juan Zero
On August 27, 2015, seventy-one refugees were found to have suffocated to death in a frozen food truck that was abandoned on the Austria-Hungary border.
Read MoreBy Nikias Stefanakis
The short answer is “no”—our standards for declaring corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives a success are not good enough. Collectively, international development supporters seem content to draw positive conclusions about CSR initiatives before there has been enough evidence of their long-term success.
Read MoreBy Eliot Pence
No one truly knows what we are doing in development. We have spent billions of dollars and do not have much to show for it. Critics often point out that China has contributed more than any other country in reducing global poverty, despite having received nearly no development assistance.
Read MoreBy Jennifer J. Carroll
While we should acknowledge the experience and knowledge of regional experts, even those distracted by right-wing actors, no one has more authority to characterize what Ukrainian activists are up to than those activists themselves, and they are telling a different story. We should listen.
Read MoreBy Arthur de Liedekerke
Poland’s recent announcement that it would move thousands of troops from the country’s western border to its eastern one—a historic realignment—highlights the consternation that the Ukrainian crisis has sparked among countries in the region.
Read MoreBy Isaac S. Medina
For centuries, the great civilizations of India and China have been separated by the natural barrier of the Himalayas, largely keeping the two civilizations from encroaching on one another’s sphere of influence.
Read MoreBy Jack Miller
Since the late 1990s, a comprehensive discussion relating to changes in the nature of warfare and the military development of conventional state actors has been progressing in U.S. policy circles.
Read MoreBy Chris Lockyear
As hundreds of thousands of people in South Sudan struggle to survive the brutal conflict there, South Sudan’s labor minister recently dealt a potentially devastating blow: he ordered all international workers to leave the country.
Read MoreBy Probal DasGupta
Around 2005, South Asia was a patchwork of two dictatorships, two monarchies, and three democracies—including one engaged in a civil war.
Read MoreBy Andrew Taffer
Since the end of World War II, China has been involved in more territorial disputes than any other state. The vast majority of them, 17 out of 23 according to M. Taylor Fravel, have been settled by bilateral agreements, “usually by compromising over the sovereignty of contested land.”
Read MoreBy Nathan Hopson
Perhaps this is unfair—there are, of course, many topics “missing,” because no journal or news source can cover everything—and it certainly reflects my own biases. But my question remains: where is Japan?
Read MoreBy Masoud Movahed
With thousands of engineers designing national vehicles, the auto industry is the second largest sector in the economy outside of oil and offers a huge chunk of employment opportunity to Iran’s young population.
Read MoreBy Michael Reed Hurtado
The Colombian government says that security sector reform is off-limits at the peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The government may have its reasons, but that should not leave security sector reform off-limits for Colombian citizenry and the international community.
Read MoreBy Ali Wyne
In discussions of America’s present and prospects, few notions are as common as that of “two Americas”: the haves and have-nots, the red states and blue states, and so forth. One might add another pair to the list: the resurgent and the dysfunctional.
Read MoreBy Jeff Roquen
At the end of the Cold War a quarter of a century ago, a little-known army officer – Omar al-Bashir – conducted a coup d’etat in Sudan.
Read MoreBy Rachel Bergenfield & Erik Heinonen
The U.S. Farm Bill, signed into law on 7 February, includes crucial, overdue reforms to food aid policy.
Read MoreBy Will Hickey
The Indonesian Rupiah’s recent slump to 12,300 to the dollar was entirely predictable.
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