Category: Blogs

From dictatorship to democracy: Can Belarus make history on Sunday?

By Nicolai Khalezin

Belarusians go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential vote that is being billed as the biggest challenge to President Lukashenko for 26 years. Will the international community back the country's democratic opposition?

Jordan protests met with repression as government changes tactics

By Tuqa Nusairat

The Jordanian government must make a concerted effort to address the serious economic challenges and disparities that have marginalized a majority of Jordanians with little options left but to strike or protest the conditions they face.

The IMF, the World Bank, and South Asia in the face of COVID-19

By Capucine Querenet

Given the region’s deteriorating economic outlook, heavy funding from International Financial Institutions (IFIs) is crucial to prevent a prolonged public health crisis and financial woes. Unfortunately, this has not yet materialized.

Global deaths reach 700,000 as Vietnam battles infection rise and Melbourne hunkers down

By Atlantic Council

The global coronavirus death toll now exceeds 700,000, with an estimate death every fifteen seconds. Infections spread in Vietnam, while the Australian city of Melbourne embarks on the toughest lockdown yet. But even in a pandemic people can’t forgo those little luxuries to keep them going—from coffee to bubble tea or burritos—Bloomberg says.

Thirty years after Iraq invasion of Kuwait, lessons for the US today

By Harlan Ullman

A retrospective look at Shield/Storm is applicable to the current National Defense Strategy and its mandate to deter and—if war comes—defeat an array of potential adversaries

Scenes from a broken Beirut

By Nicholas Blanford

My apartment was heavily damaged by the explosion. All the windows were gone, the frames blasted out, even on the other side of the building from the explosion. I spoke to friends and colleagues in the area. They all have tales about calamities, material and personal, that have befallen them.

From Russian war to European opportunity: Reinventing eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region

By Oleksii Reznikov

Putin has place eastern Ukraine's Donbas region at the heart of his "Russian World" mythology, but in reality the region has a cosmopolitan heritage that could help to inspire a new era of European investment.

Extreme heat: What can be done to stop this “silent killer”?

While extreme heat is one of the planet’s clearest signals of global warming—last year was the world’s second hottest since 1880—it remains an invisible threat: a “silent killer” lurking in relatively clear view.

Three years after the Caliphate, Iraq’s Christians find little incentive to return

By Paul Gadalla

The region’s few remaining Christians find themselves caught between Iran-backed Shia militias and an Iraqi government that, nearly twenty years after the American invasion, is politically paralyzed and still unable to provide basic security and services—let alone protect the country’s embattled minority populations.

As COVID-19 spreads, Africa needs another “London Moment”

By Vasuki Shastry and Jeremy Mark

Last month’s Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers’ meeting proved that the international community is too cautious about helping Africa in its time of need. Is the G20 prepared to face the consequences of its inaction?