Britain was certainly not innocent. Although it was not an overt aggressor in the run up to conflict, its policy of manipulation and inaction was very damaging. Britain may have not started the war but at the very least it did little to avoid it.
The general consensus in the literature and the media is that the US is losing the ‘war on drugs’. Rates of consumption in the US have remained roughly the same over the last ten years and the drug trade remains a multi-billion dollar industry run by a complex international network.
My most recent interview was with Madeleine Albright, the US foreign policy practitioner and policy-maker, the women’s rights implementer in foreign policy during her time as a US Ambassador to the UN and as Secretary of State, the daughter of a Czechoslovak dissident who was a recipient of US support during WWII and the Cold War, and finally as the academic examining foreign policy.
Despite the euphoria that accompanied the toppling of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s statue in Lubyanka Square in August 1991, the power of the KGB, now the FSB and the SVR, has not declined. True reform of Russia’s security services, despite some early intent, has not happened.
Not supporting the people of South Ossetia in their determination to make their voices heard and their votes count undermines the credibility of EU efforts to promote and support democracy and sends a message that it may yet be possible to get away with stealing elections.
The debate over American exceptionalism has only just begun. It appears to be at its apex during times of anxiety and crisis within the American polity. Hence, the current state of affairs in America makes the 2012 election season such a juncture.
June 2010 witnessed the opening of a new chapter in the history of the European Central Bank (ECB). Without any debate or decision-making process outside the closed doors of the ECB’s conference rooms, the Bank decided to extend its activities far beyond the field of traditional monetary policy.
Although Western publics are not casualty-phobic and presently pay little attention to body counts as the ultimate barometer for success, they are wary of supporting wars with low prospects for ultimate triumph, and casualty rates and patterns can help formulate more nuanced policy opinions.
On May 30th, 2010, former Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Mora Medina declared the drug cartel La Familia Michoacana, known simply as “La Familia,” to be the most dangerous in all of Mexico. The rise of La Familia, its bizarre ideology and indoctrination of members, and the lower-class following it has received have separated it from other DTOs in Mexico.
Much has been written about Brazil’s successful trajectory from emerging economy to emerging giant. Less attention has been given to the remaining challenges which need to be addressed.
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