In The News

Ebola Crisis: Council on Foreign Relations

Claire Felter June 20, 2019
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo officially started in August of 2018, in the northeastern regions of the country bordering Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. Claiming more than 1,300 deaths, with cases doubling in the past three months, the Ebola crisis is escalating but remains second place to the 2014-2016 outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people. The World Health...

Putin’s Moves in Venezuela: Bloomberg

Eli Lake March 27, 2019
Venezuela is in crisis with corruption, food shortages and power outages. The international community remains divided over a remedy. The United States supports new leadership, represented by Juan Guaido, president of the National Assembly, after a disputed election. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov describes such support as a US-led coup and supports the Nicolas Maduro regime, in power...

Sanctions or Saving Lives? Foreign Policy

Colum Lynch March 25, 2019
Since the start of this year, the Trump administration has gradually lifted key sanctions placed on North Korea after its maximum-pressure campaign received criticism from relief agencies and international organizations for denying life-saving supplies for the impoverished nation. These lifted restrictions include a freeze on the inflow of medical supplies and relief workers into Pyongyang. Many...

Cyclone Idai and Mozambique: BBC

March 19, 2019
Mozambique ranks among the world’s poorest nations and recovery from Cyclone Idai will be a challenge. Also hit hard: Zimbabwe and Mali. The storm made landfall in Beira on March 14 and aid teams arrived to find the fourth largest city, population 500,000, mostly destroyed with no power or telecommunications. People escaped by climbing to roofs and trees, and severely damaged roads and...

Showdown Over Aid for Venezuela: New York Times

Nicholas Casey, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Ernesto Londoño February 23, 2019
Venezuelans have suffered for years from shortages of food and other necessities due to economic mismanagement by the regime led by Nicolás Maduro since 2013. More than 10 percent of the country’s population has already fled, the violence exacerbating a refugee crisis International aid supplies are waiting near the border in Brazil and Colombia. Opposition leader and head of the country’s...

New York Times: US Africa Strategy Counters China

Mark Landler and Edward Wong December 14, 2018
The United States plans to devote more funding and attention on Africa, according to National Security Adviser John Bolton. He suggests the threat for Africa is not poverty or extremism but expanding Chinese influence. “Bolton conceded that the United States had limited resources to compete with the tens of billions of dollars China is pouring into Africa,” report Mark Landler and Edward Wong for...

Chronicle of Higher Education: MIT-Saudi Partnerships

Steven Johnson December 12, 2018
Organizations of all types are reviewing partnerships with Saudi Arabia since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was among the first universities to review ties, including $25 million for MIT research from Saudi Aramco. Gifts from Saudi donors account for about 40 percent of overall spending in recent years,...