In The News

Prospects for the upcoming talks between the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan, and Russia already look bleak. Although officials of the participating countries – particularly South Korea – are trying to stay optimistic and are suggesting measures to regularize the multilateral talks, many feel that there is little hope for a successful outcome, unless the deadlock between Washington and Pyongyang...

North Korea's announcement that it is willing to proceed with six-way talks on its nuclear program is no guarantee that progress will be made when its representatives meet with those of the US and other countries in Beijing later this month. This article in The Korea Herald says that the future of the talks and Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program depends on the resolution...

Just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once created mock villages in the Ukraine and the Crimea to convince Catherine the Great of her empire’s health, so may the continent’s modern benefactors be deluding themselves and the world about its progress, argues Michael Holman, former Africa editor of the Financial Times. Sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in poverty, disease, and debt, yet manufactured...