In The News

Will the Real Iran Please Stand Up?

Robert A. Manning April 28, 2015
The nations negotiating to curb Iran’s nuclear research program are divided over strategy, including the intensity of inspections and the schedule for lifting sanctions. Iran is divided, too, explains Robert A. Manning, a senior fellow of the Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security at the Atlantic Council and its Strategic Foresight Initiative. Iranian leaders are issuing conflicting...

North Korea Tactic: Discredit Reports of Human-Rights Abuses

Steven Borowiec March 24, 2015
In 2013, the UN Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, mandating an investigation of violations including the right to food; torture and inhuman treatment inside prison camps; severe limits on freedom of expression, the right to life, freedom of movement; and enforced disappearances, including in the form of...

Netanyahu’s Win Is Good for Palestine

Yousef Munayyer March 19, 2015
Benjamin Netanyahu handily won re-election in Israel, in part perhaps to a last-minute declaration that he would not support a Palestinian state. “Netanyahu’s victory is actually the best plausible outcome for those seeking to end Israel’s occupation,” writes Yousef Munayyer in an opinion essay for the New York Times, adding that “political dynamics in Israel and internationally mean that another...

4 Years in to the Syria Conflict, How Are We Handling the Biggest Humanitarian Crisis of Our Time?

Justin Forsyth March 18, 2015
The civil war in Syria has left more than 210,000 dead and 10 million displaced. “Aid agencies are running refugee camps, clinics and education programmes that reach millions of people,” writes Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children for the New Statesman. “But the ability of the humanitarian system to reach everyone who needs assistance in Syria is in question. The war has exposed the cracks...

5 Key Takeaways From the Latest Climate Change Report

Elizabeth Shogren November 3, 2014
Researchers on climate change are adamant: Global leaders should act immediately to end reliance on fossil fuels and carbon emissions –otherwise, expect irreversible damage by the year 2100. The United Nations has released the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which “pulls together the conclusions of three IPCC working groups, which issued reports over the past...

China's Island Factory

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes September 9, 2014
Since 2012, China’s Communist Party has regarded the South China Sea as a “core national interest” – a list that has also included Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. Using its large cash reserve, labor and skills, China is constructing new islands on at least five submerged reefs in the South China Sea to support its territorial claims, reports Rupert Wingfield-Hayes for BBC News. The Philippines Navy...

The Silence of the BRICS

Jaswant Singh September 5, 2014
Peace eludes the world, and moral authority is lacking. “For many, this global rudderlessness recalls Europe’s sleepwalk into catastrophe 100 years ago,” writes Jaswant Singh, former foreign minister of India for Project Syndicate. His essay reflects deep worry that a reckless accident or attack by just one person, combined with global tensions and nations’ refusal to accept borders, could...