France’s predominant role in international operations like the NATO-led mission over Libya–or this week’s United Nations helicopter strikes in Ivory Coast–have generated a flurry of media reports suggesting formerly Clark Kent-like French diplomats have shed their earlier mild mannered restraint, and have started wading into …
Democracy
Grameen’s Yunus Loses Appeal, But His Fight Continues
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has rejected Mohammad Yunus’ appeal to continue as head of the Grameen Bank. This is bad news for Yunus, certainly, but not the end. Yunus, a pioneer of microfinance and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize, has been under pressure for months, with the Bangladeshi government first floating charges of financial …
Ivory Coast: As Violence Intensifies, U.N. Finally Enters the Fray
For weeks, the U.N.’s mission in the Ivory Coast has sat pinned down in its quarters, watching as this West African country lurched toward civil war. An escalating conflict between the rival forces of Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara has led to hundreds, probably thousands of deaths and has displaced, by some counts, over a million …
Democracy, Kazakh Style: Where the Challenger Votes for the Incumbent
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled this Central Asian state for the entirety of its independent existence following the disintegration of the U.S.S.R, cruised to reelection this Sunday in polls that reportedly saw over 90% of eligible voters turn out. Critics, though, say the election was a choreographed farce. …
Not Another Day in the Life of Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and political activist who was detained Sunday at the Beijing airport while trying to fly to Hong Kong, has been blocked from leaving the country before. He was prevented from flying to South Korea in December, shortly before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Ai has …
Should France’s Moderate Conservatives Dump Sarkozy Before It’s Too Late?
The U.S. Republican party isn’t the only big conservative force in Western politics experiencing divisions between its traditionally moderate majority and a defiantly rightward-leaning wing. France’s ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) is similarly witnessing public clashes between internal factions generated by efforts to …
Carter in Cuba: The Long Road to Freeing a U.S. Prisoner – and Thawing U.S.-Cuba Relations
Question: If former U.S. President Jimmy Carter didn’t go to Cuba this week to win the freedom of jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross, what was he there for? Answer: To win the freedom of jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross – but down the road. And that road could be a long one.
Gross, 61, a Maryland lawyer, was arrested in Cuba in …
In Cairo, Revolutionary Zeal Turns Into Revolutionary Tchotchkes
The following post is by reporter and videojournalist Jesse Hardman
Egypt’s Jan. 25 uprising might have freed the country politically, but it also significantly disrupted the local economy. Around Cairo, with tourism dead and business in general down, people are looking for ways to stay afloat financially. Many have turned to the …
What’s at Stake at the London Meeting on Libya?
The following is a guest post by TIME‘s Vivienne Walt, who is attending the meeting in London over the future of Libya.
Ten days after French and U.S. jets launched Operation Odyssey Dawn in an effort to halt Muammar Gaddafi’s advance on Libyan rebels, the 37 countries involved in the sprawling military coalition converged in London …
China’s ‘Jasmine Revolution’ Crackdown Shows No Sign of Easing
More than a month after an online call for anti-government protests in major Chinese cities, a crackdown on dissent continues. On Friday writer Ran Yunfei, who has been in police custody since February 19, was formally arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” the advocacy group Human Rights in China …
Israeli Historian Reckons Syria’s Assad Will Fight to the End
Moshe Ma’oz has spent his adult life studying Syria. He advised Israeli Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin on how best to make peace with the regime headed Hafez Assad, the father of the current president, Bashar Assad, who faces protests across the country. The rebellion is clearly triggered by the revolts known …
More Polling, More Bad News For Sarkozy
French pundits who had feared an historically high score by the extreme-right National Front (FN) in Sunday’s second round of local polling breathed a sigh of relief when the party’s tally didn’t meet expectations. But while the FN’s 11% performance was well below its 15% first-round take—and nearly half of the 20% result some …
Canada’s Government Collapses: What’s Next?
Guest post written by TIME’s Megan Gibson
In a year when myriad governments have had their authority challenged, add one more to the list. We’ve seen Libya and Syria’s regimes reel in the face of mass uprisings, and Tunisia and Egypt’s leaders depart. And now… Canada?
Though not quite as tumultuous as events in the Middle …