Seven months of often bitter fighting and up to 30,000 casualties notwithstanding, Libya’s civil war to end the regime of Col. Muammar Gaddafi was relatively easy for its regional and international stakeholder — at least it was when compared with the challenge of responding the increasingly bloody standoff in Syria. As the Arab League …
Dictatorships
Straight Out of Cairo: Tahrir Square Shows Solidarity with Occupy Oakland
This past Wednesday, walking home from dinner, I stumbled into a couple hundred Occupy Wall Street protesters noisily charging through Soho in solidarity with the throngs at Occupy Oakland who had been tear-gassed by police the day before. They were marching in the middle of the street, chanting and singing and disrupting traffic …
Game of Thrones: Why the Saudi Succession Spells Instability in the Long Term
The death of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Sultan on Saturday came as no surprise. For years the 86-year-old Saudi defense minister and brother to the king had been ailing, and in fact had been undergoing treatment for cancer in the United States when he died. The appointment of another brother, Prince Nayef, 78, as King Abdullah’s …
Gaddafi Now Dead, Has Third World Solidarity Died with Him?
One of the more farcical moments in a reign steeped in the bizarre, Muammar Gaddafi’s 2008 coronation as the “king of kings” of Africa was an elaborate ceremony attended by a couple hundred African royals. From a mock throne, wielding a gleaming scepter, Gaddafi urged greater African unity, calling on the formation of a “United …
A Novel Response to the World’s Worst Famine: War.
In September, Somalis kidnappers kill a British tourist and his wife; later they kidnap a disabled French tourist, who subsequently dies; then in October they abduct two Spanish aid workers. In reply Kenya, whose economy depends heavily on tourism, sends hundreds of troops into southern Somalia in pursuit of an al-Qaeda affiliate, …
From Headline News to Banned Search Topic—China’s Take on Occupy Wall Street
China’s state-controlled media seem to enjoy giving a good lecture—particularly when the target is a meddlesome Western government that gives its own sermons on China’s human rights record. So when the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests laid bare American disaffection with the country’s imbalanced financial system, China’s …
Tunisian Elections: From Yesterday’s Most Wanted to Tomorrow’s Leaders
“No one will dare propose himself as a dictator. No one. The best institution we have now is the street,” says Mohamed Ali Harrath. The description could easily fit Libya, feverishly celebrating the death of Muammar Gaddafi, or Egypt, gearing up for parliamentary elections in November, the first since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. But Harrath …
Gaddafi’s Death Starts a Perilous Race for Power in Libya
The ignominious end of Col. Muammar Gaddafi may mark a milestone of liberation beyond the wildest dreams and prayers of his long-suffering people just a short year ago, but it also represents a huge headache for Libya’s fragile transitional rulers: Gone is the common enemy that bound together a diverse and often fractious coalition …
Keeping Up with the Gaddafis: A Who’s Who of the Dictator’s Children
With the death of Muammar Gaddafi, TIME looks at the eight children (and one nephew who was adopted as a son) Gaddafi had groomed — to varying extents — to carry his perplexing, brutal legacy forward.
North Korean State Press Writes About Occupy Wall Street
Usually when faced with a report from Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, one braces for outlandish propaganda-speak and inflammatory rhetoric. This is the news service, after all, that said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looked “like a pensioner going shopping.” But KCNA’s press release …
Burma Announces a Mass Prisoner Amnesty— Is Real Reform Next?
Squeezed between booming India and equally booming China, Burma has long felt like a time capsule of repressive rule, economic mismanagement and military dominance. But is change finally coming to this strategic crossroads? On Oct. 11, in a state T.V. announcement emblazoned with a “breaking news” banner, the country’s …
Russia’s Putin Visits Beijing: Friendly Neighbors or Strategic Competitors?
Regular readers of stories from China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency know that relations between China and nearly every country whose leader visits Beijing merit a positive appraisal. “Malawi treasures its friendship with China and is grateful for China’s selfless support for Malawi’s national development,” gushed one …
Awkward Anniversary: China Marks the Centenary of the 1911 Revolution
In a country that claims five millennia of history, what’s a mere century? Oct. 10 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of China’s 1911 Xinhai Revolution, which ended 2,000 years of imperial rule. The fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was precipitated by an uprising in the central Chinese city of Wuchang (now part of …