The ripples of the Arab revolutions have reached the Caspian Sea. Inspired by youth-led uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, activists in the oil-rich, former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan used Facebook to announce Azerbaijan’s own “day of rage” on March 11. It’s unclear how many people will heed the call, but, as in other authoritarian …
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International Women’s Day: A View From A Broad in London
U.S. TV producer Caryn Mandabach first got the idea for the TV series Nurse Jackie when she visited her goddaughter, who was working as a nurse in hospital in a tough New York neighborhood. On the subway, Mandabach found herself riding next to a woman balancing a basket on her head. The basket began to shudder and a serpent appeared at …
In Shanghai, Barbie’s Dream House Crumbles
To me, it sounded like a nightmare: six-stories of jewel-encrusted plastic, all tied up in pink. But for Mattel, the iconic American toymaker, the opening of Shanghai’s Barbie superstore in Mar. 2009 was a dream come true. Here, in 36,000-square-feet of doll-drenched retail space, Chinese women and girls would fall headlong for the …
Global Briefing, Mar. 7, 2011: War Crimes, People Power and Governments Behaving Badly
Forgotten Genocide: In the New York Times, New Delhi correspondent Lydia Polgreen reports from Bangladesh about the country’s belated efforts to investigate the massacres that led up to its independence in 1971, when over a million people (up to three million, by some estimates) may have been killed by the Pakistani army and its Bengali …
Is the Obama Administration Losing its Fear of Islamists?
Has President Barack Obama, as the old saying goes, stopped worrying and learned to love the Muslim Brotherhood? Not exactly. But the Washington Post reports Friday on the first green shoots of what may turn out to be a maturing of the United States’ response to Islamist movements in the Middle East. In light of the possibility that …
Why Are Some U.S. Politicians Trying to Remove an Iranian ‘Cult’ From the Terror List?
The two leading figures of Iran’s opposition Green Movement – presidential candidates Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi are under arrest as the regime cracks down on any effort to emulate the Arab world’s democracy rebellions. But Iran’s opposition may be in store for another blow – this time, at the hands of those in Washington …
An ‘Interim’ Peace Deal? Israel’s Netanyahu Tries to Reheat a Souffle
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be forgiven for feeling just a wee bit lonely, right now. Events in the Middle East are increasingly passing him by, leaving him on the sidelines as the region’s history is being remade. And on Wednesday, one of Israel’s most senior veteran diplomats, Ilan Baruch, resigned from the …
EXCLUSIVE: Is Yemen’s Saleh Set to Step Down?
Update: TIME quoted a government source claiming President Saleh had agreed to a five-point proposal circulated by the opposition. That proposal included his stepping down within nine months. However, the source later said that the proposals that the regime looked favorably on were not the same as those circulated earlier in the …
Strong Obstacles Remain to Western Military Intervention in Libya
An international community that in 2005 at the United Nations adopted the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) protocol might seem obliged to intervene directly in Libya. R2P, after all, holds that if a state is unable to protect its citizens from genocide or other mass atrocities, the international community has a responsibility to …
Can Obama and Calderon Solve Mexico’s Bloodshed — and the Bad Blood?
Are the U.S. and Mexico in “distant neighbors” mode again?
In the wake of last month’s murder of a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, by narco-criminals on a Mexican highway, the façade of U.S.-Mexico drug-war camaraderie appears to be cracking. Already irked by recently WikiLeaked cables between U.S. diplomats …
The Raymond Davis Affair: Are CIA and ISI Ties Doomed?
On Swampland, TIME contributor Mark Benjamin blogs about the breakdown between Washington and Islamabad over the planned trial of Raymond Davis, a U.S. CIA agent responsible for the deaths of three Pakistanis in the city of Lahore. U.S. officials are frantically trying to broker a deal that will avoid a public trial in Pakistan. Benjamin …
Somali Pirates Hijack Danish Yacht: Why Does This Keep on Happening?
On Feb. 24, the Danish Naval Command received a distress signal from a vessel in the Indian Ocean. Not long thereafter, Danish officials confirmed that the yacht of a Danish family had been hijacked by Somali pirates. The crew of seven, including three teenagers, their parents and the ship’s deckhands are now all captive. “It’s almost …
Global Briefing, Feb. 28, 2011: Ten Stories to Start Your Day
Not in Bloom — TIME’s Austin Ramzy chronicles the ‘sad farce’ of China’s would-be Jasmine revolution.
The Palin Doctrine — Foreign Affairs asks what Tea Party populism means for American foreign policy.
The Right’s Might — A flagging Europe is at risk of a fascist renaissance, warns Ian Kershaw in the National …