The blind legal activist who has been at the center of a diplomatic struggle between the U.S. and China has been offered a fellowship to study at an American university, and the Chinese government has indicated it will accept …
U.S.
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 3, 2012
Dependent Dissident – As Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng undergoes medical procedures at a Beijing hospital after leaving his refuge at the U.S. Embassy in China, the Washington Post poses questions about the deal brokered …
May Day Protests Around the Globe
Thousands around the world are marching through city streets in observance of May Day, the international workers’ holiday, shouting demands for greater equality and an end to government-imposed austerity measures.
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 1, 2012
Conduct Report – British MPs tasked with investigating allegations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct tabloid, News of the World, have released a long-awaited final report on the matter. The Daily Telegraph is …
Must-Reads From Around the World: April 26, 2012
Life For Death? – The five-year trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other offenses, is finally coming to a close in The Hague on Thursday, with a …
Must-Reads From Around the World: April 23, 2012
Withdrawal Symptoms – In a pact reached after a year of negotiations between the U.S. and Afghanistan, Washington promised military and financial support for a decade after its formal troop withdrawal from the country in 2014, …
After a Week of Bad News, NATO Talks Endgame in Afghanistan
The shadow of American misdeeds fell over a NATO summit of defense and foreign ministers in Brussels. A visibly irritated Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta apologized for the acts of U.S. soldiers who posed in front of the …
Must-Reads from Around the World: April 18, 2012
Clutching at Straw – With former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw now being accused of complicity in the rendition and alleged torture of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhadj, The Week investigates why MI6 agents have let …
Iran Nuclear Talks: Hitting the ‘Snooze’ Button on the Alarm Clock of Confrontation
Staying within the “clock is ticking” metaphor favored by the Obama Administration when discussing diplomacy with Iran, Saturday’s talks in Istanbul could be said to have hit the snooze button. The doomsday alarm could yet sound, …
Colombia’s President Talks with TIME About Castro, Capitalism and His Country’s Comeback
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will host the sixth Summit of the Americas this weekend, April 14 to 15, in the Caribbean city of Cartagena. The hemispheric gathering marks a comeback for Colombia, which is emerging from …
The U.S. and Brazil: Why the Two Hemispheric Giants Should Take Each Other More Seriously
After I and a number of colleagues wrote last month about possible U.S.-Brazil friction on the eve of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s visit to America, a Brazilian diplomat I respect contacted me about what he felt were …
Mohamed Nasheed: TIME Meets the Ousted President of the Maldives
Mohamed Nasheed was in New York City this week promoting The Island President, a new documentary film about his beautiful archipelago nation, the Maldives, and its perilous struggle against climate change. The documentary follows …
U.N. Sri Lanka Vote Redefines India’s Regional Role
In the early months of 2009 when Sri Lanka’s war was reaching its final crescendo, frantic calls were made to Colombo by Sri Lankan diplomats at the United Nations headquarters in New York. According to a top Sri Lankan diplomat, some calls were directly to Mahinda Rajapaksa himself, warning the Sri Lankan president that the U.S., …