Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a scathing new report focused on the crackdown on Russia’s civil society. Since December 2011, the Kremlin has committed to squashing nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that promote democracy and are alleged conduits of Western influence, HRW says. The report, titled “Laws of Attrition,” focuses on …
South Korean President Park Geun-hye arrived in Washington on May 6 to meet with President Obama and affirm the bilateral alliance that has kept peace on the Korean Peninsula for 60 years. At the moment, the U.S.–South Korea military, political, and economic relationships are the strongest they have ever been. …
Amidst all the regional concerns about North Korea, the Senkaku dispute between China and Japan has continued to fester. This past week, the situation has escalated, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry specifically stating that the Senkakus are a “core interest.” General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of …
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shia terrorist organization, engages in numerous illicit activities around the world, particularly in the Middle East, Europe, South America, and the United States. A close observer of Hezbollah, the Washington Institute’s Matthew Levitt, discussed how Hezbollah’s criminal network is expanding: An extensive 2011 Drug Enforcement Agency investigation …
The chorus of those calling for the resignation of Richard Falk from his position with the U.N. Human Rights Council is growing ever louder. Falk is the U.N. official who last week penned an essay reprinted in Foreign Policy Journal, essentially blaming U.S. foreign policy for the terrorist bombing of …
In the past six years, more than 60,000 Mexicans have died violently in crime and drug-related deaths. In the U.S., there is a wider spectrum of issues related to the harm done by drug usage. They range from state-side violence among traffickers, gangbangers, and dealers to drug-influenced auto fatalities and …
President Obama will be visiting Mexico City on May 2–4, where he will meet with his counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. Both leaders have made clear that they want to change the conversation and not let runaway violence and Mexico’s persistent security crisis, which has claimed over 60,000 lives since 2006, …
On April 25, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced the arrest of American Timothy Hallet Tracy. “The gringo who financed the violent groups,” Maduro said, “has been captured.” His justice minister claimed that Tracy was trained as a spy and was involved in an intricate plot aimed at fostering destabilizing violence. …
The Boston Marathon bombers have brought greater attention to Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, their ancestral home. As painful their heinous acts are, however, the bombers’ actions are just a footnote to the history of insurgency and connections to global Islamist networks in the North Caucasus. The North Caucasus has a …
Outraged Members of Congress are circulating a letter demanding that the Obama Administration take action against U.N. Special Ambassador Richard Falk, the man who had the unmitigated gall to write that Americans brought the Boston bombings on themselves. Falk made similarly appalling statements after September 11, 2001, and it sadly …
