Today at 10 a.m. the House Armed Services Committee will host a hearing on the evolving instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the implications for national security. Heritage’s Jim Carafano, Ph.D., vice president for foreign and defense policy studies, will provide testimony on the Obama administration’s …
In Japan, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) exceeded even the most optimistic predictions by winning a landslide victory in Sunday’s lower house election. LDP Leader Shinzo Abe’s conservative foreign policy views and the Japanese public’s growing concern over China provide an excellent opportunity for Washington to achieve several policy …
One week after Hugo Chavez stunned his nation with news of new cancer surgery and anointed Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as his heir, Venezuelans went to the polls to elect 23 governors and members of state legislatures. Initial electoral results indicate that Chavez’s candidates won in 20 …
Governments eager to use the recently concluded International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conference to bolster their efforts to censor and govern the Internet successfully inserted a provision to aid their cause. Although the Obama Administration is known to support most international treaties, this proved to be a bridge too far. As …
Deficit spending does not foster economic recovery. The U.S. and the world need to recognize the stagnation and inter-generational inequality caused by such spending, and for reference, they need not look further than Japan’s recent history of deficits. In addition to its two lost decades, Japan’s heavy borrowing means the …
The State Department wants your opinion. No, not on weighty matters like the Arab Spring/Winter, relations with Russia, the state of NATO, or Chinese free-trade violations. The pressing question of the day is whether it should rename its blog DipNote. To tell the truth, the options are not exactly mind-blowing, …
As the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) prepare to retake northern Mali from Islamist militants, the European Union (EU) formally agreed to the deployment of an EU-led military force to train the Malian army to undertake this mission. The challenges of the task …
Europeans remain enamored with President Obama—far more so than the American public that re-elected him. “He Is Our President, Too,” cheered a headline in an international European paper after the November presidential election. European publics by majorities of 80–90 percent hold a favorable view of Obama. This is certainly an …
Many self-righteous and smug Eurocrats will be celebrating the European Union’s Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded earlier today in Oslo, Norway. Wisely and sensibly, some European leaders, such as British Prime Minister David Cameron and Czech President Václav Klaus, decided not to attend today’s ceremony. It was clear to …
