Early on August 16, Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, announced that his country is granting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum—that is, if he can get there. Since the end of the London Olympics, Patino and his boss, leftist President Rafael Correa, have been in a panic, warning that their …
The federal government recently announced that it is expected to run a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion for the fourth straight year. One often-overlooked result of these large budget deficits is their negative impact on U.S. exporters. Sales of U.S. Treasury securities to foreigners are not counted as …
The two earthquakes that hit the northern Iranian town of Tabriz on Saturday—6.4 and 6.3 on the Richter scale—should prompt strong American support for the Iranian people. The contentious relationship between the government of Iran and the United States does not include the Iranian people. With more than 300 dead …
A newly published study by the American Security Project (ASP), “The New Public Diplomacy Imperative,” highlights public diplomacy (PD) as a crucial element of our national security strategy and details the many obstacles for U.S. public diplomacy to reach its potential. Over the past few decades, a new interest in …
Earlier this year, over protests from the country’s communist party, Russia agreed to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now Congress is considering legislation that essentially says, “We want U.S. companies to benefit from the concessions Russia made to join the WTO.” This would be accomplished by ending application of …
Almost four years after implementation of worldwide economic “stimulus,” global growth remains stalled. In the U.S., the unemployment rate is still over 8 percent. In the second quarter of 2012, official Chinese GDP growth slipped to 7.6 percent, the lowest in three years. According to its National Bureau of Statistics, …
Earlier this week, Somalia’s prime minister and presidential hopeful Abdiweli Mohamed Ali announced that his government seeks to establish a marine task force to stop “foreign countries and companies from taking Somalia’s resources illegitimately.” Ali is getting ahead of himself. Instead of looking to expand the government’s use of force, …
Turkish fears of an emboldened Kurdish population in Syria are rising. Since the Syrian uprising began in February 2011, Syria’s Kurdish population has taken advantage of the power vacuum in the country’s north and sought to expand its influence. Since last summer, the Syrian government’s mass killing of civilians has …
