17 Items

European Council President Charles Michel addresses the media

AP/Virginia Mayo

Analysis & Opinions - Wilson Center

Ukraine in Europe: One Hard-Earned Step Closer

| Dec. 15, 2023

Mariana Budjeryn writes: War never stops at the border, especially on a continent like Europe. The European Union absorbed millions of Ukrainian war refugees and poured billions of euros into Ukraine's defenses and economic survival. The war permanently reshaped Europe: its demographics, political economy, and energy architecture are shifting in ways that will have irreversible long-term consequences. All of this is because in a very real sense Ukraine already is inextricably woven into the fabric of Europe: Ukraine’s pain is Europe’s pain and Ukraine’s gain will inevitably be Europe's gain, too.

Analysis & Opinions - Power & Policy Blog

What's the Most Critical and Under-appreciated Issue in International Security? World Peace

| February 7, 2013

"...[I]t is clear that the international community possessed neither the analytic tools nor the institutional capabilities to deal with a world order in which ethno-religious groups, and not nation-states, were the primary operative actors. Which brings us back to the question: what if organized state violence and warfare is the exception rather than the rule in international security?"

Analysis & Opinions - Forbes

Africa And Obama: What The Continent Should Do In His Second Term

| November 9, 2012

"Africa's national diversity is becoming a burden for diplomatic interaction. It is more efficient for the United States to work with regional groups in Africa than with individual states. This means that efforts to foster regional integration by creating larger markets, simplifying trading rules, reducing corruption, and investing in regional infrastructure to promote movement of goods will go a long way toward strengthening US-Africa relations."

Protesters gather at Gani Fawehinmi Park as a national strike over fuel prices and government corruption entered its 2nd day in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 10, 2012. Angry youths erected a burning roadblock outside luxury enclaves in Nigeria's commercial capital

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The Guardian

Roads and Rail in Nigeria Could Be at the Centre of Job Creation

| January 24, 2012

"...[N]ew jobs can be directly created in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure projects. However, such job creation is unlikely to happen unless there are deliberate policy guidelines. This is mainly because construction projects tend to focus primarily on immediate cost-effectiveness and less on indirect benefits such as youth employment."

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Quarterly Journal: International Security

Belfer Center Newsletter Spring 2011

| Spring 2011

The Spring 2011 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This issue highlights the Belfer Center’s continuing efforts to build bridges between the United States and Russia to prevent nuclear catastrophe – an effort that began in the 1950s. This issue also features three new books by Center faculty that sharpen global debate on critical issues: God’s Century, by Monica Duffy Toft, The New Harvest by Calestous Juma, and The Future of Power, by Joseph S. Nye.

Intel Corp. President and CEO Paul Otellini speaks at the opening ceremony of the assembly and test facility of Intel's chipset products at Saigon High Tech Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Oct. 29, 2010.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The Huffington Post

All That Glitters: An American in Vietnam

| March 7, 2011

"Poverty and unemployment are significant even though, like the Chinese, the Vietnamese have managed to cut abject poverty significantly. Wages remain shockingly low. Censorship is rife and Facebook is banned. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (U.S.) before the 2011 Communist Party Congress meetings, Internet cafes and blogs were closely watched; dozens of activists and bloggers were arrested for "spreading propaganda against the state." The government dismantled websites, and a number of journalists remain in jail."

A sniper stands guard over a public square ahead of the arrival of Charles Ble Goude, a youth leader recently named to Laurent Gbagbo's cabinet who is staging rallies in support of the incumbent president, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Jan. 5, 2011.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - Business Daily

Africa Must Make Tough Choices to Build Democracy

| January 7, 2011

"...[C]reating think tanks to help political parties craft platforms on which to complete would do more for African democracy than all the governance consultants put together. The latter have sprinkled a few good ideas here and there but they have not had the expected effect because of the lack of institutions to translate them into political programmes. Governance was hardly served well by ideas. In the absence of such competence-building, the common practice of ranking leaders becomes no more than hollow self-righteousness."

Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, left, requests Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the media after election results suggested a mandate in favor of Congress and its allies in the just concluded polls in New Delhi, India, May 16, 2009.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - Guatemala Times

India's New Ruling Caste

| May 21, 2009

"The opportunity for personal gains through public office has made electoral politics an automatic career choice for Indian politicians' progeny. Record numbers of sons and daughters of political leaders and millionaires (and people with criminal backgrounds) contested this election. We are seeing the formation of a new Indian caste — a caste of rulers different from India's traditional Kshatriya caste — before our very eyes."

Report - Institute for Social Policy and Understanding

Police & Law Enforcement Reform in Pakistan: Crucial for Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism Success

| April 2009

"The police infrastructure is one of Pakistan's most poorly managed organizations. It is aptly described as ill-equipped, poorly trained, deeply politicized, and chronically corrupt. It has performed well in certain operations; overall, however, that is a rare phenomenon. Arguably, the primary reason for this state of affairs is the government's persistent failure to invest in law enforcement reform and modernization. It is ironic that despite frequent internal crises since its inception in 1947, ranging from ethnic confrontations and sectarian battles to a sharp rise in criminal activity and growing insurgencies, both political and military policymakers have never given this sector top priority. Hence, poor police performance in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency is not surprising. The fact that the police successfully challenged some militant religious groups in Punjab and tackled an insurgency-like situation in Karachi in the late 1990s shows that they do have the potential to deliver the desired results when political support is present and resources are provided...."

The road sign to Kazbegi, Georgia, and over the border to Vladikavkaz, Russia.

Michael Bronner

Analysis & Opinions - The New York Times

When the War Ends, Start to Worry

    Author:
  • Michael Bronner
| August 16, 2008

"EVEN as Russia and Georgia continue their on-again, off-again struggle over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a frenzied tea-leaf reading about the war's global political ramifications has broken out across airwaves and think-tank forums. But as the situation on the ground recedes inevitably to some new form of the pernicious "frozen conflict" that has plagued the region since Georgia's civil wars of the early 1990s, few are paying attention to a less portentous but equally critical international threat: an increase in the longstanding, rampant criminality in the conflict zones that is likely to further destabilize the entire Caucasus region and at worst provide terrorist groups with the nuclear material they have long craved."