Diplomacy & Crisis News

After years of kickbacks and backroom deals with drug traffickers, Mexicans are finally talking about corruption.

Why the current U.S. plan to win back Iraq only guarantees the Islamic State won’t be defeated.

A German press report alleges widespread corruption in securing the 2006 tournament.

The United Nations refugee agency today announced that it is seeking $13 million to help with the needs of new boat arrivals to countries in Southeast Asia, where thousands of refugees and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been risking their lives by crossing the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

The tremendous human cost of the Ukraine conflict must be first addressed through mutual respect of the Minsk ceasefire agreement and the fulfilment of its political, economic, social and humanitarian provisions, the top United Nations political official affirmed today as he briefed the Security Council on the situation in the conflict-torn Eastern European country.

Nothing in Piera Zuccherin’s comfortable upbringing foretold her lifelong involvement as a volunteer. But today, she is one of the more than one billion people who volunteer globally.

The arbitrary and unlawful arrest and prosecution of journalists and activists in Iran weakens the protection of human rights of all in Iran, a United Nations expert said today.

The United Nations refugee agency today announced that it is stepping up its presence in the eastern Aegean islands of Greece where in recent weeks, sea arrivals have been averaging some 600 people a day from countries like Syria, Afghanistan Iraq and Turkey, severely straining local reception capacities.

They’re soldiers. And we should start showing them the respect they deserve.

The British called them the "Bladensburg Races,” the shattering of seven thousand American militiamen by three thousand British regulars and marines that opened the door to the burning of Washington. James Madison, President of the United States, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State were among the fleeing refugees that day in 1814. It was not America’s finest hour.

Army Brig. Gen. Sean Mulholland, who had commanded Special Operations in Central and South America (and where I think they had been very busy in counter-drug and counter-terror ops) was removed from his post in 2014, reports the Washington Post‘s Craig Whitlock, who had to pry the information out of the Army.

Memories of the twentieth century’s great conflicts, from 1930s pacifism to Cold War antagonism, are stirring again, motivating both Russia and the West in one of the gravest threats to global order and European stability in the past 25 years. Indeed, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine involves nuclear-armed powers whose collective military spending accounts for nearly two-thirds of the global total. Yet history need not repeat itself, so long as the West takes steps to avoid being trapped by any sudden escalation.

Our war dog of the week is an Army pup, seen here in maneuvers before World War II.

Si elle ne va pas de soi, l'idée que se fasse un peuple européen n'a rien non plus d'essentiellement absurde. Mais, comme les autres communautés politiques et nationales, un tel peuple devrait être rassemblé par un puissant affect commun. / Allemagne, Europe, Économie, Idées, Identité culturelle, (...) / Allemagne, Europe, Économie, Idées, Identité culturelle, Monnaie, Nationalisme, Politique, Solidarité - 2014/04

Iran, Syrie, Russie, Israël-Palestine : la diplomatie française semble s'être placée à la remorque des néoconservateurs américains. M. Dominique de Villepin, qui inspira l'opposition de la France à la guerre d'Irak, récuse cette orientation générale et suggère un autre cap. / Asie, États-Unis (affaires (...) / Asie, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), Europe, Europe de l'Est, France, Russie, Ukraine, État, Géopolitique, Idées, Relations internationales, Stratégie, Diplomatie - 2014/12

Afghanistan Afghan Taliban fighting ISIS for territory, recruits Militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State or ISIS in Afghanistan are becoming more than a nuisance to the country’s larger militant group, the Afghan Taliban, by claiming territory and attacking Taliban members, the New York Times reported on Thursday (NYT). Throughout the month, ISIS ...

By Paul McLeary with Ariel Robinson Game on. A group of Chinese hackers — possibly sponsored by Beijing — has allegedly breached U.S. government computer systems and gained access to the personal information of at least four million current and former government workers. The massive data breach, which looks to be the biggest cyber intrusion ...

The leaders of several prominent Sunni tribes in Iraq announced their support for the Islamic State on Wednesday in Fallujah. Their statement condemned the Iraqi government and claimed that the only way to create peace in Anbar province is through support for the Islamic State. The tribes participating in the announcement include the influential al-Jumaili ...

The two-year fight to overhaul the National Security Agency ended this week with President Barack Obama’s signing of the USA Freedom Act. But it will take months of tough negotiations with telecom companies for the White House to actually implement the required reforms, and privacy groups are still smarting over what they consider watered-down changes ...

Achieving the decisive votes to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives will require targeting two groups — Republicans concerned with granting President Barack Obama more authority and Democrats fearful of union retribution. Figuring out how to build a message that can appeal to these two seemingly incongruous populations is essential ...