Diplomacy & Crisis News

A top U.S. military officer said Tuesday that an emerging nuclear deal with Iran will not affect U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe, despite strong objections from Moscow.

Laureano Márquez is not just a comedian. A political scientist by training, he uses his act to unmask the absurdity of the Venezuelan regime.

Forget Beijing and Shanghai. The fates of flicks like Age of Ultron will be decided in places like Changzhou.

A reverse-NIMBY protest is sweeping a city in southern China.

Iraq’s Shiites were an oppressed people. Now they are not. So why am I not happy for them, rejoicing in their rise?

From Malaysia to Cuba, how religious minorities use rituals — from simple prayer to violent penance — to create a sense of community.

I am hearing some interesting stuff about the Maryland National Guard’s recent deployment to downtown Baltimore.

A draft law designed to counter the influence of foreign organizations may choke Chinese civil society instead.

I was skeptical at first of his thoughts about writing about certain things causing insomnia, but then remembered that my wife once asked me not to read about My Lai after 4 p.m.

Pakistan Pakistan, Afghanistan sign accord to share intel The spy agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to carry out “coordinated intelligence operations” against militants operating along the border of the two countries (AP, Reuters). Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa announced on Twitter on Monday that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security ...

By Paul McLeary with Ariel Robinson Pleased to meet me. What’s there to do for an 11-term congressman who decides that running yet again just ain’t worth it? Open a consulting firm, of course. Buck McKeon, the longtime Republican representative from California and former chairman of the influential House Armed Services Committee, retired in January ...

The European Union has approved a preliminary plan for a naval mission to stem the influx of migrants trying to reach Europe through human trafficking and smuggling operations in Libya. At least 51,000 migrants have reached Europe this year and more than 1,800 have died trying to transit the Mediterranean. The new EU plan will ...

To date, the Obama administration’s claims of progress in the campaign against the Islamic State (IS) have been accompanied by qualifications and caveats. In January, the Pentagon claimed to have killed 6,000 IS fighters since the September start of “Operation Inherent Resolve,” a statistic that became less impressive when later that month it was reported ...

The State Department on Monday shrugged off a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appoint Silvan Shalom, a politician who has publicly opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, as his chief negotiator for the long-stalled peace talks.

The stories of two Sunni leaders — one a tribal chief, the other a former insurgent — show why locals opposed to the Islamic State and Iraqi officials in Baghdad have so far failed to unite against their common foe.

Chinese military officials say their massive land reclamation in the South China Sea is all about establishing peace and stability. Washington isn’t buying it.

A federal court ruled Google can post a video that caused anti-U.S. riots in 2012. Whether the tech giant does remains to be seen.

Demonstrators march in Sao Paulo against corruption and the government of president Dilma Rousseff. Photograph: Bosco Martin/EPA Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff’s Workers Party is on the defensive as the Petrobras case threatens to expose political corruption. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Bloomberg State-controlled oil giant Petrobras has racked up the corporate world’s biggest debt – estimated at around €137 billion by Moody’s. Photograph: Sergio Moraes/Reuters

The concept of the fair market and protection for consumers is based on the idea that inefficient and corrupt practices by large private companies and wayward government officials increases the cost to the consumers and the public. When the construction of a facility meant to benefit the public goes overbudget, the public ends up bearing most of the burden. The companies involved may also lose investment. Competitors, meanwhile, do not to benefit from a market fixed against their products or services, and the company that might have been able to do the job right in the first place may lose business or go bankrupt if unable to compete in a fair market. Consumer protection agencies, government-run officials, and ombudsmen defend the public’s interest, not to mention the interests of the consumer, in challenging corrupt practices in order to balance out the market and actors within it.

The Economist recently published an article on how necessary compliance measures have become such a large industry that the benefit of the enforcement action may cost the affected parties more than the offense itself. The author’s recommendations on how to streamline enforcement is rooted in a sound argument, but the example used, namely the fine given to the German company Siemens  for handing out bribes in emerging markets, should be discussed in further detail.

Often companies investing in foreign countries are not wholly limited their home country’s laws, in this case Germany, as they are subject to the laws of that jurisdiction. In some emerging economies, it is well known by local industry and foreign investors that some investment is limited by corruption. So, in order to do business in many emerging economies, companies like Siemens bribed local officials so as to crack into those growing markets. While entirely illegal in the EU and enforced by German officials, in some countries the lack of enforcement and acknowledgement of consumer protection goals leaves those who wish to play fair on the losing end of their investment.

Brazil is one of the best examples of an emerging market that has been trying to change the way business is conducted. The clearest example of this can be found in the country’s ongoing Petrobras scandal, which may even bring down the government because Brazilians are openly refusing to accept companies, not to mention a government, that wants to keep corrupt practices alive. It involves several high-ranking oil company officials, as well as other large Brazilian companies and the ruling PT party, and it illustrates how corruption and a complete lack of consideration for the public’s interests has driven an entire society into a downward economic spiral. (A detailed account in English can be read here.)

Brazilians were livid when they found out that government officials and kickbacks to Petrobras executives had raised the cost of national projects several times over. Protests broke out when investigators showed that the members of the governing PT party were profiting from the same scheme. The costs of living for the average Brazilian heavily outstripped their real wages and little action and investments were going towards improving this situation. With the revelations of corruption, Brazil’s legal community has gone not only after Petrobras, but also the other companies involved in the scandal, the country’s ruling party, and possibly the president herself.

Brazil’s burgeoning judicial independence will play a huge role in this case as resolving the Petrobas scandal is a matter of overturning a tradition of corruption in the country so that consumer protection and a respect for the public becomes a principle legal standard. Hopefully, once the culture is changed and consumer protection and public trust is achieved, the issues of an overbearing compliance industry can be addressed.

As many as 500 Iraqis have been executed in the latest Islamic State onslaught, as the extremists have overtaken the capital of the nation’s western Anbar region. But “to read too much into this single fight is simply a mistake,” a Pentagon spokesman said Monday. The Islamic State chased Iraqi security forces from the city ...

Ramzan Kadyrov says the U.S. intelligence community needed a fall guy for the bombing and found one in the form of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.