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WORLD & POLITICS
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WINTER POSTCARDS FROM THE KAZAKH STEPPE
BY DAVID MOULD
Kazakhstan's capital Astana is renowned for its futuristic and eclectic (or ostentatious and jumbled, depending on one's aesthetic) architecture. It also has a more dubious distinction: it's the second coldest capital city in the world. Other cities in northern Kazakhstan are just as chilly. With temperatures often below minus 30 Celsius, David Mould, who teaches media studies at Ohio University, had plenty of time to reflect on the coldest winter of his life during his Fulbright Fellowship in Kazakhstan... | read |
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RUSSIA |
DEMOCRACY DERAILED
M. STEVEN FISH
Russia's parliamentary elections conform to well-established patterns of arbitrary exclusion of opposition candidates and intimidation and manipulation of opposition forces. Given the exclusion, cooptation, and intimidation of oppositionists in Russia, many people who might be inclined to compete for office in more open polities simply do not choose to do so in Russia. Thus, we cannot know for sure who would have contested these elections if... | read |
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SUPERSTITION AS IDEOLOGY IN IRANIAN POLITICS
ALI RAHNEMA
Once superstition as an ideology or the conduit for action is firmly established in the minds of a section of society, then changing or reversing political course comes easy as it does not have to be justified as rational... | read |
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REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' IRANIMANIA
JAMES DEFRONZO
In U.S. presidential politics the "threat" of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran has emerged as a potent political issue comparable to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD ) in the period leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003... | read |
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THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN SYRIA
BY NIKOLAOS VAN DAM
Even if president Bashar al-Asad would have seriously contemplated drastic political reform of Syria's political system, his dilemma would always have been that such reform would in the end lead to his own regime's downfall.. | read |
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AMRO ALI ON COMEDY, ARAB SPRING, AND POLITICS
BY MOHAMMAD ASLAM
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RED STAR OVER IRAQ
BY JOHAN FRANÉN
Iraqi communism before Saddam | read |
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LIBYA: THE FUTURE OF A REVOLUTION
JAMES DEFRONZO
Although revolutionary forces succeeded in capturing the main urban centers of Libya and killing Muammar Gaddafi, the ultimate outcome of the civil war is far from certain. Is conflict really at an end? Can the country reunify? Will the factions allied in the effort to oust the Gaddafi regime turn against each other?... | read |
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PRIVATIZING THE PEACE
JULIAN REID
For as long as humans have fought wars, there have been those willing to kill, and to risk their lives, for profit. The word soldier comes from the Romans' gold coin - solidus... | read |
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THE POLITICS OF INEQUALITY IN RUSSIA
BY THOMAS F. REMINGTON
While all the post-communist countries have witnessed some growth in inequality as they have moved from a centrally planned economic system to a market-driven capitalist system, Russia's levels of inequality are higher than any post-communist country with the exception of Kyrgyzstan... | read |
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(MIS)NAMING THE REVOLUTION
BY MELISSA T. MYAMBO
Many commentators, mostly in the West but a few in the Arab World too, have nicknamed the Egyptian Revolution the Facebook Revolution... | read |
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NORWAY'S TERROR: THE REMINISCENCE OF AN OSLOITE
BY LISE K. HAUGEN
Mid-July in Oslo is generally a very quiet time, as much of the city's population leaves in order to embark on the summer holiday season. On the 22nd of July 2011, this peaceful atmosphere in our capital city, and our country... |
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NEW ARAB LANDSCAPE: ISRAEL'S REGIONAL ISOLATION?
BY GILLIAN KENNEDY
On 18th August, a cross border incident between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Palestinian militants took a new turn... | read |
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TURKEY: WHAT WENT WRONG?
BY MORDECHAI KEDAR
The Turkish elections on June 12, 2011, were held against the backdrop of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's intention of winning two-thirds of the parliamentary seats; had it been achieved, this majority would have enabled Erdogan to... | read |
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DEMYSTIFYING SYRIA
BY FRED H. LAWSON
Syria remains poorly understood, despite the pivotal role it plays in the contemporary Middle East... | read |
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SCOTLAND GOES DOWN THE QUEBEC ROAD
BY TOM GALLAGHER
Scotland is a heavily-urbanised but post-industrial nation which voluntarily renounced its status as an independent nation-state to merge with its larger and more powerful southern neighbour England in 1707... | read |
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THE AFPAK EQUILIBRIUM
BY MOHAMMAD ASLAM
Despite the elimination of Osama Bin Laden; Afghanistan's rulers are proving inept at governing, the Taliban and its fanatical breed of syndicates are proving resilient, and Pakistan's security forces seem to be taking an "a la carte" approach in the fight against them... | read |
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COLD WAR |
FROM COMRADES TO ENEMIES
NICHOLAS KHOO
In a speech at Da Binh Square, Hanoi on 12 May 1963, Liu Shaoqi, a senior Chinese leader characterized the Sino-Vietnamese relationship as having been "forged in the storm of revolution, a great class friendship that is proletarian internationalist in character, a friendship that is indestructible"... | read |
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QATAR: A SWAN AMONGST THE DUCKS?
BY MOHAMMAD ASLAM
Can this tiny Gulf satellite state-or more appropriately - satellite with a state; really be the major regional player it so desires? | read |
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IRAN'S CONTINUING CHALLENGE
BY ADAM C. SEITZ AND ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN
The Islamic Republic of Iran presents a wide range of challenges in a region that is already plagued by insecurity and conflict... | read |
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CHINA'S MEDIA: A STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
BY
JAMES F. SCOTTON
Almost all the media in China -- the Xinhua national news agency, Central China Television (CCTV), some 2,100 newspapers, 9,000 periodicals, nearly 400 television stations, 200 radio stations and every book publisher-are owned by the government... | read |
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GAMBIA | MUMMY IN THE BUSH
BY ERIC MARONEY
In Gambia, the place of women has become a battleground for the fight about the future direction of Islam... | read |
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EGYPT | MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: THE FANTASIZED THREAT
BY BAUDOUIN LONG
It was the darling of the media, the fear of the West, the scarecrow brandished on every occasion... | read |
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EGYPT | LISTENING TO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
BY MAURICE CHAMMAH
I n the early days of the Egyptian protests, countless articles in U.S. newspapers, magazines, and blogs commented on the surprising, even mysterious absence of the Muslim Brotherhood from Tahrir Square... | read |
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RED WIRED: CHINA'S INTERNET REVOLUTION
BY CHRISTOPHER WESTLAND
The internet evolved in America first as an academic and military packet switching network then, after 1991, as a commercial tool that came of age with the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1993 for multimedia transfer... | read |
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CHINA | THE CHINESE CYBERSPACE
BY DAVID KURT HEROLD
Trying to talk or write about the Chinese Internet is a humbling, and ultimately frustrating exercise, as the writer is doomed to misrepresent, essentialize and belittle this astonishing 'place' full of contradictions... | read |
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THE MIDDLE EAST | RIOTS IN SYRIA
BY MORDECHAI KEDAR
Above the tomb of Hafez al-Assad in the Alawi town of Qardaha is a sign with a verse from the Koran: "Obey Allah, Obey the Messenger and those charged with authority among you..." | read |
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THE FUTURE OF EGYPT'S 25 JANUARY REVOLUTION
BY ASHRAF MISHRIF
After almost six decades of autocratic rules that followed the 1952 revolution, Egypt has once again experienced another major revolution that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011... | read |
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THE SECOND ARAB AWAKENING
BY ADEED DAWISHA
If we are to entertain the hope that the present popular Arab revolutions might eventually lead to an Arab political awakening, then we could do worse than consider, and try to learn from, an earlier period of political revival that swept majestically through the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s only to eventually sink in the treacherous quicksand of Arab tyranny... | read |
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LIBYA | THE ROAD AHEAD
BY
RONALD BRUCE ST JOHN
The rebellion in Libya stands apart from those in Egypt and Tunisia in that the Libyan rebels are calling not for political reform but for political change... | read |
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EGYPT | THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD & ISRAEL
BY
LIAD PORAT
The dramatic downfall of Mubarak brings new hope for the Egyptian people and deep concern for Israeli and American political-security circles... | read |
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EGYPT | THE ROOTS OF REVOLUTION
BY CHÉRINE CHAMS EL DINE
Egypt under Mubarak was ruled by a very subtle semi-authoritarian regime, neither purely authoritarian nor democratic... | read |
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LIBYA | THE UNPREDICTABLE QADDAFI
BY KIMBERLY L. SULLIVAN
Muammar Qaddafi became Libya's leader following the overthrow of a monarchy, and now 42 years later, he refuses to release the reins of power in the face of a new popular uprising... | read |
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EGYPT | CITIZENS AND SOLDIERS
BY BRUCE K. RUTHERFORD
While the final outcome of the tumultuous events in Egypt is still unclear, two aspects of the uprising will... | read |
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LIBYA | LIBYA'S REVOLUTION
BY OMAR ASHOUR
Possible Scenarios and Responsibilities of the West | read |
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WORLD | THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE CROSSROADS
BY ISTVAN KRISTO-NAGY
What shall we do without our West friendly dictators?
On the 14 th of January, I met a senior academic of Tunisian origin. He was in a state of revolutionary euphoria... | read |
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LETTER FROM KYRGYZSTAN | DANCING IN KYRGYZSTAN
BY ROBERT ROSENBERG
From downstairs, the inevitable knocking on my door. 9:00 pm on a school night... | read |
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WORLD| IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM AND THE U.S. POLICY
The sources of the modern international conflict and the possible ways of its resolution. | read |
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ENERGY | FUEL TRENDS: DOMINANT FUELS, PRIME MOVERS
BY VACLAV SMIL
Many comments on energy futures (ranging from catastrophic predictions of an imminent oil drought to unrealistic forecast of future biomass energy uses) betray the fundamental lack of understanding of the nature and dynamics of the global energy system... | read |
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ENERGY | THE FUELS OF THE FUTURE ARE NATURAL GAS AND NUCLEAR
BY ROBERT BRYCE
An interview with the best-selling writer and journalist | read |
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OPINION | I don't blame the rich for poverty; I blame them for not solving it.
BY MIKE MERCER
"No one must live in poverty." Yet many people do... | read |
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POLITICAL THEORY | PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND WORLD POLITICS
A short review of Ralf Pettman's article on psychopathology and world politics. | read |
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ENERGY | OIL, ENVIRONMENT, AND FUTURE
AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW RONEY, EARTH POLICY INSTITYTE
The problem is that if an environmental catastrophe is what it takes for governments to get serious on climate change, it may already be too late at that point for any action, no matter how drastic, to address the problem... | read |
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NEW MEDIA | WIKILEAKS, NEW MEDIA, AND JOURNALISM
BY LISA LYNCH
An interview with Lisa Lynch, a professor of journalism at Concordia University, Montreal... | read |
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WORLD POLITICS | U.S. GRAND STRATEGY IN THE POST SEPTEMBER 11 WORLD
Lessons from the Early Years of the Cold War | read |
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CULTURE & POLITICS | EDITOR OF PLAYBOY MAGAZINE IN JAIL
Erwin Arnada, editor of the banned version of Playboy Magazine in Indonesia, will serve two years jail after his voluntary surrender to the authorities in October 9. | read |
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FOREIGN POLICY | Should the West isolate Iran from the efforts for stabilizing Afghanistan?
Foreign policy analyst David Ignatius ( Washington Post ) argued recently that Obama's administration has good opportunity to improve the relationships with Iran if the United States includes the country in the regional efforts for stabilizing Afghanistan... | read |
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ENERGY & POLITICS | OIL AND DEMOCRACY
In 2001, Michael L. Ross raised an important question: Does oil really have antidemocratic properties? | read |
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ENERGY & POLITICS | OIL AS A WEAPON
The conception of oil as a weapon appeared in 1935-1936 when the League of Nations was considering oil sanctions against Mussolini's Italy... | read |
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THE READER | OIL FUTURE AND PAST
ALBERT D. BROCAW
"The first [ North American oil region] is under control of the United States..." | read |
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HOW COMMUNIST IS CHINA?
Today, when we speak about socialism or communism, we usually discuss economy... | read |
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RELIGION AND COMMUNISM IN CHINA
Clash or Synergy of Ideologies? | read |
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ECONOMIC FREEDOM INDEX 2010
The Asian countries are on the top of the index. North America remains the biggest territory with free economy. The European economic freedom leader, Ireland, is with the highest budged gap for 2010 among the European countries... | read |
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THE POLITICAL CHANGE IN DEMOCRACY AND TOTALITARIANISM
If post-war Iraq were able to achieve an even partially democratic political system, like those in Turkey, it would be more stable than the present Iran under the ayatollahs... | read more |
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THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
If America is an imperial power, are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan an expression of imperial interest? | read more |
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THE COURAGE TO CONFESS: WHY WAS VIETNAM WAR DOOMED TO FAIL?
There are truths. One of them is that everything conceived in a lie has no future... | read |
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IRAN - A RESTLESS NATION
The opening sentence of Nabokov's "Ada" is "All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike." We can apply this insight not only to the families, but also to the nations...| read |
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THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Europe knocked off the irons of communism... | read |
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THE PEACE THAT LED TO WAR
Why did Europe enjoy peace in the most part of 19th century? | read |
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THE AUDACITY OF HOPE TO BEAT THE RECESSION
This week (October 12-16, 2009) Dow Jones jumped over 10 000 points. When the Dow Jones industrial average first closed above 10,000 it was on March 29, 1999. | read |
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CHINA THREATENS AMERICA WITH ITS EXAMPLE
America and the West face a very serious challenge from the East, but not in terms of the conventional definitions of the China threat, says Stefan Halper from the American Spectator... | read |
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