Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

The Election 2012 Weekly Report: New friends and old foes

Russia Rumble This week, the campaign was unexpectedly dominated by a debate over Russia policy. The back-and-forth was sparked by an embarrassing " hot mic " incident on Monday at a summit on Seoul, when President Barack Obama told Russian...

Published Fri, Mar 30 2012 10:27 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Elections, 2012 Report, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Barack Obama

Iraq's Abject Lessons for Mexico's Self-Defense Forces

Paramilitary groups are growing like weeds in the blood-soaked soil of Mexico's cartel hotspots. Across the country, self-defense groups have banded together to take on the country's cartels, and now the government faces a problem all too familiar...

Published Thu, Jan 30 2014 4:13 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America, Middle East, Military, Iraq, Mexico, National Security

Will Japan’s News Giant Bend the Knee Before Abe?

The new head of Japan's public broadcasting company, NHK, has some unusual ideas. Since assuming his position in January, Katsuto Momii has defended Japan's wartime practice of sexual slavery by arguing that all nations have done it during times...

Published Thu, Mar 06 2014 2:36 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Japan, East Asia, Politics, Media

FP nominated for three Digital National Magazine Awards

It's a big day here at FP . Not only is our new eBook available for download, but we just learned that we've been nominated for three Digital Ellie s from the American Society of Magazine Editors. And the nominees are… The AfPak Channel for Best...

Published Thu, Feb 24 2011 10:20 AM by FP Passport

King Abdullah wants to wipe Israel and Iran off the map

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah probably refrained from expressing at least half this sentiment in his meeting today with President Obama: On June 5, he reportedly told French Defense Minister Hervé Morin that "There are two countries in the world...

Published Tue, Jun 29 2010 12:16 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Israel/Palestine, Iran

Iran Contra colonel gets caught for arms smuggling... again

Some people just don't know when to quit. You'd think that having one showdown with federal prosecutors would be enough to last you a lifetime. Or if not, that seeing the charges against you get dropped would serve as a sign that, maybe, you got...

Published Tue, Jun 29 2010 10:42 AM by FP Passport

Are things in Korea more normal than they seem?

An ordinary North Korean diplomatic trip to the Middle East might seem like small potatoes in light of all the hostile rhetoric rising from Pyongyang this week. But even as the international crisis continues, North Korea's relatively mundane overtures...

Published Fri, May 28 2010 8:57 AM by FP Passport

Senkaku, Diaoyu; Diaoyu, Senkaku; let’s call the whole thing off

In a surprise move after it looked like the recent spat between Tokyo and Beijing was quieting down, China has just canceled a planned meeting between its premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit...

Published Sat, Oct 30 2010 2:14 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, Obama Administration

Chavez on Wikileaks: Hillary Clinton "thinks she is superior to the black guy," should resign

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is loving WikiLeaks : 'Somebody should resign ... I'm not saying (President Barack) Obama, but they should do it out of shame ... It is their empire left naked. You should resign, Mrs Clinton, it's the least...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 9:08 AM by FP Passport

Is Newt's zero-gravity sex idea any good?

This author cannot answer the question posed above from experience. But space sex has been a kind of final frontier for mankind (and a bonanza for headline writers: See " Houston, We Have a Problem "). And Newt Gingrich's contribution to...

Published Thu, Jan 26 2012 2:20 AM by FP Passport

Is the China Google block a false alarm?

Several news outlets are currently reporting that Google web search has been fully blocked in mainland China. And indeed the company's website is reporting that search is blocked . However, actually Chinese web users don't seem to be having a...

Published Thu, Jul 29 2010 3:41 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: China, Internet

WikiLeaked: France politely points out that Iran makes no sense

If you know anything about the first batch of WikiLeaks, it's that Arab officials have a lot to say about the Iranian nuclear program. (Shorter: They don't like it.) But they're not the only ones in a Persian state of mind: the U.S. Embassy...

Published Tue, Nov 30 2010 10:42 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: Wikileaks reveals hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables

Wikileaks reveals hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables Top story: The self-described whistleblower organization Wikileaks began the release of over 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables on Sunday, presenting an unprecedented inside look into the opinions...

Published Mon, Nov 29 2010 6:15 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

BP pipeline hemorrhaging oil, similes

Plugging BP's catastrophic oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico, as you may have heard, is difficult. But how difficult, exactly? Nearly a month ago, BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay compared it to performing "open heart surgery at...

Published Fri, May 28 2010 4:58 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Environment, Energy, Oil, Oil / Energy Disaster / Problem / Shennanigans

The Carter letter: reactions

It's not every day that former presidents write us letters. And here at FP , we knew we had quite a document on our hands when former Jimmy Carter took the unusual step of writing in to defend his legacy in response to Walter Russell Mead's article...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 11:32 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media, Obama Administration, Foreign Policy magazine