Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Iowa and Texas to OSCE election observers: Stand back or face arrest

Last week we noted Florida Rep. and Senate candidate Connie Mack's freakout over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- which he seemed to confuse with the U.N. -- sending observers to monitor U.S. elections. Now, Politico reports...

Published Wed, Oct 31 2012 12:01 PM by FP Passport

Gaza Cease-fire Deal Was Prefaced by a New Kind of Destruction

The 2012 Failed States Index - Interactive Map and Rankings

State of the Union: The Promises Obama Did(n't) Keep

If, like me, you sat down on Monday to read all of President Obama's State of the Union addresses delivered since he took office in early 2009, you'd be forgiven for thinking that foreign policy has served as something of a footnote during his...

Published Tue, Jan 28 2014 1:48 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Politics, Obama Administration, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Congress

The Carmen Sandiego election

Everyone seems to be having some fun at the expense of Romney campaign advisor Pierre Prosper, who referred to "Czechoslovakia" when discussing missile defense in a conference call with reporters. Lord knows we've done our share of foreign...

Published Thu, Apr 26 2012 8:30 AM by FP Passport

Turkey's Kurdish leadership debates the definition of terrorism

Members of Turkey's Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) proposed a more decentralized Turkish government at a Brookings Institution panel on Tuesday. "We don't believe that a centralized system of government that manages all of these...

Published Wed, Apr 25 2012 7:26 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Europe, Security, Human Rights, Politics, Middle East, History, International Relations, Turkey, Syria, Arab World

New Face Guard Allows Japanese Women To Eat Burgers Without Shame

Here's your "quirky Japan" story of the day: Apparently, it's very impolite for women there to eat hamburgers in public -- or so says one Japanese fast food chain that hopes to free women from the unbearable shame of opening their mouths...

Published Fri, Nov 08 2013 7:13 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Japan, East Asia, Culture, Women, Food/Agriculture, Business

Why Hezbollah's New Missiles Are a Problem for Israel

Israeli defense officials have eyed the nearly three-year Syrian civil war warily, concerned that a faltering Assad regime may try to offload some of its advanced weaponry to its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon rather than let it fall into the hands of rebel...

Published Fri, Jan 03 2014 3:07 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Science & Technology, Security, Russia, Middle East, Israel/Palestine, Military, Lebanon, Syria

Sochi Watch: Everything You Need to Know about Russia's Massive Olympic Security Operation

Just five weeks before the 2014 Winter Olympics kick off in Sochi, two bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd have highlighted security concerns in the volatile region, and drawn attention to the massive security apparatus emerging around the Olympic...

Published Mon, Dec 30 2013 3:07 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Europe, Security, Russia

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

Hey Lorde, Just Who Are These Maybach-Driving New Zealanders?

It's been a little over a year since the debut of " Royals ," the smash hit from the waifish New Zealand songstress Lorde, and what a year it's been. Having charmed both critics and listeners around the world, the anti-opulence, wrong...

Published Mon, Jan 27 2014 9:57 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Culture, Economics

The Election 2012 Weekly Report: A post-Gingrich world

Biden goes on the attack, but doesn't ‘stick' the landing Vice President Joe Biden continued to step into his role as the Obama campaign's leading national-security attack dog with a speech at New York University on Thursday that questioned...

Published Fri, Apr 27 2012 1:53 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Election 2012, 2012 Report

Biden on Mubarak: "I would not refer to him as a dictator.”

Whose bright idea was it to send Joe Biden out to talk about Egypt? The U.S. vice president just made a major faux pas tonight, the Christian Science Monitor 's Dan Murphy reports : Ahead of a day that could prove decisive, NewsHour host Jim Lehrer...

Published Thu, Jan 27 2011 5:09 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Egypt

Laura Poitras: American Spies Have Me ‘Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree’

Numbers: Copper goes to China

$11 million Value of copper exported from [the Western Cape province of] South Africa to China last year [ link ] 0 Number of copper mines in [Western Cape,] South Africa [ link ] $70 million Annual cost to replace copper cable stolen from South Africa’s...

Published Mon, Jun 25 2007 1:40 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Central Asia, Business