Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Meet Russia's Newest Recruits: Ukraine's Combat Dolphins

The Ukrainian military is promising to one day reclaim its former bases in Crimea, but one unit has been lost forever: Ukraine's combat dolphins, who are now swimming for Russia. The dolphins, stationed in a Ukrainian navy oceanarium in Sevastopol...

Published Wed, Mar 26 2014 11:52 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Eastern Europe, Military, Ukraine

Can Vice Make News Hip?

It's not much of an exaggeration to say that the mainstream media thoroughly loathes Vice, the punk magazine turned global video empire. The company, which has shot to fame on the back of documentary video segments about the weird, the violent, and...

Published Fri, Mar 28 2014 2:02 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Pakistan, Media, U.S. Foreign Policy, South Asia

Morning Brief: Syrian pilot defects as shelling of Homs continues

Syrian pilot defects as shelling of Homs continues Top story: A Syrian fighter pilot has landed at a base in Northern Jordan and is requesting political asylum. He is believed to be the first pilot to defect from Syria with his plane. A spokesman for...

Published Thu, Jun 21 2012 5:43 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

The Canadian moment?

Around the time that Barack Obama was assuring U.S. lawmakers that American planes would not be used to enforce the no fly zone in Libya, our neighbor to the north was announcing just the opposite: Canada will deploy fighter jets to the Middle East. Prime...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 3:54 PM by FP Passport

In the Ivory Coast, rival forces boost recruitment

For the last several months, the Ivory Coast has been crawling back to civil war. Now, both sides are actively bulking up their forces in what looks like an alarming calculation that this country's crisis will get worse before it gets better. The...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 2:09 PM by FP Passport

A bright voice from Libya's darkness

What does grief and courage sound like? It sounds a lot like the voice of Perditta Nabbous, the wife of Libyan citizen journalist Mohammed Nabbous, 27, who was shot and killed last Saturday by forces loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi. Mohammed was the charismatic...

Published Wed, Mar 23 2011 12:21 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Arab World

Who should worry about SyriaLeaks?

WikiLeaks has struck again. The self-professed whistleblower site announced this morning that it would release a whopping 2.4 million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries, and the companies with which they interacted. Founder Julian Assange...

Published Thu, Jul 05 2012 8:58 AM by FP Passport

Is Romania's democracy in danger?

Romania's government today began impeachment proceedings against President Traian Basescu, who has been locked in a bitter feud with Prime Minister Victor Ponta. The move seems to be the latest in a move by Ponta and his allies to purge opponents...

Published Fri, Jul 06 2012 2:12 PM by FP Passport

Israel plans for naval buildup

Energy resources are a hot commodity in the Levant Basin days, and with 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, and 5 billion barrels of natural gas liquids at stake, the Israeli defense ministry is asking for...

Published Mon, Jul 09 2012 10:37 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Security, Middle East, Israel/Palestine, Military

As South Sudan turns 1, scandal looms

On the eve of his country's first anniversary of independence , prominent South Sudanese human rights activist Deng Athuai was found brutally beaten and tied in a bag by the side of the road in Juba, the capital. According to local sources : A military...

Published Mon, Jul 09 2012 1:36 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Corruption, Human Rights, Economics, Democracy

Jordanian MP pulls gun, raises bar for bad parliamentary behavior

Clausewitz said that war is the extension of politics by other means. But Jordanian lawmaker Mohammed Shawabka seems to have gotten the Prussian military strategist's aphorism backwards. Last Thursday, Shawabka heaved his shoe and then pointed a pistol...

Published Tue, Jul 10 2012 9:47 AM by FP Passport

After Lubanga, who's next on the ICC's docket?

The International Criminal Court handed down its first sentence on Tuesday to Congolese war criminal Thomas Lubanga for the use of child soldiers. After over three years at trial , and following his conviction in March of this year, the court issued a...

Published Wed, Jul 11 2012 7:07 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Africa, Human Rights, Law, International Relations, International Organizations, Sudan

Mad Scientists

Canadian scientists and supporters staged a mock funeral in front of parliament in Ottawa yesterday to protest Prime Minister Stephen Harper's proposed cuts to scientific research. The July 10 event, called the "death of evidence" rally...

Published Wed, Jul 11 2012 1:39 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Environment, Canada

How a Polish Courier Tried to Tell the World About the Holocaust

In 1943, Jan Karski, a Polish diplomat and courier for the Polish resistance, met with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and relayed to him in detail the horrors of the Holocaust. Karski had personally witnessed Nazi atrocities in the Warsaw...

Published Thu, Apr 24 2014 3:45 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, History, Genocide

It's not easy speaking for Qaddafi

The Telegraph 's correspondent in Libya, Damien McElroy, suggests that one reason for Moussa Kusa's defection may have been that he was growing tired of trying to spin his boss's bizarre pronouncements: He was notably uncomfortable in making...

Published Thu, Mar 31 2011 9:58 AM by FP Passport