Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Greece cuts way back on defense

Greece's new austerity measures, which will include cuts in public sector salaries, pensions, as well as tax increases, have provoked widespread, and occasionally violent, protests. But the country's military is taking a big hit as well: Defense...

Published Fri, Apr 30 2010 8:43 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Military, Economics

How Does a Country Develop a 60 Percent Rape Rate?

The shocking findings of a study on sexual assault in Asia , published Tuesday in the Lancet Global Health journal, have been generating a lot of buzz , particularly the figures on Papua New Guinea, where 59 percent -- yes, more than a majority -- of...

Published Wed, Sep 11 2013 2:35 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Human Rights, Women, South Asia, Pacific, Public Health, India, Health

Morning Brief: Al Qaeda Not Involved in Benghazi Attack

Al Qaeda Not Involved in Benghazi Attack Top News: The attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi that led to the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was not planned by Al Qaeda, but was coordinated by local militias and...

Published Mon, Dec 30 2013 5:43 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Welcome to IKEAville

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has begun work on a 26-acre self-contained neighborhood in Stratford, East London - just in time for the 2012 Olympics. The town will be called Strand East and will contain 1,200 new homes, 480,000 square feet of office space...

Published Thu, Apr 12 2012 11:30 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, North America, Britain, Development, Economics, globalization, Olympics

Dispatch from Cairo under communications blackout

The following dispatch from Cairo-based Reuters producer Maryam Ishani was sent in the early hours of this morning as disruptions to the country's Internet service were starting to take effect. Internet and mobile phone service has since been cut...

Published Fri, Jan 28 2011 8:31 AM by FP Passport

Morning Brief: North Korea threatens 'sacred war'

North Korea threatens 'sacred war' Top news: North Korea returned to its typical bellicose rhetoric today following massive military drills by the South. "To counter the enemy's intentional drive to push the situation to the brink of...

Published Thu, Dec 23 2010 5:51 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

How North Korea Turned Kim Jong Un’s Baby Photos Into Propaganda

Kim Jong Un was adorable as a child. He had big puffy cheeks, a funny smile, and made military salutes from an early age. His parents -- or perhaps his caretakers -- liked to dress him up in military uniforms. And that's how he's portrayed in...

Published Thu, Apr 24 2014 2:23 PM by FP Passport

Japan and China Pick an Un-Davos-like Fight at Davos

DAVOS, Switzerland — Sparks are flying between Chinese and Japanese officials in this snowy Swiss town -- and not the kind that this business matchmaking soiree is meant to kindle. The two Asian powers have set aside the conference's normal air of...

Published Fri, Jan 24 2014 4:34 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Japan, Diplomacy, East Asia, China, Davos2014

U.S. Congress closes shark finning loophole

On Monday, the U.S. Senate, followed by the House on Tuesday, passed a groundbreaking shark conservation bill banning the practice of shark finning in the Pacific. The bill closes a loophole in earlier legislation that had banned shark finning off the...

Published Tue, Dec 21 2010 12:17 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Environment, East Asia, China, Food/Agriculture

Sochi Watch: Why Tsar Putin Released His Arch-Nemesis

Like any good royal, Vladimir Putin couldn't be bothered to make an act of clemency the main event of his Thursday press conference. Instead, he casually revealed at the end of the four-hour affair that he planned to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the...

Published Fri, Dec 20 2013 2:27 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Russia, Human Rights, Politics, Barack Obama

Is the U.S. the next country to embrace Gross National Happiness?

The Washington Post reports: Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a panel of experts in psychology and economics, including Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, began convening in December to try to define reliable measures of 'subjective...

Published Fri, Mar 30 2012 2:46 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Flash Points

The Race for 2012: Pawlenty v. Isolationists; Perry on Gaza; Tea Party excited

Pawlenty won't name the ‘isolationists' In a decidedly hawkish foreign policy speech this week at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty called out members of his party who "now seem to be trying to out-bid...

Published Thu, Jun 30 2011 11:59 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: North America, Politics

'For Mother': Ukraine’s Military Goes Hollywood to Fill Budget Gap

Red lines

For Iran watchers, the week or so leading up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington has been a busy one. First, on Friday, the latest International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards report came out on Iran's nuclear program...

Published Tue, Feb 28 2012 9:49 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Iran

Introducing 'Iran Watch'

These days, news about the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program is coming at us at a rapid and often bewildering pace. In the last month alone, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Israel a "cancer tumor"...

Published Thu, Mar 08 2012 4:41 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Iran