Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

South American Drug Trade Deja Vu

Westerwelle buries the hatchet in Israel

Guido Westerwelle is currently visiting Israel for his first official trip as Foreign Minister. His last visit, in 2002, didn't go so well: Westerwelle's trip follows another he made to the region in May 2002 when he was criticized by top Israeli...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 1:06 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Israel/Palestine, Germany

Can The Castro Regime Ban 3D Movies... And Survive?

The Cuban regime is not quite sure whether to call 3D film technology the newest enemy of the revolution. A week after issuing an all-encompassing ban on movies using the technology, the Castros might be changing their mind. On Nov. 2, the Cuban government...

Published Wed, Nov 13 2013 11:11 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Latin America, Freedom, Fun Stuff, globalization

How Victorian Morality Still Screws Over Gays in India

Upholding a colonial law whose wording is nothing short of medieval, the Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday banned gay sex, or "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman, or animal." Violators of the law, Section 377 of the...

Published Thu, Dec 12 2013 10:00 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Human Rights, Southeast Asia, India

South Sudanese 'returnees' leave Israel

The first plane carrying South Sudanese "returnees" out of Israel arrived in Juba, South Sudan, on June 19. Amidst escalating tensions over African migration to Israel, Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai described the eventual "return...

Published Tue, Jun 19 2012 10:10 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Security, Africa, Human Rights, Law, Middle East, Race/Ethnicity, Israel/Palestine, International Relations, Migration/Immigration, Borders

Mapping the U.S. bombing of Cambodia

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to see a presentation by Taylor Owen of the University of British Columbia's Liu Institute for Global Issues as part of a conference on data and conflict. Owen has recently been looking into a remarkable database...

Published Wed, Mar 21 2012 8:51 AM by FP Passport

Japan, ASEAN, team up for cyberdefense

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE In the wake of a series of cyber attacks from Chinese I.P. addresses at the height of the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute, Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Japan is pushing a plan to create a "cyber defense...

Published Mon, Oct 08 2012 1:43 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Security, Japan, East Asia, China, Internet, Southeast Asia

Morning Brief: Putin signs ban on U.S. adoptions

Putin signs ban on U.S. adoptions Top news: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that makes it illegal for Americans to adopt Russian children. Russian lawmakers had initially drafted a law that mirrored the U.S. Magnitsky Act Read...

Published Fri, Dec 28 2012 5:55 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Decline Watch: Pakistani clerics issue fatwa against calling America a superpower

Remember when anti-American clerics used to call it the Great Satan? Those were the days: A clerical alliance in Pakistan has issued a religious decree ( fatwa ) saying that it is illegitimate (haram) to call the United States a "superpower"...

Published Tue, Sep 27 2011 9:21 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Decline Watch

China's solar disaster

The recent Solyndra debacle involving U.S government subsidies towards a now bankrupt solar energy startup has dominated headlines in the U.S. But China is facing a more serious solar crisis. After four days of protests at the Jinko Solar Holding , an...

Published Tue, Sep 20 2011 3:43 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Environment, East Asia, China

Responding to He Yafei: Who's to blame for the downturn in U.S.-Chinese relations?

Just how bad are U.S.-Chinese relations these days, and who's to blame for the downturn? China's former Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei has published an essay in Foreign Policy today on the worrying state of the world's most important relationship...

Published Mon, May 13 2013 1:20 PM by FP Passport

Chávez propagandist in leaked recording: 'We are in a sea of shit, my friend'

The Venezuelan opposition on Monday released a recording of what it says is a conversation between Mario Silva, a prominent Venezuelan television host and a favorite of the late Hugo Chávez, and a Cuban intelligence officer, in which Silva details a feud...

Published Mon, May 20 2013 3:08 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Venezuela

Strange "recidivism" numbers

In order to return to doing something, you needed to have been doing it before. That was the point made in the media scrum after the Pentagon reported last spring that 14 percent of released Guantanamo detainees went "back to the battlefield."...

Published Thu, Jan 07 2010 3:35 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Taliban, U.S. Foreign Policy

Did Turkey just become a little more like Texas?

What do Texas and Turkey have in common? Aside from sharing the same first letter, probably not too much. But starting today, they will be able to add something else to the list: similar alcohol policies. On Friday, after a marathon debate lasting well...

Published Fri, May 24 2013 5:53 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Culture, Politics, Turkey

Scud showdown in Sanaa

More than a year after President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down -- and almost two years after protests against his dictatorship flooded the streets of Sanaa -- Yemen's political crisis continues. Saleh was formally ousted in February in a...

Published Tue, Dec 11 2012 11:29 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Security, Middle East, Military, Yemen