Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Egypt’s real shark problem
By David Faris International attention remains focused on the recent spate of gruesome shark attacks in Egypt. But the real threat is not from wandering Makos in the glittering alternate tourist universes of the Sinai, but rather from the sharks of the regime — the ones who just finished dismembering what was left of Egypt’s sham …
Reviving the West
By Gordon Brown LONDON: In 2008, at a time of financial peril, the world united to restructure the global banking system. In 2009, as trade collapsed and unemployment rose dramatically, the world came together for the first time in the G-20 to prevent a great recession from spiraling into a great depression. Now, facing a low-growth …
Syria: Gearing up for IT
By Oxford Business Group Although tourists might head straight to Souk Al-Hamidiyya, in fact, one of the biggest souks in Damascus these days is unquestionably Souk Al-Bahsa. It might lack the former’s picturesque charm, but here you’ll find talented young merchants selling software and hardware at knock-down prices. In many ways Souk Al-Bahsa is a testament …
Is open diplomacy possible?
By Peter Singer PRINCETON: At Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson, who was president of the university before he became president of the United States, is never far away. His larger-than-life image looks out across the dining hall at Wilson College, where I am a fellow, and Prospect House, the dining facility for academic staff, was his family …
Time for politics in Kabul
By Fatima Ayub LONDON: As US and NATO soldiers prepare for their tenth Christmas in Afghanistan, a new buzzword is making the rounds: “transition,” the process of transferring responsibility for security from international to Afghan forces ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops, which is set to begin in the spring of 2011. But, in order …
Voodoo economics revisited
By Simon Johnson WASHINGTON, DC: Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington are suddenly falling over themselves to agree on the need for major tax cuts — affecting not just middle-class Americans, but also very rich people (both living and when they die). Does this sudden outbreak of the long-desired bipartisan consensus indicate that a new, stronger …
The fate of Christians in the Arab world
By Hasni Abidi GENEVA: Should we be concerned about the fate of Christian communities in the Arab world? This burning issue hits the headlines time and again whenever a church is attacked in Iraq or Egyptian Copts are bullied. Most recently an appeal by a group of Arab intellectuals to rise above sectarian divisions was published …
Egypt looks to make the grade
By Oxford Business Group CAIRO: Moves to encourage greater private investment in education in Egypt could provide an important boost to the country, bringing in resources and supporting ongoing reform efforts. Education is a key area in which Egypt is seeking higher levels of foreign investment, Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid, who is …
Season for Jews, Christians and Muslims to look back at 2010
By Prince El Hassan bin Talal AMMAN: At the time of Eid ul-Adha, which marks the end of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca; Hanukkah, when Jews commemorate the dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; and Christmas, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, we look back, yet again, on a year “that could have been”. …
The risk tsunami
By Michael Spence NEW YORK: It is time for the G-20 to take seriously its mandate to agree on steps to stabilize the global economy and launch it on a more sustainable pattern of growth. Instead, the G-20 is behaving like a debating society, with the cooperative approach that it fostered at the outset of the …
The Balkans’ new normal
By Ivan Krastev SOFIA: The Balkans is the European Union’s untold success story. The EU’s commitment to bringing the region within its borders remains firm. In September, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, succeeded in breaking the deadlock in Serbia-Kosovo relations by bringing both sides back to the negotiating table. The EU’s soft …
Vulnerable Muslim youth: the challenge of counter-radicalization
By Abbas Barzegar ATLANTA, Georgia: Many of us are still bewildered by the bizarre news of the 19-year-old Somali-born American citizen, Muhammad Osman Mohamud, arrested on Nov. 25 for attempting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. Putting aside questions regarding the nature of the FBI’s involvement in this case, it appears that …
WikiLeaks’ flawed answer to a flawed world
By Esther Dyson NEW YORK: Long ago, I wrote about the internet pioneer Julf Helsingius, who ran a precursor to WikiLeaks called anon.penet.fi. As I said then: “Anonymity in itself should not be illegal. There are enough good reasons for people to be anonymous that it should be [allowed] — at least in some places on …
Engagement, not isolation, as the way to a moderate Hamas
By Chrystie Swiney WASHINGTON, DC: Last week, Ismail Haniyeh, a senior political leader of Hamas, publicly announced his movement’s commitment to respecting “any peace deal” with Israel approved by Palestinian referendum. Stating Hamas’s desire to be “part of the solution, not the problem,” Haniyeh went on to proclaim Hamas’s commitment to “establishing a viable Palestinian state …
Ending institutionalized childhood
By Oliver Lewis BUDAPEST: In September of this year, the Bulgarian prosecutor launched a homicide investigation into the deaths of 238 children with disabilities, who had been living in state institutions in Bulgaria. The children died over the past decade from malnutrition and starvation, treatable infections, pneumonia, “accidents,” and neglect. Of the 238 cases, 149 children …
Referendum: No reason to despair
By Alex Stein TEL AVIV: Following the recent passing of the Referendum Law in the Knesset, Harvard professor Stephen Walt declared that Israelis and Palestinians can “kiss the two-state solution good-bye.” Israeli journalist Dimi Reider concurred, referring to “[the day] Israel finally killed the two-state solution,” and Haim Oron, the leader of the left-wing Mertez party, …
The effectiveness of global sanctions on Iran
By Meir Javedanfar and Hooman Majd Middle East analyst Meir Javedanfar goes head to head with Hooman Majd, scholar of Iranian history, over the effectiveness of global sanctions on Iran. We need sanctions against Iran Meir Javedanfar Winston Churchill once described Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. No one yet has …
No, you can’t
By Bjørn Lomborg COPENHAGEN: Several thousand officials from 194 countries just gathered in Cancún, Mexico, for yet another global climate summit. Dissatisfied with the pace of climate diplomacy, many individuals are now wondering what they can do about climate change on their own. For years now, climate activists from Al Gore to Leonardo DiCaprio have argued …
The last line of decency
By Ian Buruma JERUSALEM: Every Friday afternoon for more than a year, hundreds of Israeli Jews have gathered on a dusty little square in the middle of Arab East Jerusalem. There are some Palestinians there, too, including a couple of boys selling fresh orange juice. The people gather there, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, to protest …
Blasphemy in Pakistan: time to repeal a flawed law
By Beena Sarwar KARACHI, Pakistan: On Nov. 29, the Lahore High Court blocked the government from pardoning Aasiya Noreen, a Christian Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohamed. A few days earlier, extremist groups protested on the streets of the Pakistani city of Lahore and threatened anarchy in the event that the government grants …
Jordan: Industrial evolution
By Oxford Business Group State support and incentives combined with growing confidence in the local economy are helping Jordan’s manufacturing industries deal with challenges being caused by globalization. Manufacturing industries currently contribute around 16 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) but will likely fall as the share of services and information and communications technology grows in …
A wonderland of wacky Wikileaks
By Patricia DeGennaro NEW YORK: Wikileaks made another 250,000 secret documents available on its website site for review. Now in addition to thousands from Afghanistan and Iraq, one can view cables directly from the State Department exposing the innermost thoughts of US diplomats. These ‘secret’ cables disclosed things you might find out about a future business …
WikiLeaky power
By Pierre Buhler PARIS: Beyond the headlines, the embarrassment of governments, and the blow dealt to the secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, WikiLeaks’ exposure of US diplomatic cables offers a raw illustration of how deeply the essence of power has been altered in our information age. Since its inception, the state has been the main vessel …
Why I’m building Palestine
By Salam Fayyad RAMALLAH: When we launched our state-building plan for Palestine in August 2009, many dismissed it as an exercise in eggheadedness, extraordinary optimism, a dream. But here we are, feeling exceptionally, extremely validated by the scorecard so far: We have completed more than 1,500 projects, including the establishment of dozens of new schools, clinics, …
Land for peace in Kosovo
By Charles Tannock BELGRADE: Chasing impossible dreams has driven Serbia and Kosovo into a corner. A return to armed conflict may be impossible — at least for now — given NATO’s military presence in Kosovo (though it will be halved in the next few months to only 5,000 troops). But the lack of effort on all …
The Arab World’s silent feminist revolution
By Gema Martín-Muñoz MADRID: Arab societies often appear rigid and resistant to change to outsiders, because what they see is these countries’ ruling regimes, which mostly do resist development and change. But this image is nearly the opposite of reality in Arab societies, where enormous dynamism is opening doors to many types of change, albeit at …
The ‘rule of restitution’ as a paradigm for resolving conflicts
By Pinchas Leiser JERUSALEM: The Mishna, the Talmud and Halachic literature all mention a legal innovation by the Sages, contradicting a Biblical Law, which stipulates that a person must restore that which he took by robbery to its original owners (Leviticus 5, 23). This ruling, also called the “rule of restitution”, states that while a person …
Muslim culture, British identity
By Arwa Ibrahim LONDON: On Nov. 30 the Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Lord Altaf Sheikh, urged the British Muslim community to join the armed forces and police in order to promote tolerance and mutual respect between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain. Such suggestions, as well as the very existence of this Forum within the …
The Blackmail Path to Power
By Abdul Tejan-Cole ABIDJAN: On Dec. 2, Côte d’Ivoire’s Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) declared opposition leader Alassane Ouattara the winner of the country’s November presidential election with 54.1 percent of the vote. The incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, gained 45.9 percent. The United States, European Union, Canada, and United Nations Secretary-General all congratulated Ouattara and called on Gbagbo …
Bahrain: Improving the flow
By Oxford Business Group Major upgrades to the kingdom’s ports and roads as part of a long-term drive to strengthen logistics are raising the prospects of job creation and the interest of foreign investors. Last month the General Organization of Sea Ports (GOP) invited bids for the construction of a service zone at the Khalifa bin …