360 Articles
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By Jonah Joffe While Africa's economic growth leads many to praise the rise of the continet, questions remain if a "western" style of capitalism would serve it well. Africa is still a continent beset with problems. Famine, poverty and lack of infrastructure remain major issues, as do drought, state fragility and employment. Rotten governments are still endemic and most citizens still survive on less than $2 a day. It is despite all of this that for the second time in just a few months a major international publication has run a cover on the rise of Africa: TIME magazine’s headline “Africa Rising” following The Economist’s correction of its famous...
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360° Analysis / brazil / Middle Class / Social Welfare / Finance & Economics / BRIC / Global Change / AmericasBrazil, while quickly becoming an emerging economic power, is still struggling to improve the socioeconomic problems brought on from the legacy of its autocratic past. This is the third of four parts. Read part one here. Is the Nordic System the Answer? Finland and the Scandinavian nations — Sweden, Norway and Denmark — take a markedly different approach to advancing their national social and economic well-being. While basking in the Brazilian tradition that prides itself on the ouster of the Portuguese colonizers, I was surprised to see that nationals of Finland and the Scandinavia report a high degree of trust in their peers and government. Unlike South America’s...
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360° Analysis / Democracy / military / Okara / Pakistan / Politics / Sharecrops / AsiaAn examination of the Okara movement challenges hegemonic discourses of religious extremism and militancy in Pakistan. This is the second of a three part series. Read part one here. An examination of the Okara movement, which served as a serious challenge to the oppressive power of the state, contributes to a more nuanced understanding of ordinary Pakistanis in their struggle for self-determination, emancipation and economic well-being. In so doing, it moves beyond clichéd understandings of one of the most populous countries in the world and challenges hegemonic representations of the Pakistani polity. The Okara Movement The Okara Military Farms are part of the canal colonies in...
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In the long wake of the Oslo Accords, adherence to the status quo is eroding the chances for a just and feasible solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The year 2013 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Oslo Accords – two decades of a frozen peace process mired in transitional limbo. Long gone are the heady days of the 1990s, when peace seemed possible and a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians was within grasp. However, the Oslo Accords, which were set up as an incremental step towards a sovereign and secure Israel and Palestine, have instead acted as a perpetuator of an all-too-convenient status quo. In my conversation with Yossi Beilin (former Knesset...
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Mitchell Plitnick, former Director of B’Tselem and the Jewish Voice for Peace, speaks to Heba Al-Adawy about the future of political activism, and the obstacles to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Heba Al-Adawy: As an American Jew, what (and when) was the turning point in your political consciousness with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Mitchell Plitnick: There was no single turning point. As a young child in the 1970s, I was fed an absurdly one-sided version of Israeli history and current politics (of that time). The picture was that Israel only ever wanted peace and always had its hand out in friendship, but "the Arabs" hated Jews so much that all...
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360° Analysis / China / China Telecom / Internet freedom / ITU / Politics / Russia / United States / WCIT-12 / Europe / BRIC / Arts & Culture / AsiaBy Min JiangWith the world powers seemingly divided into two opposing blocs at the World Conference on International Telecommunications, Min Jiang looks at the conflict between “Internet freedom” and “Internet sovereignty” models. “The conference was not about Internet control or Internet governance,” said Hamadoun Touré, the head of the Internet Telecommunications Union (ITU), at the closing session of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) on December 14, 2012 in Dubai. But of course, Mr. Touré was simply denying the obvious. Internet control is precisely what WCIT-12 was about and the ideological divisions between the...
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360° Analysis / Drones / Pakistan / United States / Yemen / Middle East / Global Security / AsiaYemen replaced Pakistan as the primary destination for US drone strikes in 2012. In both countries, official government support for this US policy often comes at odds with the average citizen. Yemen’s President, Abd-Rabbo Mansur Hadi, does not have any particularly strong local powerbase in the country, normally a pre-requisite for leading as unstable a country as Yemen. Perhaps that is why he continues to vocally support the continuation of a US drones campaign in his country in the face of widespread national opposition to a counter-terrorism strategy, that often results in civilian ‘collateral damage.’ Hadi: Drone Strikes in Yemen Hadi needs America’s...
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Robert D. Crane, former adviser to the late President Richard Nixon, discusses the role of shari'a and secularism, and the issue of whether the “Arab Spring” winds up as an “Arab Winter”. The following is an executive summary from the essay, originally featured in the Arches Quarterly. The issue is human rights. The Qatar Foundation created a Center for the Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, of which I became the first Director in January 2012, to explore where and how the Arab Spring and any Global Awakening have originated and the extent to which the theories behind them have been translated into practice. What these two phenomena are or might become will...
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360° Analysis / Egypt / Islam / Islamism / Politics / Salaf / Salafism / Middle East / AfricaBy Omar FarahatOmar Farahat examines the origins of Salafis, and argues that the question of shari’a has to be resolved before Egypt can witness any kind of durable stability. The following is an executive summary from the essay, originally featured in the Arches Quarterly. Prior to the outbreak of the popular revolution against Mubarak’s regime in January and February of 2011, and the subsequent developments, talk within political and intellectual circles about Islamist presence and potential in Egyptian politics was almost exclusively centered on the Muslim Brotherhood. After all, it was the Brotherhood that consistently competed for parliamentary seats, organized massive student protests,...