Politics
Politics
Fair Observer's analysis of political issues, events and trends and their national, regional and international consequences.
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360° Analysis / Education / Fair Observer / Karachi / Maria Khwaja / Nawaz Sharif / Pakistan / Pakistan Elections 2013 / Pakistani Education System / Pakistani Schools / Politics / Schools in Pakistan / AsiaBy Maria KhwajaMaria Khwaja examines the rhetoric of educational reform during the general election and obstacles on the ground in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi In December, I hurriedly snapped a photo of five men at Qasim-ul-Uloom School in Karachi. Located in the ethnically volatile Orangi-town area, Qasim-ul-Uloom educates a diverse group of children: Pathan, Sindhi, Balochi, and Mohajir. Representatives from the ANP and MQM parties, both of whom control communities in Qasim-ul-Uloom’s catchment area, had been invited for the school’s award ceremony. Statements and Reality As an educationalist, my frequent visits to Karachi focused on providing what might help increase earnings...
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360° Analysis / Al-Qusayr / Christian / Demographics / Druze / Hassan Nasrallah / Hezbollah / Lebanon / Maronite / Najib Mikati / Ottoman Empire / Pan-Arabism / Politics / Refugees / Shereen Eldaly / Shia / Sunni / Syrian Civil War / Middle EastAs Syria’s civil war rages on, thousands of refugees flee daily to Lebanon. The Lebanese state needs to focus on national unity to avoid further political instability. By the end of 2013, Lebanon estimates that there will be a staggering 1.2 million Syrian refugees within its borders, in addition to hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as sub-Saharan Africa. Many in Lebanon worry about the impact of the refugee population on the country’s already fragile political stability. Lebanese politicians have insisted that the country is not and never will be a place of permanent asylum for those seeking international...
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360° Analysis / African spring / Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb / Algeria / AQIM / Arab Spring / Arab Uprisings / Boko Haram / Dr. Jonathan Hill / Hegel / Libya / Mali / Nigeria / North Africa / Politics / Prague Spring / Middle East / AfricaDr. Jonathan Hill looks at the coining of phrases surrounding "Spring Revolutions" and how Africa follows its own path. "At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it has no historical part in the world; …Historical movements in it – that is in its northern part – belong to the Asiatic or European World." Few would now agree with the Hegel’s sweeping dismissal of the greater part of the African continent. Africa is not, as he said, ahistorical. Yet, it would be equally wrong to assume that Africa is fully mistress of her history. History is still something that seems to happen to Africa that is imported from abroad and...
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360° Analysis / Annika Schall / Boston bombing / Chechnya / Dagestan / Dzhokhar Tsarvaev / Politics / Ramzan Kadyrov / Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik / Tamerlan Tsarnaev / United States / Europe / Global SecurityBecause the Boston Bombers came from Chechnya, the country is now back on the public agenda. Uwe Halbach analyzes the situation in Chechnya and sheds light on the background of Islamist terror in the Northern Caucasus. With the Boston Bombings, public attention has returned to the subject that disappeared from the media over the last few years: Chechnya, the attackers’ country of a origin. At present, it appears that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were acting independently. There is evidence that suggests the older brother, Tamerlan — who seems to have initiated the attack — had travelled to the Northern Caucasus where he could have taken on radical Islamist views....
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360° Analysis / Bidzina Ivanishvili / Free Press / Freedom House / Katherin Machalek / Media Censorship. Georgia / Micheil Saakashvilli / Politics / Press Freedom / Tbilisi / Transparency International Georgia / Europe / Arts & CultureDespite the recent change in leadership, Georgian media seems unlikely to develop non-partisan reporting in the near future, argues Freedom House analyst Katherin Machalek. Amid great fanfare, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appeared at a rally in Tbilisi on April 19 in support of his United National Movement (UNM), which had ruled the country from 2003 until it lost the October 2012 parliamentary elections. Since then, the party has suffered a serious decline in popularity, which it desperately hopes to recover before presidential elections in October 2013. This desperation was captured in news coverage of the April event: pro-UNM media featured members of the party claiming as many...
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360° Analysis / Annika Schall / Judith Vorrath / Kenya / MDC / Morgan Tsvangirai / Mwai Kibaki / Politics / Power Sharing / Raila Odinga / Rift Valley / Robert Mugabe / Uhuru Kenyatta / ZANU-PF / Zimbabwe / AfricaAfter a period of power sharing, elections in Kenya have been successful. However, a similar success cannot be expected in Zimbabwe. Judith Vorrath argues that power sharing is not a guarantee for change. With the inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta, the winner of the Kenyan elections, a phase of transition has ended for the country. During the last elections in 2007, there were significant irregularities and devastating outbreaks of violence. Compared to this, the most recent vote can be considered an overall success, despite the challenges that remain. The power sharing government set up by the main opponents during the crisis in 2008, was a good foundation for this success. Although...
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360° Analysis / Barack Obama / Bashar Al-Assad / Diplomacy / Israel / Jeffrey Laurenti / Lakhdar Brahimi / Negotiations / Nobel Prize / Politics / Recep Tayyip Erdogan / Ryan Crocker / Syria / Syrian Civil War / Turkey / UN resolution / United States / Europe / Middle East / Global SecuritySyria is not Iraq. Outside Washington, the US seems strongly opposed to deep involvement in the Syrian conflict. Obama's caution is on the mark, argues Jeffrey Laurenti. As pressures mount in Washington for a more aggressive American involvement on behalf of at least some rebel groups in Syria, President Obama has seemed intent on proving the Nobel committee was farsighted in awarding him its peace prize four years ago. He sent Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow this month with an initiative to re-engage diplomatically with Russia to end the war, through an international conference in June. It could not come soon enough. The Syrian government has, by all accounts, begun to win back...
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Alexander von Hahn / anti-blasphemy laws / Memorial Society / Moscow / NGO Berlin Conference / nongovernmental organization / Politics / Russia / Russian NGOs law / Europe / Focus Article / BRICAs the “anti-blasphemy” bill passes the State Duma, prison sentences and fines for public insults and humiliation of divine services, as well as believers’ feelings, have become real. With the Russian state becoming increasingly anachronistic and failing to deliver on its promise of social modernisation, Alexander von Hahn sees the country’s nongovernmental organizations taking the initiative into their own hands. Russia's new law on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was recently criticized at the United Nations by the US, which called it to be rescinded. While opening the first German-Russian NGO conference in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Guido...
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360° Analysis / Ahmed Ben Bella / Algeria / Ali Kafi / Bouteflika / Chadli Benjedid / James Dorsey / Jeunesse Sportive de la Saoura / NATO / Politics / Protest / Soccer / Union Sportive de la Médina d'El Harrach / Middle East / AfricaWith President Bouteflika recovering from a stroke in a French hospital, Algeria's rising tension among soccer fans could lead the country towards an uprising, argues James M. Dorsey. Algeria is competing to be the next Arab nation to witness a popular revolt. That is assuming soccer is a barometer of rising discontent in a region experiencing a wave of mass protests that have already toppled the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen, and sparked civil war in Syria. In fact, there is increasingly little doubt that soccer, a historic nucleus of protest in Algeria, is signaling that popular discontent could again spill into the streets of Algiers and other major cities. Two...