After North Korea’s fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9, the U.S. is calling for tighter global sanctions. New research shows that this strategy actually helps North Korea.
A recent protest by South African schoolchildren which had to be quelled by an under-resourced police force.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
It is exactly forty years since the Soweto uprising in June 1976 where the South African police met the students with brutal force. How much has changed in terms of policing?
The merest hint of a successful deal over Iran’s nuclear programme is enough to get people excited. And as the country emerges from economic isolation, nowhere is the enthusiasm more keenly felt than in…
As President Obama writes his thank you notes to Democrats in Congress who helped him pass the accord, he better not forget about his European partners.
Not all of Iran’s frozen foreign assets are likely to thaw anytime soon.
Frozen dollar via www.shutterstock.com
Estimates of how much of Iran’s frozen assets it will get once sanctions are lifted vary widely, but the sum is most likely just a fraction of the total.
The Arak heavy-water reactor has been at the center of concerns about potential Iranian nuclear proliferation.
Stringer/Reuters
Critics of the nuclear deal with Iran have good reasons to be skeptical, but blocking the deal would make the United States and its allies less secure.
Often caught talking at cross purposes.
EPA/Sven Hoppe
The situation in is Ukraine deteriorating, but the G7 powers apparently have nothing to add.
Sanctions intended to be biting have more often been toothless and about giving supporters the warm, fuzzy feeling that comes from taking a principled stand.
Cat dollar via www.shutterstock.com
Bryan R. Early, University at Albany, State University of New York
Sanctions have a terrible track record of success because they’re usually too weak to work and too easy to get around.
Foreign ministers Julie Bishop and Mohammad Zarif demonstrated a growing rapport between Australia and Iran in reaching agreement on some but not all fronts during her visit to Tehran.
EPA
Australia made progress on restoring trade and sharing intelligence on Islamic State in Iraq. Iran was less open to accepting the return of asylum seekers, which may prove a blessing in disguise.
It is estimated that 73,000 people died within seconds in Nagasaki, the second Japanese city to fall victim to the atomic bomb.
AAP/Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
With the end of the Cold War, the nuclear arms race came to a virtual halt, but the nuclear threat remained. In regional rivalries, such as those in the south Asia subcontinent, northeast Asia, and the…
The first casualty of the Russian rouble crisis. Hint: it’s not Bruce Willis.
www.trustbank.ru
The dramatic slide in the value of the rouble has claimed its first banking casualty. Trust Bank is being bailed out by the Russian Central Bank to the tune of US$530m. The emergency liquidity line is…
Could tough talk, lead to tough action?
EPA/Sergei Chirikov
Vladimir Putin has delivered his annual press conference and at the top of the agenda was the Russian economy, reflecting that the turmoil buffeting the Russian rouble has reached critical levels. After…
Sanctions work. Russia’s problems may be manifold and closely related to the precipitous decline in the price of oil, but sanctions have played an important part in bringing Russia to its economic knees…