Section: Foreign Policy (USA)
The Amazon Grinch and Germany’s Unhappy Elves
LEIPZIG, Germany — A week before Christmas, Amazon’s logistics center in Leipzig is bustling. Trucks trace a line to and from the loading docks at the American online retailing giant’s vast complex, which helps supply Germany and beyond. Inside, workers stack and ready holiday packages for shipment. It’s the busiest time of year...
Fracking in New York, Feeling the Tremors in Europe
It’s been a rough month for fracking. First, oil prices upended the economics of the once-booming shale fields. Then on Dec. 17, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned the controversial oil and gas-extraction practice after the release of a state report highlighting uncertainties that cloud virtually every aspect of the science. The most...
FP’s Situation Report, presented by Lockheed Martin: U.S. effort to bankrupt the Islamic State isn’t working; Ukraine edges closer to NATO; More needed from the U.S. to counter North Korean cyberattack; and much more.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The U.S. effort to bankrupt the Islamic State isn’t working. Washington and its allies are well aware that it would be nearly impossible to defeat the Islamic State without strangling its finances. Airstrikes have lowered the group’s oil revenue to $1 million per day, down from $2 million. However,...
Is Saudi Arabia Trying to Cripple American Fracking?
In a country that never tires of hearing itself described as “a nation of innovators,” the idea that one such innovation — the shale oil boom — has galvanized the world’s most powerful cartel, OPEC, to launch a campaign to snuff it out has obvious appeal. But like most Hollywood notions of reality, however, this one is too good to be true....
FP’s Situation Report, presented by Lockheed Martin: The Internet goes down in North Korea; U.S. needs a cybersecurity overhaul; Congress demands anti-terror results from Pakistan; and much more.
By David Francis with Sabine Muscat The Internet goes down in North Korea. After the United States implicated Pyongyang in the hack of Sony Pictures, rumors about Internet connectivity problems in North Korea began to circulate. Yesterday, after President Barack Obama promised a “proportional response” to the alleged cyberattack, someone turned...
Black Gold and Black Swans
Everybody is trying to get a handle on where oil prices will be next year after a whiplash-inducing slide of nearly 50 percent since summertime highs. The price of oil matters for regular folks at the pump and for oil companies trying to make multi-billion dollar investments. It matters for petro states that rely on crude sales to fund their...
FP’s Situation Report, presented by Lockheed Martin: Kurdish fighters advance against the Islamic State; North Korea could go back on U.S. terror list; Russians pay the price for Putin; and much more.
By David Francis and Sabine Muscat Iraqi Kurdish fighters are driving back the Islamic State in Sinjar. U.S. involvement in the fight against the Islamic State began at Mt. Sinjar last summer, where members of Iraq’s minority Yazidi group were stranded. This weekend, the Peshmerga, backed by Christian and Yazidi militias, drove Islamic...
Last Minute Gift Guide for Wonks, 2014 Edition
With Christmas bearing down on us like a giant train of retail profit, you may have someone left on your list who spent the year thinking just a little too much about the news. Trust us, we know the type. Perhaps needless to say, but we have a few of them among us at Foreign Policy. Though you may have already got this person an FP subscription,...
FP’s Situation Report, presented by Lockheed Martin: U.S. missing key allies in Islamic State fight; Putin remains defiant as Russian economy crumbles; Obama’s Cuba success is undermined by North Korean cyberattack; and much more.
By David Francis and Sabine Muscat The United States is missing key allies in its fight against the Islamic State. Some 1,500 American troops are preparing to deploy to the Middle East to retrain Iraqi security forces to take the fight to the Islamic State next year. Turning Iraqis into a tribal fighting force of roughly 5,000 proficient enough...
Putin Says Russian Bear Isn’t About to Sit Back and Just Eat Berries and Honey
The year 2014 was supposedly one in which a chess-playing Vladimir Putin outsmarted the checkers-playing West. But even with Crimea in Russian hands, it ends on what must surely be a sour note for the Russian president. His country’s economy is in a tail-spin amid Western sanctions. The ruble is tanking. And Russian meddling in Ukraine now...
