Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
For US, Turkish Leaders Are Not Reliable Friends
In 1998, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was sent to prison for reciting a poem deemed as a crime by a Turkish court, which was then under big influence of once-powerful military. He was blamed for “inciting animosity among public.” Fifteen years later, Erdoğan pressed charges against me for tweeting a news report about...
WATCH LIVE: The Ukraine Crisis — What’s Next For Europe?
The Ukraine Crisis: What’s Next for Europe? “Security is like oxygen–you tend not to notice it until you begin to lose it, but once that occurs there is nothing else that you will think about.” – Dr. Jospeh Nye, Foreign Affairs, July/August 1995 The Ukraine crisis has brought to fore the existential threats facing Europe. The question...
America Must Make Its Underlying Intentions Toward Iran Clear
The 5+1 nuclear negotiations will resume in November. Although this is still some time away, analysts, policy writers and diplomats have been busy working to formulate an achievable diplomatic position which will bridge the gaps left at the end of the last session. Here in the UK, we think we know what our position must be. Iran must make...
Confronting ISIS: Is Rule of Law and Democracy Part of Coalition?
The fight against ISIS necessitates both a battlefield plan and one that eliminates its appeal. The failure to decisively support a more democratic opposition or to refer Syria, particularly the despotic Assad Regime, to the International Criminal Court has nurtured ISIS and its cynical dogma. Beating ISIS on the battleground could prove...
Westgate One Year Later: A Perspective on Courage
Courage. The word swirls round my head today, a year after the horrific terror attacks on Westgate mall in Nairobi that left 67 dead and scores injured. Courage because so many individuals ran into the mall during the shootouts to try and save innocents. Courage because Acumen’s board had planned a trip just a few days after the attacks;...
The World’s Leaders Are Failing To Curb Corruption. Here’s Why.
Rogue current and former dictators and global bribe-paying giant corporations are enjoying levels of impunity, placing them seemingly above the law, which only encourage international corruption and money laundering. The Group of 20 — the forum of the leaders of the world’s most powerful economies — meets at summit level in...
French Farmers Set Vegetables, Manure Ablaze To Protest Falling Prices
Farmers dumped piles of vegetables around the town of Morlaix in western France on Friday night before torching public buildings in a dramatic act of frustration at falling revenues. Around 100 farmers hauled artichokes, potatoes and broccoli to Morlaix by tractor, unloaded them onto the streets and set them ablaze, Reuters reports. According to...
Ukraine, Russia, Rebels Agree To Buffer Zone In Peace Talks
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Participants in Ukrainian peace talks agreed early Saturday to create a buffer zone to separate government troops and pro-Russian militants and withdraw foreign fighters and heavy weapons from the area of conflict in eastern Ukraine. The deal reached by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Moscow-backed rebels and the...
U.S. Fighter Jets Intercept Russian Aircraft
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) – U.S. and Canadian fighter jets intercepted Russian aircraft that were flying near U.S. and Canadian air space this week, a military spokesman said on Friday. The United States and Russia are increasingly at odds over Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting for control of parts of the...
Weekend Roundup: Scotland Stays Stitched
This week, the world reeled from a welter of cross currents. Though the “yes” vote on independence lost in the end, the Scottish referendum revealed a passionately dis-United Kingdom. Elsewhere, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India, the other Asian giant, calling for a global economic alliance of the “world’s...
