Diplomacy & Politics Archive

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about education policy in various countries around the world. Peru’s education system has been rocked by a nearly two-month-long teachers’ strike that came to a “temporary” end on Sept. 2, but not before tarnishing the image of the government and threatening to force school children to repeat the academic year. While the teachers were able to agree on some terms with the government, many underlying issues remain unresolved. In an email interview, Santiago Cueto, senior researcher at GRADE and a member of Peru’s National Education Council, explains what education in […]

Americans have been riveted to the tales of tragedy and human suffering caused by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana. Half a world away, monsoon season flooding at even more epic levels has resulted in great loss of life, property damage and health challenges for communities in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The economics and cultural dimensions of the two cases are profoundly different, but the acute policy and governance demands related to climate and resilience are not that dissimilar. Monsoons in South Asia often produce heart-wrenching images of water-engulfed villages and desperate families seeking shelter and food. […]

Vietnamese Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich’s visit to Washington in early August was just the latest sign of the remarkable progress made in security ties between the United States and Vietnam over the past decade. But it also underscored the limits of how much Hanoi is willing to cozy up to Washington today, and how unconvinced it remains of the Trump administration’s commitment to Asia. The trip exemplified Hanoi’s multidirectional foreign policy, which rests on maintaining strong relations with many outside partners to avoid dominance by any one, and of how that strategy is evolving to face the growing threat […]

BERLIN—When Adam Bahar fled Sudan in 2008, he had no plans to head to Germany. Bahar’s family is originally from the historically neglected Darfur region in Sudan’s west. When fighters from the region rebelled against the Khartoum-based government in 2003, they were met with sweeping violence. The government backed a genocidal response aimed not just at the rebels, but also their perceived civilian sympathizers. Nearly 15 years later, spasmodic attacks continue. Listen to Andrew Green discuss this article on WPR’s Trend Lines Podcast. His audio begins at 21:10: Bahar, living in Khartoum when the fighting began, was horrified both by […]

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s devastating military defeats in 1991 and 2003 demonstrated that taking on the U.S. military in conventional battles is a very bad idea. Knowing that, some of America’s adversaries, like Russia and Iran, turned to what security experts call the “gray zone”—methods that relied on proxy forces, psychological warfare and other provocations at a level that would not compel U.S. intervention. Extremist groups like al-Qaida, the Taliban and the self-styled Islamic State cannot muster the resources for full-on gray zone aggression even if they wanted to. This has forced them to rely on insurgency instead. Luckily […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Among the observers endorsing Kenya’s election last month were representatives of the European Union, the African Union and the Carter Center, whose delegation was led by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kenya’s Supreme Court, however, has disagreed with their assessment. On Friday, it nullified the results giving incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta a second term and ordered that a new vote take place within 60 days—a ruling that was being described as a first for Africa. As Helen […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about education policy in various countries around the world. New Zealand has produced a high-quality and decentralized education system, but its colonial past is still present in the disparities of achievement among students. Today, the descendants of white, European colonialists far exceed their indigenous Maori and Pasifika peers. In an email interview, Sarah Bolton, a 2017 Ian Axford fellow in public policy and Fulbright scholar examining educational inequality in New Zealand, explains the inherent opportunities and challenges facing the country’s schools and the importance New Zealand has placed on environmental […]

Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has run an erratic foreign policy, failing to deliver a clear and consistent message to allies and enemies alike. So, when the State Department decided to cut and withhold a combined $295 million in economic and military aid to Egypt last week, despite exceedingly warm relations between Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, many were once again left scratching their heads. For nearly a year, Trump has been an ardent supporter of the regime in Cairo, ending an era of rough-and-tumble relations between Egypt and the Obama administration. Sisi, for his part, was […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editors, Robbie Corey-Boulet and Omar Rahman, discuss the recent cut in U.S. aid to Egypt and what’s behind French President Emmanuel Macron’s outreach to Africa. For the Report, Shreen Saroor and Mytili Bala talk with Peter Dörrie about stalled transitional justice in Sri Lanka and the fate of thousands of people who were abducted or disappeared before, during and after the country’s long civil war. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines, as well as what you’ve seen on WPR, please think about supporting our […]

Lately, it seems that every week Germany’s ties with Turkey hit another low point, and there are few signs of this trend reversing any time soon. The latest escalation came with the arrest last week of Dogan Akhanli, a Turkish-born German writer on vacation in Spain, following a warrant issued by Turkey. German officials decried the move as politically motivated and warned that the Turkish government may be using the multinational police organization Interpol to pursue political opponents abroad. Akhanli’s detention is the most recent in a string of arrests of German citizens both in Turkey and abroad. Since the […]