Financial Markets

A review of Nadia Diuk’s book by Vladimir Kara-Murza . .  relevant to the “revolutions” in the Middle-East and Eastern Europe. What Are They Thinking? A Study of Youth in Three Post-Soviet States Vladimir Kara-Murza The Next Generation in Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan: Youth, Politics, Identity, and Change Nadia M. Diuk (Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) [...]

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Have not read the book yet, but will soon . .  a nice review   LIARS AND OUTLIERS: ENABLING THE TRUST THAT SOCIETY NEEDS TO THRIVE Author: Bruce Schneier New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 366p. Reviewer: Paul Ekblom | September 2012Some years ago, I participated in a meeting of academic members and associates of the [...]

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  From Gadhafi to Benghazi September 18, 2012 | 0900 GMT By George Friedman, Stratfor Last week, four American diplomats were killed when armed men attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The attackers’ apparent motivation was that someone, apparently American but with an uncertain identity, posted a video on YouTube several months ago that deliberately defamed the [...]

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  Russia’s Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals By Noah Shachtman July 23, 2012 |   Eugene Kaspersky, Soviet officer turned software tycoon. Photo: Stephen Voss   It’s early February in Cancun, Mexico. A group of 60 or so financial analysts, reporters, diplomats, and cybersecurity specialists shake off the previous night’s tequila and file [...]

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The Election, the Presidency and Foreign Policy July 31, 2012 BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN The American presidency is designed to disappoint. Each candidate must promise things that are beyond his power to deliver. No candidate could expect to be elected by emphasizing how little power the office actually has and how voters should therefore expect little [...]

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The Country That Is the World: Syria’s Clashing Communities Charles Glass The population of Syria is so inharmonious a gathering of widely different races in blood, in creed, and in custom, that government is both difficult and dangerous. — Sir Mark Sykes, Dar Ul-Islam: A Record of a Journey through Ten of the Asiatic Provinces of Turkey (1904) [...]

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  Article by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Rossiiskaya Gazeta  February 2012 Being strong: National security guarantees for Russia The world is changing, and the transformations underway could hide various risks, often unpredictable risks. In a world of economic and other upheaval, there is always the temptation to resolve one’s problems at another’s expense, through [...]

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  My lessons from life as a Chinese central banker By David Daokui Li When I became one of three academic members of the People’s Bank of China’s Monetary Policy Committee in April 2010, I knew I was unprepared, despite teaching economics for nearly 20 years in the US and Hong Kong before returning to [...]

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  The Next War Americans are fooling themselves if they think the era of adventures abroad is over. In fact, another big international intervention is just around the corner. And we’re not nearly ready for it. BY DOUGLAS A. OLLIVANT, RADHA IYENGAR | MAY 3, 2012 U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent speech during his surprise visit to Afghanistan on [...]

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Africa’s Tuareg Dilemma April 11, 2012 | 0903 GMT By Robert D. Kaplan, Stratfor   Some years back, when I left Niamey, the capital of Niger, and headed north on a rutted, dirt track it was as if the country disappeared on me. There was no police, no sign of authority, nothing. Flash floods had [...]

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