Malala the viral iconI was one amongst those who were outraged by the shooting of Malala Yousofzai on Oct 9, 2012.  However, my opinions regarding her putative education jihad, her alleged single-handed campaigns against the Taliban, and even the alleged shooting incidence itself rapidly changed when the subsequent lionization process reeked of a…

 
 
A few days ago the Centre of Strategic and International Studies published a detailed analysis on the results of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia. Its author, Simon De Galbert, gave also some policy recommendations in case some future scenarios will materialize. Here I report the main points.
 
 
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The current situation in Ukraine is mostly considered as a simply conflict between pro-Russian insurgency and the Ukrainian government. But the truth has become far more complex and it is now a crucial security issue for EU and Russian governance.
 
The employment of paramilitary volunteer battalions by Poroshenko’s government to fight…

Below is a reading list I have devised for all our presidential candidates. Above all, they must obtain a  basic knowledge of foreign affairs and the policies of the two successful presidents who managed to develop limited partnership with Russia,  Richard Nixon until Watergate and Ronald Reagan. What were the basics of Nixon’s…

Putin is one of the favorite topics in the Western media. While in office, the Russian president has been put under the microscope from different angles. Many attempts at creating his psychological portrait and discovering his identity have been undertaken in order to understand what is to be expected from Putin’s Russia. The most popular and…

Just in time for recapping the polarized choices presented by President Obama and President Putin at The United Nations General Assembly. In Foreign Policy there is a struggle between two concepts which every nation must face. There is the idealist perspective which promotes what is right under societal values and norms (which differ per culture)…

By intervening squarely on the side of Shiite Bashar Assad against his own mainly Sunni people and the entire Sunni Middle East, Russia may once again be the center of attention from the global Sunni jihadist movement.  But, unlike the 1980s in Afghanistan, these mujahadeen are much more experienced, much more sophisticated, much more…

Last week I attended a conference titled “Russia’s food market in 2015”; it was the first of a series of panels that took place in occasion of the 24th World Food Exhibition, a well-known event which brought to Moscow more than 1500 firms from over 70 countries.
 
At the discussion participated the Presidents of many…

Macro level intervention through advocacy and lobbying to reduce Social cost is a tool to build up positive business environment and increase market share of micro level investors in rural parts of India and Russia. To engineer that from grass root to policy making authority’s level, we need to break some myths.  When we think of a…

We humans have migrated for millions of years, from Africa Homo Sapiens led the way, meeting with Homo Neanderthals of Eurasia. The Human Tribe may have been founded as a collaboration effort or integration effort or a conquering effort by the Homo sapiens.  And all unplanned? - We are not sure.  In the Press we see today the vitriolic…

These writers admire His Holiness, Pope Francis. Like Jean Paul II, he has shown remarkable courage and compassion while supporting the poor, suffering and disenfranchised throughout the world. Yet, on the eve of his visit to Cuba, and less experienced with communism than his Polish born predecessor, he describes the capitalism replacing communism in…

Resumed political violence in Turkey started anew debates about deep-rooted problems in its political system. Terrorist attacks in the Turkish provinces of Şanlıurfa, Hakkari and Iğdır, efforts of the AKP to profit from the ensuing chaos and its reluctance to share power after the June elections impels to think about the prospects for a…