Dive into the archives.
- Deny his citizenship
The Economist reports on the situation of Faiza M., a Moroccan woman who married a French citizen and moved with him back to France. She applied for citizenship and was rejected on the basis that she wore a burqa, a “radical practice” that is “incompatible with the essential values of the French community, and particularly [...]
- Bad News for NATO from Germany
With questions about a two-tier system for NATO and concerns about certain members being unreliable or not sharing the burden, a ruling by the German Supreme Court comes as more bad news. The issue this time was the deployment of German AWACs along the Turkish border with Iraq in 2003. The article notes that:
Germany had [...]
- German NSC Sparks Controversy
In 1871, the many German states, previously divided and often at odds with each other, were united under the leadership of Prussia and Otto von Bismarck. Europe had long consisted of a strong France in the west, a divided series of weak states in central Europe and a strong Russia to the East. A united [...]
- I say there, war tuba.
The British join the Japanese and the Russians in our collection of war tubas.
Via kende.
- Equal Alliance, Unequal Roles
Following on the Kissinger post of last week, Kaplan has an Op-Ed in the New York Times on the Nato alliance and the unequal nature of the alliance—but unlike Kissinger, he defends it.
Predictions of NATO’s decline hold it to an impossible cold war standard. Then, a direct mortal threat to Central Europe in the form [...]
- Kissinger Speaks
... on Iraq and the Iraq War, NATO and the EU, Pakistan and Iran, radical Islam and pacifism, George Bush and Obama and McCain, objective reality and moral considerations, and plenty more.
The interview is short but the content is real—highly recommended reading (and the articles comes from Der Spiegel of all places). To quote [...]
- The History of Male Circumcision, Part 1
I’ve covered the histories of salt and chili pepper and other various topics previously, but in this post I’m going to take a topic all together different and review the history of male circumcision. Today most Americans think of cutting off the foreskin for males shortly after birth as completely natural. Yet this [...]
- The Origins of World War I
Great graphic from Wikipedia on the web of alliances that resulted in the explosion that was World War I.
- DESERTEC
Nature magazine has a fascinating article on meeting the power needs of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with an ambitious network of renewable energies across the region titled “DESERTEC.” In a word, the Sahara Desert would be peppered with with solar thermal power plants and transmitted through massive grids, in addition to other [...]
- Swiss Elections
Via Maproom comes this interactive map of the Swiss elections from several weeks ago.
Switzerland is a tapestry of languages and heritages, and its politics is equally mixed—the Swiss People’s Party came out ahead with 29% of the vote, followed by the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland with 19.5%, the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland with [...]
