Wednesday-Night

J Street
Jeremy Ben-Ami: The flotilla’s lessons for Mideast peace advocates
Back to the table — Israel’s prime minister sounds upbeat, even if no one else does
The first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in 20 months began in Washington. Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas began talks urged on by President Barack Obama along with President Hosni Mubarak of […]

NYT Pakistan News
CIA World Factbook - Pakistan
BBC Pakistan country profile
Reuters blog Pakistan: Now or Never?
Pakistan’s Gambit in Afghanistan
There’s a sense that Afghans are losing confidence in the allied operations, and Pakistan is looking to “exploit that advantage,” says CFR South Asia expert Daniel Markey. Pakistan would like an […]

New York Times Topics: Afghanistan
(FT) Afghanistan elections 2009
Afghan elections 2009
(Stratfor) The 30-Year War in Afghanistan
The Runaway General
(Rolling Stone) Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House
The Professor of war (Vanity Fair profile of […]

See also Wednesday-night.com on Burma
Elections and Opportunity in Myanmar
(Council on Foreign Relations Expert Brief) … Myanmar has become increasingly important, as rivalry between regional powers increases. Myanmar sits in a strategically vital location in Asia and possesses some of the region’s largest reserves of oil and gas. As a result, its future path is critical […]

Global voices Iranian elections 2009 ; NYT Topics Iran; The Economist Iran archives & country briefing
(Chatham House) Preliminary Analysis of the Voting Figures in Iran’s 2009 Presidential Election
Tehran’s Take: Understanding Iran’s US Policy (Foreign Affairs July/August 2009)
Iran Clamps Down on Reporting on Protest Leaders
In a further clampdown on Iran’s cowed political opposition, the authorities have […]

See also Iraq 5 years later ; U.S. Foreign Policy ; Iraq news on Wednesday-Night.com
U.S. mission in Iraq switches from combat to assist
(Reuters) - The U.S. military is on track to cut numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by end August, when the 7-1/2-year combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush ends and operations […]

Japan as number three: Watching China whizz by
Japan is now the world’s third-largest economy. Can its firms cope?
(The Economist) FIVE years ago China’s economy was half as big as Japan’s. This year it will probably be bigger (see chart 1). Quarterly figures announced this week showed that China had overtaken its ancient rival. It had […]

Africa development indicators 2008-2009 ; Kenya ; SciDevNet Sub-Saharan Africa
23 August 2007
Is Western aid making a difference in Africa?
(CSM) Two US economists [Ayub Rioba and Jeffrey Sachs] debate the value of antipoverty efforts.
“Is this really how to save Africa?” asks Tanzanian columnist Ayub Rioba, a day after Bill Clinton has left Africa. “We appreciate […]

Greenbelt movement ; CIA World Factbook
Kenya: Elections & Aftermath - comprehensive survey of IPS coverage

Fear and Loathing in Nairobi
John Githongo
(Foreign Affairs) Kenya was once Africa’s poster child for stability and growth. Then, in late 2007, it descended into ethnic violence. The current coalition government has not solved the underlying problems of corruption and inequality, and […]