By Max Fisher , Vox We take it for granted that the United States is the most powerful country on Earth today, and perhaps in human history. The story of how that came to be is long, fascinating, complex — and often misunderstood. Here, excerpted in part from “70 maps that explain America,” are maps that help show…
So you want to know what happens in the dark alleyways of the internet? The “Dark Web” or “deep web” was created by online activists who were trying to share content using the most private methods. Without a doubt, there are a bunch of places in this bizarre grove of the web that people should…
A look back a mere hundred years ago may give us some answers. By Peter Harris, The National Interest It has been conventional wisdom for well over a decade that China is a rising power. The statistics on China’s current size and projections about its future growth have become such clichés that they scarcely warrant repeating. Suffice…
HIV has been a public health issue in Congo, but what about the role that Belgian colonization played in the cultivation of this dreaded virus? The government of Ethiopia is selling off valuable swaths of land and displacing natives in the process. Why is this happening, and what is being done about it? The Global…
DAVID NYE, WE ARE THE MIGHTY It’s always fun to sit around and war-game which country could beat up which, and it’s even better when you have hard facts to back up your arguments. Below is a summary of the top ten militaries in the world, according to Global Firepower, which tracks military power through publicly-available sources.…
By Roberto Savio, IPS In this column, Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and publisher of Other News, argues that the West, led by the United States, has taken on itself the right to intervene in the affairs of others and, in the case of the Arab world,…
FILE – US Africa Command Commander Gen. David Rodriguez. PENTAGON –Africa Command (AFRICOM) is the newest geographic command in the U.S. military structure, and despite the vast size of the African continent, it is also the smallest military command. It has only one base in Africa, and it is headquartered in Germany. Still, the command…
By William Davison, Bloomberg Ethiopia and Egypt “urgently” need to agree on the coordinated operation of their two large dams in the Nile River basin to ensure water is shared fairly during periods of reduced flows, a group of international experts said. Ethiopia is planning to complete the $4 billion state-funded Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, known…
Why it’s time for East Africa’s big success story to change the way it does business. BY ROBERT LOONEY, Foreign Policy Just over 30 years ago, Ethiopia’s famine regularly made the news. Gruesome accounts of up to a million deaths stemming from drought and civil war captured the attention of aid agencies, sympathetic governments, and humanitarian groups…
By Lerato Mbele BBC Africa Business Report, Addis Ababa Whenever we set up our camera and flapped open our sun reflectors in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, passers-by became curious and eager to help. But getting them to talk on camera was another matter as in general residents of the city are reticent and keep their views to…