Stories Archive | Page 62 of 87

Analyses

For decades, Latin America’s authoritarian regimes were seen as a right-wing phenomenon, with Cuba as the lone exception — a dictatorship born not from a betrayal of democracy, but of revolution. As Washington’s embargo returns to the headlines, this piece asks what that framing has long obscured: that Cuba has never had just one embargo, but two.

Religion
New Roads of Islamic Thought
Massimo Campanini 6 September 2018

Casablanca, Morocco, hosted in July an important international conference on Sources of Pluralism in Islamic Thought. This is a topical subject, but above all one worthy of being debated with the wider public, whose perception is that Islam has been a never-changing monolith with no internal differentiations since the days of Muhammad.
International Affairs
The Economic Crisis Unsettling Iran
Marina Forti 5 September 2018

Within the past two months, Iranian editors have been cutting the number of pages and newspapers they publish — at least one daily has closed shop entirely. This is not due to government censorship or a sudden drop-off in readership: there is simply not enough newsprint to go around.
Religion
Christians in Syria: escape, decimation and fear of Assad’s return
Riccardo Cristiano 23 July 2018

It is March 7th 2013. In a few short months Father Paolo Dall’Oglio will be taken prisoner by ISIS in Raqqa, right at the beginning of his mission to save others who had been kidnapped in Syria since 2011.
Society
India: A new vulnerability
Mujibur Rehman 26 June 2018

Post-2014, cow vigilante groups have emerged as the most prominent non-state actors in India in terms of their capacity to unleash violence. They strike at will even in regions not governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Human Rights
The Race Against Peace: diplomacy in the DRC
Nicoletta Fagiolo 18 June 2018

The war in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which never makes world headlines, is by far the worst crisis in numbers of people killed and uprooted, before Syria, Yemen and other severely war-torn areas in the XXI century. It is one of three countries in the world declared a level three emergency by the United Nations.
International Affairs
Armenia: the revolution continues
Matteo Tacconi 14 June 2018

Following massive street protests in April against then premier Serzh Sarksyan, leader of the old regime, a general strike on May 2nd and then the election of Nikol Pashinyan, leader of the democratic movement as head of the government a week later, the Armenian revolution has vanished from daily headlines.
International Affairs
Pompeo’s Demands On Iran At Odds With Reality
Seyed Hossein Mousavian 8 June 2018

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out a list of demands on Iran in a speech threatening to “crush” the country on Monday. His bellicose words come weeks after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal and are nothing short of an ultimatum demanding Iran’s total surrender to U.S. wishes.
International Affairs, Society
Drought worse than sanctions
8 June 2018

“A drought is much more effective than sanctions” says Dr. Kaveh Madani, former deputy head of Iran’s environmental department and researcher at London Imperial College.
Introduction: Is the Iran nuclear deal dead?
Marina Forti 7 June 2018

Is the Iran nuclear deal dead? Perhaps not, after all, in spite of president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as it is formally known. The US withdrawal, however, is a dangerous blow to the most important diplomatic achievement in the Middle East in many years.
International Affairs
Iran: The risk of an economic backlash. Interview with Saaed Leylaz
Marina Forti 7 June 2018

“Iran will continue to respect the agreement regarding its nuclear programme even if the United States has decided to withdraw and for as long as the other signatories remain committed, with Iranian interests guaranteed.”