Freedom in the World 2010

Earlier this month Freedom House released its findings from the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. According to the survey’s findings, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report.

This Week In Afghanistan 29 Jan

Over the last week Afghanistan saw a series of incidents and terrorist attacks targeting civilians, Afghan police and foreign military. This comes only to highlight that the insurgency in the country still poses serious challenge to international reconstruction efforts. Locals and foreigners alike share security risks on a daily basis, which makes business operations costly and challenging.

State of the Union 2010

Media is already tracking Obama’s campaign promises. And scholars from Cato Institute are already discussion the policy implications of US President’s State of the Union speech last night.  It has been a year since he entered office.

Barroso 2.0: The New Commission’s Foreign Policy

Recently, in Bulgaria we finally started talking about EU’s Foreign Policy. The occasion, of course, was the portfolio of Rumyna Jeleva, Bulgarian commissioner-nominee for the Barroso 2.0 Comission. The discourse on European foreign policy however did not reach further than whether Bulgaria has received more than before or less than Romania. Perhaps both are true, but it is vital to look deeper into the changes in the Commission before speculating about the relative weight of the different portfolios.