Tomorrow is the big day, when Turkey's voters will go out to the polls to most likely, uh, repeat what happened back in June, when nobody won a parliamentary majority. Brookings' Markaz blog runs through the four possible outcomes of tomorrow's vote: One of three scenarios is likely to emerge in the wake of the … Continue reading Are you ready for some (more) inconclusive elections?
Month: October 2015
You need to watch this investigation into the Rohingya genocide
Al Jazeera has put together a remarkable investigation into the Burmese government's complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar's Rakhine State, a genocide that a report from the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London says is entering its "final stages," with the Rohingya on the verge of … Continue reading You need to watch this investigation into the Rohingya genocide
On “true diversity”
Arthur C. Brooks, the head of the American Enterprise Institute, is worried that American universities are getting this whole "diversity" thing wrong: Scholarly studies have piled up showing that race and gender diversity in the workplace can increase creative thinking and improve performance. Meanwhile, excessive homogeneity can lead to stagnation and poor problem-solving. Unfortunately, new … Continue reading On “true diversity”
Today in European history: the Battle of Río Salado (1340)
Whoever came up with the term Reconquista to describe the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims deserves an all-time gold star for public relations work. I mean, there were parts of modern Spain that were in Muslim hands for well over seven hundred years, and if there's a statute of limitations on when something stops … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Río Salado (1340)
At least they agreed to keep talking
In other Syrian news, the Committee to End the Syrian War Without Talking to Any Syrians met today in Vienna and failed to end the war: Major powers meeting in Vienna have failed to reach an agreement on Syria, especially the future role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but found enough "common ground" to meet … Continue reading At least they agreed to keep talking
The moral of the story
President Obama made Ash Carter's testimony from Tuesday official today, announcing that America is putting a small Special Forces detachment on the ground in Syria. They'll be advising and training, uh, somebody, and probably mixing it up with ISIS a little although nobody's allowed to say so explicitly. They'll be working with "local forces," which … Continue reading The moral of the story
Today in Middle Eastern history: Antioch surrenders to the Arabs (637)
This will be short, since there's very little to say about the Arab conquest of Syria after the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 shattered Byzantine resistance there. But Antioch was one of the great cities of the eastern Roman Empire, and its conquest was significant, if anticlimactic. The city itself put up almost no resistance … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: Antioch surrenders to the Arabs (637)
Today in North African history: the Eighth Crusade ends (1270)
King Louis IX of France (d. 1270, which is a bit of a spoiler), who would later be known as Saint Louis, would probably go somewhere on a list of the 10 greatest Crusaders of all time. He'd be right up there alongside men like Godfrey of Bouillon, the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem, and Richard the … Continue reading Today in North African history: the Eighth Crusade ends (1270)
Today in history: the Great Crash of ’29 ends and the Great Depression begins
Since Saturday we've been in the midst of the 86th anniversary of the stock market crash that kicked off the Great Depression. The whole thing started on October 24, 1929, AKA "Black Thursday," when the Dow lost about 11 percent of its overall value shortly after trading began, and only some concerted action by a … Continue reading Today in history: the Great Crash of ’29 ends and the Great Depression begins
“Prime Minister of Iraq” must be a pretty crappy job
Paul Ryan just gave up his, ah, dream job to become Speaker of the House today, ending a long national nightmare of media hand-wringing over the fate of the Speakership in the post-John Boehner era. Throughout that hand-wringing, we were treated to the oft-repeated observation that Speaker of the House is the "worst job in … Continue reading “Prime Minister of Iraq” must be a pretty crappy job
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 