I'm increasingly of the opinion that Akhil Amar's America's Constitution - A Biography is a book every American should read (and not just the ones that vote!). It has, for me at least, done an unthinkable thing ( Read more... )

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Word.

French President Sarkozy calls for a restoration of capitalism's "moral dimension" at Davos 2010

and

And the Senate reappoints Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

That's it. I'm moving to Europe asap. They're sensible over there.

Serbia Changes Border Requirements - BalkanInsight.com

"As of January 1, Montenegrin nationals up to 14 years old who intend to travel to Serbia will require passports, while those aged 14 to 18 will need to present either a passport or ID card."

Who's willing to bet that this has nothing to do with Montenegro normalizing diplomatic relation with ( Read more... )

Plan Colombia has this excellent interview with Luis Jorge Garay, an Colombian economist, on the evolution of organized crime in Colombia and its ties to the state. This is right up my alley and most of the bullets listed in the article are pretty common components of successful criminal enterprises, though the distinction between organized civil ( Read more... )

Guess who just rocked the fcku out of his phone interview! I'm so excited right now, I can't remember the last time I got to have a conversation about the intersection of post-conflict reconstruction and organized criminal enterprise ( Read more... )

Was reading a Crisis Group report (originally written, I think, for a Turkish news publication) on the differences between the Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process and the Armenia-Azerbaijan "reconciliation process" and I think the strongest chord struck was the notion of reconciliation as something that filters through all levels of society. The ( Read more... )

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize. There's been much speculation as to whether or not he merits the prize based on what he has accomplished versus what his ultimate goals are. I'd comment at length about my own views of that, except for the fact that I can't get past how freaking COOL the whole thing is. Heck of a way to bounce back from the whole ( Read more... )

Black Market Shows Iran Can Adapt to Sanctions

Wait, is there supposed to be a punchline?

BALKAN ROUND-UP

Bosnia's International Envoys Spring into Action

and

Albania Embraces the Euro