Russian inroads to Latin America continue…

By Citizen M | Published: November 10, 2009

The Spanish newswire EFE is carrying a small story about how Russia has become the second-largest destination for exports from Uruguay after Brazil. From the Russia side of things, this will likely remain below the radar, but it is worth noting from a South American perspective for a few reasons. One, following China’s ascent to […]

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More reflections on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling

By Citizen M | Published:

One of my favorite blogs, Business Monitor International’s Risk Watchdog, had a post yesterday discussing the wider historical context of the Berlin Wall’s fall. The discussion of the persistence of Communism and the comparison between 1979 and 1989 I personally found to be the most thought-provoking observations but the entire posting is worth reading, accessible […]

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Lessons of the fall of the Berlin Wall for the modern day

By Citizen M | Published: November 9, 2009

“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” – Mark Twain David Satter, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and visiting scholar at SAIS, has done an amazing thing to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He has taken a topic which normally takes about 1,000 words just to […]

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Igor Yurgens Speech : Transcript

By Citizen M | Published: November 6, 2009

Today, an important Russian business leader is giving a speech that we have obtained an advanced copy of and that we are happy to provide to our readers. Transcript is accessible at the following link: 2009Nov06.Igor.Yurgens.Elliott-Lecture.pdf

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Assessing the nexus of Russia’s economic crisis and US-Russia relations

By Citizen M | Published: November 5, 2009

Ariel Cohen and Richard Ericson have a new paper discussing Russia’s economic crisis and its relations with the United States. I would encourage reading this paper in full as it hits on all the major factors relevant to Russia’s economic situation though I will warn up front that a fair number of you will take […]

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On Russia’s Muslim Strategy

By Citizen M | Published:

Walter Laqueur of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has a very thought-provoking new paper out entitled “Russia’s Muslim Strategy“. It’s quite a bit to digest, as there are obviously a number of subplots to consider in this assessment, but I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone interested in having a better understanding […]

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Magna Reflections

By Citizen M | Published:

I gave a talk at a conference today and we released the white paper on Singapore so frankly I’m getting to this later than it would normally take to respond. I believe Magna is one of those cases I have spoken about in the past of premature contractualisation. In other words, the fireworks around the […]

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An international concept of due process arises out of Florida

By Citizen M | Published: November 2, 2009

Opinio Juris, one of the treasure troves of the internet and a blog that I read frequently and have great respect for, acknowledged a very important case the other day in which a federal court in Florida decided to refuse to enforce a $97 million judgment in the case of Osorio v. Dole Food Company. […]

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Lula’s Red Carpet Welcome for Ahmadinejad

By James Kimer | Published: October 29, 2009

From Robert Amsterdam’s latest in the Huffington Post: Why then, with so much going for him and his country, should he make such controversial choices in his friends? Lula’s increasingly warm embrace of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including an official state visit to Brazil Nov. 23-26, is causing many of his fawning admirers to rub […]

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Upcoming: Book Review of “Civic War” by Peter Alexander Meyers

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: October 26, 2009

Over the past month I have been deeply engaged in conversations surrounding the book Civic War and the Corruption of the Citizen, authored by the brilliant Peter Alexander Meyers, a political theorist and professor at the Sorbonne in Paris as well as a place known as Princeton University in the United States. I cannot overstate […]

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