The International Affairs Association

This week, Angela Merkel was sworn in for her second term as chancellor of Germany. There is a bit of hype around what she has set to accomplish over the next few years. She and her team claim that they will have tax cuts, more investment on education, health care reform, and a reform of [...]

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The Sri Lankan government prides itself on not giving into the demands of Western countries without a fight. This could be admirable, until it begins to harm others. The country is now faced with wide - spread protest to human rights violations that took place in the conflict with the Tamil Tigers. The EU recently [...]

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Raj Rajaratnam, a Wharton alum and one of the US’s richest men, was arrested this Friday for insider trading pertaining to hedge funds. Rajaratnam is the manager for a prominent hedge fund known as the Galleon Group, and he was caught sharing and collecting private information about public companies in order to receive greater investment [...]

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Last week, China’s Prime Minister, Wen Jiaboa, visited North Korea. He had a surprisingly warm reception. Kim Jong Il himself apparently came to the Pyongyang airport to greet him, and together they “celebrated” sixty years of - as The Economist puts it – “fraternal” relations. More importantly, North Korea’s dictator agreed to resume talks [...]

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I love irony. I just wrote about the tough decisions President Obama is going to have to make with regards to Afghanistan in my last blog, and not even a week later, he gets awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!
The decision certainly surprised many. From President Obama’s humble - and maybe slightly embarrassed? - acceptance speech, [...]

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A part of the Democrats’ platform this past election was to pull out of Iraq  and focus on what was supposed to be the “main target” for the US miltary all along – Afghanistan. Happily ever after? Not even close. The Taliban attack this weekend that killed eight American soldiers is evidence that this new [...]

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The International Olympic Committee decided today that Rio de Janeiro will be the city to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Brazilian delegates were delighted, and the city has been celebrating since the news has been announced. Rio de Janeiro will also be hosting the 2014 soccer world cup, and the combination has implications not just [...]

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Slowly, people are beginning to realize that global warming isn’t just about displaced polar bears (although the poor animals already have it quite bad on our account). Sea levels continue to rise, and reputed scientists continue to predict extinctions, changes in agricultures and livelihoods. Barack Obama stated this past week that the world needs to [...]

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