The International Affairs Association

After a long hiatus from the blog, I hope to be far more regular over the course of this summer and fall. Today I wish to blog on the recent events concerning the European economy and the Euro. The decline of the Euro has dominated the news for much of the past couple of weeks. [...]

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I have taken a writing seminar on terrorism and civil liberties this semester and today we discussed the issue of racial profiling. Many of us thought that it did make sense to focus special screening on a section of the global population that come from regions involved in exporting terrorism. Since most terrorist suspects trace [...]

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Countdown to UPMUNC (PPT)
NEWS FROM THE IAA
1. UPMUNC Updates
2. Conference Excuse Letters, Hotel Rooms, Schedule, Logistics
3. IAA Mentorship Program
4. Alumni Homecoming event
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1. UPMUNC Updates
UPMUNC is [...]

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The Afghan elections have been fraught with problems from the very beginning. It was expected that any election in Afghanistan would involve a degree of fraud and those suspicions have now been confirmed by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). Hamid Karzai who had initially secured a comfortable victory (54.6% of the votes) now has [...]

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The words that come to mind when one thinks of Silvio Berlusconi are flamboyant, extravagant and opulent. These are words that you may associate with a movie star or a sports person but certainly not a prime minister. For years, Berlusconi has defied all common perceptions of a figure of authority. His widespread popularity is [...]

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In the past year, it has become rather difficult not to use violence and Pakistan in the same sentence. Just yesterday, a group of militants stormed the Pakistan military headquarters in Rawalpindi and held army officials as hostages. This audacious siege lasted nearly 20 hours and was conducted in broad daylight. Moreover, the fact that [...]

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Since the beginning of this decade, Mexico has become an important member of the fast expanding consortium of potential economic powerhouses. Mexico’s economic progress has been highly impressive but like nearly all developing economies Mexico’s path to the status of an economic superpower is riddled with obstacles. The one obstacle that I would like to [...]

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Recently, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at the United Nations food agency’s headquarters in Pakistan. The question I have is why is the Taliban going after the UN? The answer of course is that the UN is seen for the most part as a western, liberal organization. They are [...]

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While talking of emerging economic powers, it is rather hard to frame a sentence without including the words ‘China’ and ‘India’. However, the topic I am going to cover in this blog is not about the two countries being the engines of economic growth but the growing political tension between Beijing and New Delhi.
China and [...]

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            To start off my first blog, I wanted to reflect on the conflict that occurred in South Ossetia about a year ago and its lessons for American foreign policy.  You might be wondering exactly why I am reflecting on an event largely in the past.  The reason I’m doing so is that I was [...]

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