Melissa Twigg, Daily Beast
According to Ethiopian lore, the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in a church in Aksuma small city in the northern highlandsand guarded by a single monk.
Felix Martin, New Statesman
Cheap credit is creating the conditions for the next financial crisis.
Alyssa Ayres, War on the Rocks
Editor's Note: This is the second article in a special series published in collaboration with the Raisina Dialogue, which kicks off on Jan. 8 in New
Dan Runde, The Hill
2019 presents not just challenges, but opportunities.
Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg View
It's hardly surprising that Sheikh Hasina's party won last week's elections in Bangladesh. The scale of her victory, however, is literally unbelievable: Her Awami League wonall but 10 of Bangladesh's 298 constituencies. In her own seat of Gopalganj, the prime minister won by 229,539 votes to 123.No wonder her party has been accused of to put it politely over-managing the election. The polls were, after all, preceded by a long period in which political opponents were intimidated, jailed or exiled. Читать дальше...
Nina Krushcheva, Project Syndicate
The problem with a semi-authoritarian regime like Vladimir Putin's is that people's behavior is not fully under the leader's control. And, in today's Russia, this extends to the news media, which report far more often and more boldly on social challenges, and the anger they stoke, than outsiders might expect.
Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy
After the tributes die down, the outgoing defense secretary will be remembered for recklessly expanding, and covering up, the country's wars.
L. Riddoch, Scotsman
Playing a waiting game on Indyref2 is dangerous for the SNP but so too are its other options, writes Lesley Riddoch
Joshua Shifrinson, Russia Matters
Why have relations between Russia and the Westparticularly the United Statescollapsed over the last decade? Analysts remain starkly divided. Many blame the Russian government and Vladimir Putin for seeking militarized solutions and changes to Europe's post-Cold War status quo. Others attribute the estrangement largely to Western policy, seeing the expansion of NATO and the European Union, alongside Western efforts to assert influence in Russia's so-called near abroad, as provoking the Russian bear. Читать дальше...
George Will, National Review
Today's Germany is the best Germany the world has seen.
Allison Fedirka, Geopolitical Futures
Conrad Black, National Post
All countries are striving to better their lot, and so are we. The worrisome fact is that we are not doing a particularly brilliant job of it
Dilan Okcuoglu, Conversation
Mehari Taddele Maru, Al Jazeera
Contrary to what the West believes, Africans do not see themselves as victims of Chinese economic exploitation.
Mohammed Ayoob, The Hindu
In fashioning its Afghan policy, India has to take into account a resurgent Taliban
D. Gorenburg, PONARS-E
(PONARS Policy Memo) Since the Ukraine crisis, the dominant Western perspective on Russian foreign policy has come to emphasize its increasingly confrontational, even revanchist, nature.
