Stories about International Relations from July, 2010
Pakistan: In Damage Control Mode After WikiLeaks
Effendi at The Spittoon comments: “the Pakistan government has gone into damage control mode after the evidence of the ISI’s involvement in Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was exposed and confirmed on WikiLeaks.”
Egypt: Americans need appointments to visit Embassy
Joseph Mayton, who is based in Cairo, tweets: “American Embassy in Cairo bars Americans from walk-ins, starts appointment only access to Embassy – down with Embassies!”
Liveblog of global reactions to Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs
More than 90,000 classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. As an experiment, we are using Google Wave to live blog global blog and citizen media reactions to the war logs (#warlogs) made public today by Wikileaks, Der Spiegel, New York Times and The Guardian.
Russia-Ukraine: Putin the biker
Siberian Light sums up some reactions to Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's participation in a biker meetup in Ukrainian city of Sevastopol.
Moldova: Solving the Transnistria problem
Morning in Moldova comments on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to solve Moldova's Transnistria problem.
Mali, Mauritania: Hostage Michel Germaneau Killed in Failed Raid as Tension Rises
A French-Mauritanian raid to free French aid worker Michel Germaneau inside Malian territory has raised tension [Fr] between the two nations, Diaspora Sahauri blog reports. The 78-year-old engineer Germaneau was killed after the failed attempt to free him.
Serbia: ICJ Rules Kosovo’s Independence Legal
On July 22, the International Court of Justice ruled that the declaration of independence of Kosovo did not violate international law. Sinisa Boljanovic reviews Serbian bloggers' reactions to the ruling.
Angola: Coins Gleaming Again
Last May the National Bank of Angola brought into circulation kwanza coins again. In a country where the population uses US Dollars along with Kwanza in the daily life, people are getting used to a new practice and discussing its purpose.
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Moving the conversation forward
Le Retour (in 3 Parts), a blog by a Canadian-Armenian resident in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, comments on the three recent guest entries posted on The Caucasian Knot, the blog of Global Voices’ Caucasus regional editor, and summarized here. The blog looks forward to more conversations between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
Turkey: Armenians and Turks show Gay Pride
Despite a long history of animosity between Armenia and Turkey, Unzipped: Gay Armenia posts photographs of Armenians and Turks side by side at this year's Gay Pride rally in Istanbul. The blog says that the pictures are incredible.
Colombia: Twitter Reactions After Special Session Between Venezuela and Colombia at OAS
The recent tension between Colombia and Venezuela was eventually taken to a Special Session in the Organization of American States (OAS) where both ambassadors presented their points of view. During and after the assembly, Colombian twitter users reacted to the events. Here is a summary of those reactions.
Singapore: Immigration compared with other countries
Blowin’ in the Wind reviews a report comparing Singapore emigration and immigration with other countries. The report notes that Singapore has the highest immigration rate in Asia Pacific after Hong Kong.
Mozambique/Brazil: “Ethanol diplomacy” meets criticism
NGOs furiously denounced last week's trilateral accord between Brazil, Mozambique and the European Union promoting ethanol production in Mozambique for the European market. The blogsphere provides some background to this "ethanol diplomacy" and questions its future social and environmental impacts.
Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand
Ladprao 64 writes about the situation of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand and the role of the two governments in facilitating the welfare of the workers. The blogger also describes the difficulty in sending remittances from Thailand to Myanmar
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Bloggers build dialogue
Although a recent conference held earlier this month highlighted some of the shortcomings and dangers of using new and social media in conflict resolution, there is no doubt that online tools have moved in to fill a gap left vacant by a usually politically polarized and propagandist media in the South Caucasus.
Armenia-Azerbaijan: There is only humanity…
Ianyan makes a guest post on Armenia-Azerbaijan relations in the context of the still unresolved conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh as part of a series of entries using new and social media to bring the two sides closer together. The blogger says that these new tools have...
Somaliland ready to join international community
“Successful Presidential election means the country is now in a position to move forward and join the other independent states of the world,” reads a press release from Somaliland Forum.
Kazakhstan: Bloggers see China’s “weaponless invasion”
Posts about China-related topics are quite frequent in the Kazakh language blogs. Here are some of them, the most recent ones.
Vietnam: Proposed human rights agenda
The Vietnam Reform Party has advised U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will visit Vietnam this week, to raise human rights issues with the Vietnam government. The group also highlighted the need to combat web censorship.
Russia: Rumours of foreign policy west-turn exaggerated
Edward Lozansky at Russia Blog discusses whether Russian foreign policy is actually turning westwards but finds little evidence of this.
Moldova: Shutting out the world
Morning in Moldova argues that Moldovans only look east to Russia and west to the European Union, in the process mentally shutting out the rest of the world.
