South Sudan’s recent independence did not stop the violence that has disrupted greater Sudan for decades. Tribal rivalries, conflict with the North and other provinces, rogue militias, and drought continue to destabilize the new country. The Washington Post reports: Members of a South Sudan tribe that was previously targeted in a massive ethnic assault killed 47 […]

With the military and Muslim Brotherhood hashing out new power sharing agreements, it is now time for Egyptian leaders to address its beleaguered economy. The Financial Times reports that Egypt’s military rulers, after initially rejecting international help last summer, have asked the IMF for $3.2 billion in support for its failing economy.Since the “revolution” began, […]

“Proliferation,” Via Meadia wrote in January 2010, “is not just a question of a few rogue states and terror organizations.” From nuclear bombs to Kalashnikovs, weapons are easier to find, simpler to design, build and operate, and deadlier than ever. Technological progress in a globalized world inevitably shifts powerful killing machines from wealthy armies to […]

Now that the awareness-raising blackouts over the notorious anti-piracy SOPA/PIPA legislation are behind us, it’s a good time to look ahead to what comes next for internet freedom. In the coming days, thousands of digital column-inches will be devoted to trying to see if these unprecedented virtual protests have managed to move the needle in […]

Is Obama trying once again to bring Iran back to the discussion table? CBS reports that Obama sent Iran a secret letter proposing new talks and admonishing Tehran over its threats to close the Straits of Hormuz. “In the letter, Obama called for direct talks with Iran,” the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted [Ali] Motahari [an […]

Via Meadia has been all over the ongoing catastrophe that is Detroit, but we haven’t paid much attention till now to its little brother to the north: Flint, Michigan (home of, among other things, famed panegyrist of the dying Blue Model, Michael Moore). Alike in almost every way to Detroit, Flint boasts aging factories, declining […]

The story would be as familiar to a late 18th-century Londoner as it is to a 21st-century New Yorker: Rapid technological change is fundamentally altering not just our economies but our very lives. If that sounds abstract, the result is anything but.That was the top trend Via Meadia saw shaping the world in the coming […]

On January 7 The New York Times reported that Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Department of Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate and one of the highest officials in the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, said in a radio interview that the ROC should serve as a mediator between the state and […]

The world economy could have its worst year since the Great Depression, the World Bank has warned.  Even if the European crisis gets no worse, the world is headed for another year of weak growth, says the prestigious bank.  And if Europe goes down, it takes the world with it: the Bank expects a shock […]

Two years ago Via Meadia looked at “The Top Global Trends for the 2010s.” Here’s what we came up with:Trend #1: Economic Upheaval Trend #2: Proliferation High and Low Trend #3: Panopolis Trend #4: Small ‘d’ democratization Trend #5: Disaggregation and The Death of the West? Trend #6: Hot Religion and the March of Abraham Trend […]