A recent article in the New York Times should send chills down the spine of CEOs everywhere. The Times reports that in recent tests, Boston company Rapid7 found that a number of business teleconferencing systems are highly vulnerable to hackers, who could exploit security holes to eavesdrop on company meetings, many containing classified information. With […]

Mad scientist looking for crazy rich person to pursue long-term in vitro experimentation. Open relationship can include greens. Must love meat. That’s what Dr. Vladimir Mironov’s ad might look like if there were an online singles site specifically for people proposing to save the world. A year ago, Via Meadia reported on Dr. Mironov’s attempt […]

Big things are happening in the Middle East today. Reports the Financial Times (subscription required): The Arab League will seek United Nations Security Council endorsement for a plan to peacefully end the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and pave the way for a democratically elected government within six months, it was announced on Sunday […]

In a victory for Obama administration multilateral diplomacy and a significant setback for Iran, the European Union today announced an embargo on Iranian oil. The Associated Press reports: The European Union and Iran raised the stakes Monday in their test of wills over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, with the bloc banning the purchase of […]

Many readers of this post probably just went through this process: after sending a quick work email from a smartphone while riding the train or subway, or sitting at home on the couch, they then opened up a news reader app to thumb through articles.First, thank you for coming to Via Meadia. But secondly, did […]

Via Meadia’s sixth big trend of the decade — the rise of hot religion — has been very much in the news. As the final results of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, announced yesterday, only reconfirmed, faith is on the march – in the Middle East, as in most parts of the world.When the Arab Spring burst […]

Christine Lagarde, the French head of the IMF, has joined Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and most of the rest of the world in piling the pressure on Germany.  Her message is simple: give more money to Europe, and stop this austerity talk before you wreck the global economy.Of course she puts it more politely […]

Over the past decade the mantra in both development studies and comparative politics has been “institutions matter”—that is, you aren’t going to get economic growth or other human development objectives in the absence of institutions like rule of law, transparent and accountable governments, low levels of corruption, and the like.The empirical basis for this assertion […]

Via Meadia readers have been following the progress of Scotland’s push for a referendum on secession from the UK. Evidence that the English want the Scots out may dampen the ardor for independence north of the Border; now comes the news that Spain may block any effort by a newly independent Scotland to join the […]

Over on his Foreign Policy blog, Dan Drezner skewers the newly fashionable notion that America is in decline.  It’s a refreshing and badly needed corrective to the chorus of naysayers who start at every shadow.  There is a kind of hypochondria of power that is all too prevalent among US pundits; part of it is […]