30,000 More U.S. Troops Being Sent to Afghanistan
DEVELOPMENTS President Obama’s address to the nation at the West Point Military Academy on Tuesday December 1st was well received in as much for its subject matter…
Blood, Land and Sovereignty: The Status of Indigenous Rights in the Americas
DEVELOPMENTS The indigenous rights movements of the Americas are experiencing a renaissance. Indigenous peoples of the Americas are increasingly reasserting their…
Tax Evasion Paradise No More: The U.S. and Caribbean Nations Crack Down on Hidden Offshore Accounts
DEVELOPMENTS For decades, Americans have hidden their assets in a number of offshore accounts with the goal of avoiding paying more taxes. When President Obama…
'Enhanced Interrogation:' Just a Clever Euphemism?
BACKGROUND Torture has a long, treacherous history with parallels in nearly every civilization from the Greek empire to modern America . With the advent and near…
A Healthy Debate: Does the Brazilian Healthcare Model Offer a Guide to the U.S.?
DEVELOPMENTS Recently, the Brazilian Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporão, defended his country’s unified healthcare system, Sistema Único de Saúde (S.U.S.) ,…
A New Chance to Shine: Latin America’s Challenges and Opportunities for the Obama White House
DEVELOPMENTS: One region that may prove surprisingly significant during President Barack Obama’s administration, despite eight years of relative neglect, is Latin…
Can Latin America Weather a Global Recession?
DEVELOPMENTS In the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign, the declining economy has emerged as the greatest concern of both U.S. voters and onlookers…
Change in Cuba?
On February 19, Fidel Castro, 81, announced his permanentretirement as Cuba's president. At the time of his announcement,Fidel had served as head of state for 49…
Channeling Hope in Haiti
DEVELOPMENTS Haiti’s recent unexpected catastrophic 7.0 earthquake has brought global attention to the long-ignored impoverished island nation . As images of a…
Chile’s Marginalized Small Fishermen: The Secret Weapons of a Disaster-Struck Nation
DEVELOPMENTS On February 27, Chile suffered a more powerful earthquake than the far more famous one that struck Haiti just weeks before , and which was followed…
Chile’s Secular Triumph Challenges Catholicism
DEVELOPMENTS Chile’s cultural and political history have shaped a nation that has long been considered one of South America’s most socially conservative and…
Colombia: U.S. Base Sparks Suspicions
DEVELOPMENTS The United States and Colombia have finalized a deal that will allow U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for the next ten years. Both…
Colombia: Will FARC Rise Again From the Ashes?
DEVELOPMENTS On Sunday July 20th, 2008, former hostage and Colombian Senator Ingrid Betancourt led a demonstration to end the longstanding conflict between…
Energy Policy in Latin America: A Cross Roads of Environmentalism, Indigenous Rights and Development
DEVELOPMENTS Energy policy has become ever more important to our national self interest both because energy exploration and exploitation involving moral and legal…
Europe is Out, the Americas Are In: Surprising New Trends in U.S. Study Abroad Data
DEVELOPMENTS There is no question that American college students are studying abroad in increasing numbers. According to the Institute of International Education ,…
FPD World Views: Interview on Haiti with Monika Kalra Varma
Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to present the following interview with Monika Kalra Varma, the Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human…
Human Rights and Aid Transparency in Haiti’s Roadmap to Recovery
DEVELOPMENTS Overwhelmed by sadness, empathy and disbelief, the world’s eyes and hearts have been focused for weeks on the rescue and relief efforts resulting from…
New Alliances, Same Dirty War: The Real Cost of the Merida Initiative
DEVELOPMENTS The governments of the United States and Mexico established the Merida Initiative as a bilateral agreement designed to combat drug-trafficking,…
Oil, Courts, and Death: Interview with "Crude" Director Joe Berlinger
In 1993, thirty thousand indigenous and non-indigenous rain-forest dwellers sued the U.S. oil giant Texaco alleging decades of systemic pollution of water, land and…
Slavery in the New Century
DEVELOPMENTS Many people in the U.S. have still not heard of human trafficking, despite it being the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.…
The Bank of the South
DEVELOPMENTS Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making headlines once again. Only months after he proposed scrapping presidential term limits, his new plan to…
The Sound and The Fury: Why Opponents of the US-Colombia FTA Miss the Point
DEVELOPMENTS During a time of immense economic uncertainty, the free trade agreement (FTA) between the U.S. and Colombia, one of America’s staunchest Latin American…
This BRIC Stands Out: Brazil's Outsized Role in the Fight Against Global Warming
DEVELOPMENTS In 2009, Brazil experienced two major milestones, which, while seemingly unrelated, have significant implications for the future of global climate…
Tough Times Ahead for Argentina
DEVELOPMENTS Argentina has experienced three farmer strikes in the past four months, as well as increasing food rationing in the capital city of Buenos Aires and…
Wall Street: The New Front of the War on Terror
DEVELOPMENTS As the human, financial and diplomatic costs of the War in Iraq continue to mount – five years later – America’s geopolitical equity spirals downward…
War Within Families: How Child Custody Battles Impact Foreign Affairs
DEVELOPMENTS Cases of international parental child abduction have recently garnered significant media and Congressional attention. A particular case with…
What Do They Think About Us?
Last month's Foreign Policy Digest looked ahead to the Annapolis Conference to explain the stakes and participants. The conference took place in Annapolis on…
What the U.S. Can Learn from Brazil’s Energy Successes
DEVELOPMENTS With U.S. gas prices rising to record levels over the past year and contributing to fears about the national economy, both presidential candidates are…
When Public Development Efforts Meet Private in the Americas
DEVELOPMENTS U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently told a gathering of Western Hemispheric leaders at the fortieth Washington Conference on the…
Who Will Stand for Rule of Law in Honduras?
DEVELOPMENTS Ever since the Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was arrested in the middle of the night and flown out of his country by military officers less…
Wall Street: The New Front of the War on Terror
DEVELOPMENTS As the human, financial and diplomatic costs of the War in Iraq continue to mount – five years later – America’s geopolitical equity spirals downward…
The Sound and The Fury: Why Opponents of the US-Colombia FTA Miss the Point
DEVELOPMENTS During a time of immense economic uncertainty, the free trade agreement (FTA) between the U.S. and Colombia, one of America’s staunchest Latin American…
The Fetal Rights Bill and the Rise of the Pro-Life Movement in Brazil
DEVELOPMENTS Since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, the Brazilian government has struggled to establish a government that reflects the consensus of its…
The Fetal Rights Bill and the Rise of the Pro-Life Movement in Brazil
DEVELOPMENTS Since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, the Brazilian government has struggled to establish a government that reflects the consensus of its…
UN Women: The Powerful Potential to Change the Global Development Landscape for Women and Girls
DEVELOPMENTS Last month, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet — the first and only woman elected to her country’s highest office — addressed the Third…
Interview with Abel Barrera Hernández, Founder and Director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Montaña
Abel Barrera Hernández, founder and director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Montaña, is the 2010 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Laureate for…
Brazil’s Foreign Policy Awakens: Is the United States ready? Is Brazil ready?
DEVELOPMENTS Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the former union leader turned center-left president of Brazil, left power on New Year’s Day after 8 years in office, his…
Lack of Strong Cyber Security Exacerbates Domestic Issues in Latin America
DEVELOPMENTS In advance of a United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Mexico last October, ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré…
Cuba and the Tyranny of Groupthink
DEVELOPMENTS A Freedom House assessment of “ Freedom on the Net ” reports that Cuba remains one of the world’s most repressive environments for the internet and…
In Humanitarian and Political Fracases, Don’t Forget Haiti’s Environmental Issues
DEVELOPMENTS Since the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 , the world’s attention has turned to the Caribbean country. In only fifteen months,…
Latin America’s Growth Picks Up After Decades of Failure
DEVELOPMENTS Countries in Latin America, like most of the developing world, have been recovering much faster than the United States and other high-income countries…
What the U.S. Can Learn from Brazil’s Energy Independence
DEVELOPMENTS With U.S. gas prices rising to record levels over the past year and contributing to fears about the national economy, both presidential candidates are…
Political Asylum in the Wake of the Mexican Drug War: A New Group of Stateless Refugees?
DEVELOPMENTS In a recent address to the United States Congress, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said he regretted the flight of Mexicans north of the border,…
Ahead of the Climate Change Policy Curve in Brazil
DEVELOPMENTS According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, average global temperature increased 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last century, 90% of…
Personal Insecurity and National Security in Venezuela
DEVELOPMENTS When a Venezuelan court banned two newspapers from publishing gruesome pictures of an overflowing morgue in August in Caracas, the South American…
New Alliances, Same Dirty War: The Real Cost of the Merida Initiative
DEVELOPMENTS The governments of the United States and Mexico established the Merida Initiative as a bilateral agreement designed to combat drug-trafficking,…