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November 21, 2009
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Frida Ghitis

Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist, author and consultant.

She started her career at CNN, where she worked initially as a show producer, a unit manager for major news operations and later as a producer and correspondent covering mostly international news.

In addition to CNN, her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) and in scores of publications in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

Her regular column on global affairs in the Miami Herald is distributed worldwide by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Her weekly WPR column, World Citizen, appears every Thursday.

She has worked in all corners of the world, traveling in Iraq during and after the rule of Saddam Hussein. She worked in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt during Desert Storm. She covered the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and has worked independently in Tibet, Burma, Kuwait, Argentina, Cambodia, Colombia, and dozens of places in between. Her work has taken her to the Amazon jungles of South America, to Russia, Brazil, India, Somalia, and elsewhere.

As a consultant, she advises organizations operating or contemplating projects in diverse regions of the world, providing political analysis and forecasting.

She is a public speaker on world affairs and the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television."

Articles written by Frida Ghitis

World Citizen: Honduras and Argentina Mark Turning Points for Chavismo

By Frida Ghitis 02 Jul 2009 | World Politics Review Events in Honduras and Argentina last weekend raised the stakes in a fierce ideological battle about the best way to govern a poor country. The ideology at the center of the dispute is Chavismo, the creation of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. And in the battle over Chavismo, this past weekend marked a major milestone.

World Citizen: Iran Uprising Becomes Local Politics Around the World

By Frida Ghitis 25 Jun 2009 | World Politics Review The political turmoil in Iran has brought new meaning to the maxim,"All politics is local." In the age of disappearing distances, the fallout from rigged vote-counting in Tehran presents local challenges and opportunities abroad. Just as Iranian authorities prove incapable of stopping the flow of information out of the country, the impact of Iran's post-election crisis has also spilled across its borders.

World Citizen: Mideast Peace Process Takes a Wrong Turn

By Frida Ghitis 18 Jun 2009 | World Politics Review OSLO, Norway -- President Barack Obama's effort to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians has taken an unexpectedly dangerous turn. Instead of allowing the parties to quietly negotiate their most politically sensitive differences, Obama has set the tone for grand speeches made before large audiences. But the process now threatens to spin out of his control. This is a formula for failure -- or worse. 

World Citizen: Obama's Poetry Did Not Beat Hezbollah in Lebanon

By Frida Ghitis 11 Jun 2009 | World Politics Review A few days after President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo sent a message of reconciliation to Muslims around the world, voters in Lebanon went to the polls and delivered a stunning blow to Hezbollah. For some, the Lebanon vote showed that Obama's words had already borne fruit. Obama, however, will have to wait before taking a victory lap.

World Citizen: How Obama Prepared Arabs for Cairo Speech

By Frida Ghitis 04 Jun 2009 | World Politics Review The excitement surrounding President Barack Obama's eagerly anticipated speech at the University of Cairo in Egypt did not come without a little maneuvering in Washington. It is partly the result of a carefully choreographed effort to soften the ground, to ensure that the audience will in fact judge Obama's speech not only "groundbreaking" and historic, but also successful.

World Citizen: Lebanon Election a Middle East Barometer

By Frida Ghitis 28 May 2009 | World Politics Review On the surface, the result of the Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections might seem to make almost no difference at all. But in the peculiar Middle East laboratory that is Lebanon, the outcome of the vote will represent a barometric reading for the entire region, and have repercussions that reach beyond the byzantine mechanics of Lebanese politics.

World Citizen: Between Obama and Netanyahu, Less Tension than Meets the Eye

By Frida Ghitis 21 May 2009 | World Politics Review We don't know exactly what transpired at the White House meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, and we have no way of knowing how they truly believe their meeting went. The media focused on the tension between the two men. But in general, their views are less divergent than most people seem willing to acknowledge.

World Cititzen: Obama's Cairo Speech and the 57-State Solution

By Frida Ghitis 14 May 2009 | World Politics Review The choice of Cairo signals that President Obama's eagerly anticipated speech to Muslims is gradually morphing into a speech to Arabs. Improving relations with Muslims is important. But when it comes to U.S. strategic interests, the more urgent item on the agenda is creating a strong coalition with Arab countries.

World Citizen: Mideast Caricatures -- Another Obstacle to Peace

By Frida Ghitis 07 May 2009 | World Politics Review Although Arab governments have progressively eased their official stance towards Israel, Arab populations continue to receive a steady barrage of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-American propaganda.

World Citizen: Iran Looks to Latin America

By Frida Ghitis 30 Apr 2009 | World Politics Review

Iran's relations in the Middle East and beyond are undergoing a dramatic transformation. To compensate for the loss of friends in its own neighborhood, Tehran has increasingly forged ties in Latin America, using its growing presence there to help its allied militias closer to home.

World Citizen: The Magic Fades for Argentina's Power Couple

By Frida Ghitis 23 Apr 2009 | World Politics Review Not long ago, it looked as if the name "Kírchner" would shine brightly across Argentina's political sky for many years to come. Cristina Kirchner's election in 2007 to succeed her husband opened the second chapter of what was to be the very long story of the Kírchner dynasty. But it now looks as if the Kirchners have lost their magic.

World Citizen: 'Durban II' Dilemma Tests U.S. Diplomacy

By Frida Ghitis 16 Apr 2009 | World Politics Review The upcoming United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva has created a new foreign policy dilemma for the young Obama administration: Should it boycott what is sure to be another anti-U.S., anti-Israel event? Or should it attend and use its diplomatic muscle to create a more palatable outcome?

World Citizen: Obama Must Parlay Soft Power Gains into Real Results

By Frida Ghitis 09 Apr 2009 | World Politics Review When viewed through a wide lens, President Obama's European tour was a success, consolidating U.S. soft power. We still don't know if the ultimate goal -- using the country's renewed standing to achieve strategic goals -- will ultimately be achieved. Clearly, though, we are not there yet.

World Citizen: Indicted Bashir Feels the Love from Arab League

By Frida Ghitis 02 Apr 2009 | World Politics Review When the International Criminal Court issued its groundbreaking warrant for the arrest of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on March 4, human rights activists celebrated the move as a major milestone. Less than a month after the warrant's issue, however, Bashir looks nothing like an international pariah.

World Citizen: Netanyahu's Magic Act

By Frida Ghitis 26 Mar 2009 | World Politics Review No one ever accused Israel of having a boring political scene. True to form, Benjamin Netanyahu pulled a rabbit out of a hat to transform the shape of his incoming administration: A government that was expected to empower a narrow right-wing coalition will now include the leftist Labor party.

World Citizen: Inside Iran's Peculiar Democracy

By Frida Ghitis 19 Mar 2009 | World Politics Review News that former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, hailed as a reformer, would challenge sitting hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in upcoming elections proved oddly short-lived. But his five-week candidacy opened a minuscule new window into Iran's unique brand of theocratic democracy.

World Citizen: A Most Surprising Consensus on the Economic Crisis

By Frida Ghitis 12 Mar 2009 | World Politics Review Observers, journalists and analysts have so far focused on disagreements among G-20 members over how to tackle the ongoing world economic crisis. Ironically, what has characterized government response to the global meltdown is the degree of unanimity about what should be done.

World Citizen: Hillary's Handshake Launches a New Era

By Frida Ghitis 05 Mar 2009 | World Politics Review Something small but historic happened on the shores of the Red Sea on Monday. With a brief handshake with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem, Hillary Clinton officially ended Washington's cold-shoulder diplomacy towards Damascus and ushered in a new Middle East policy.

World Citizen: Arab Women Progress on Rights, but There is Far to Go

By Frida Ghitis 26 Feb 2009 | World Politics Review Millions of women in the Arab and Muslim world still face some of the most restrictive and unequal conditions anywhere. But if they have a long way to go in their quest for equality, there are signs that their efforts are bearing fruit. It couldn't happen a moment too soon.

World Citizen: Syria Peace Efforts on the Horizon

By Frida Ghitis 19 Feb 2009 | World Politics Review Last week's parliamentary elections in Israel saw the country take a collective step to the right, but it is incorrect to conclude, as many seem to be doing, that the vote marks the end of peace efforts.