Paramilitary fighters from the “Banana Bloc” arrive at a rural area outside the northwestern Colombian town of Turbo to turn in their arms, Nov. 21, 2004 (Photo by Julio Cesar Herrerea for El Tiempo via AP Images).

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the implications of the upcoming second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and the potential consequences of a content-free diplomatic process. For the Report, Mariana Palau talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about Colombia’s post-conflict land restitution program, which is not only struggling in its mission to help landowners reclaim property that was stolen during the country’s civil war, but is also in some cases driving a new cycle of displacement. If you like what you […]

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Chadian President Idriss Deby at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Aug. 28, 2017 (Sipa photo via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, has understood for a while now that Western powers are willing to overlook domestic human rights abuses and repression so long as his military continues to combat extremist groups in the Sahel. This week, France demonstrated that its loyalty to Deby, who has been in office since 1990, runs even deeper, and that it is willing to lend military support of its own to keep him in power. On Sunday, French Mirage jets […]

A Taiwanese soldier watches from an M60A3 Patton tank during a military exercise in Taichung, central Taiwan, Jan. 17, 2019 (AP photo by Chiang Ying-ying).

China and Taiwan marked the Lunar New Year holiday this week with dueling propaganda videos showcasing their respective military might, released on social media. It was the latest sign that North Korea may no longer be the world’s most volatile hotspot, the nation most likely to unleash a major crisis that could spiral out of control. Now that dubious distinction may be shifting to Taiwan. The root of the problem is, of course, that China considers Taiwan an inextricable part of its territory ripped away in 1949 when the government of the Republic of China, facing military defeat against communist […]

Retired Israeli military chief Benny Gantz, right, raises hands with former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon during the official launch of Gantz’s election campaign in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 29, 2019 (AP photo by Oded Balilty).

Back in December, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition decided to dissolve parliament and call new elections, the news inspired a chain reaction of yawns. Despite Netanyahu’s growing legal problems, the overwhelming consensus was that he was headed for another victory, one that would allow him to break the record of Israel’s founder, David Ben Gurion, as the country’s longest-serving prime minister. To be sure, the election, scheduled for April 9, is still Netanyahu’s to lose, but the inevitability of another victory by Bibi, as he is known, and his rightist Likud party is now in doubt. Voters who […]

A woman attends a march to promote a law backed by then-President Juan Manuel Santos concerning the restitution of land to victims of the country’s armed conflict, Necocli, Colombia, Feb. 11, 2012 (AP photo by Luis Benevides).

APARTADO, Colombia—The sun was sitting low in the sky when Luis Izquierdo noticed the group of armed men walking onto his family’s farm in this town in Uraba, a region of northwestern Colombia that abuts the Caribbean Sea. In the fading daylight, he couldn’t see them clearly at first; he and his parents and siblings thought they might be soldiers looking for something to eat or drink. Their guts started to clench, however, when the men came closer with their rifles shouldered. They realized it was more likely that the men belonged to a paramilitary group that had recently started […]

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, right, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, left, and Babagana Monguno, center, attend Friday prayers, Abuja, Nigeria, Nov. 6, 2015 (SIPA photo via AP Images).

He is often tagged as an aloof, slow-moving executive with a narrow and insular coterie of advisers, and he has fallen short of the promises that won him the presidency four years ago. Yet Muhammadu Buhari remains the front-runner in Nigeria’s presidential elections scheduled for Feb. 16, which will pit the incumbent against several challengers—the most prominent, by far, being former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who served in office from 1999 to 2007 and placed third in the 2007 election. Buhari is still the favorite because of his party’s continued strength in its strongholds in northern and southwestern Nigeria, along […]

Myanmar Border Guard Police officers stand guard at a village street in northern Buthidaung township, Rakhine state, Myanmar, July 13, 2017 (AP photo by Esther Htusan).

Intense fighting has returned to western Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, this time between the military and the Arakan Army, a well-armed ethnic group that advocates self-governance for the region. At least 26 people have died since fighting erupted in December, and thousands of civilians have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The renewed conflict is likely to further complicate the already difficult process of repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in refugee camps across the border, in Bangladesh. In an interview with WPR, David Scott Mathieson, an independent analyst based in Yangon, Myanmar, discusses the Arakan Army’s […]

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, on a boat taking heads of state to the One Planet Summit in Boulogne-Billancourt, southwest of Paris, Dec. 12, 2017 (Photo by Blondet Eliot for SIPA via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Last November, during the swearing-in ceremony that marked the beginning of his seventh term as Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya addressed frustrated voters in the restive Anglophone regions and around the country, calling for unity and insisting he had heard their pleas for change. “I have also understood your desire for greater participation in taking decisions that concern the destiny of our country,” he said. His critics had good reason to be skeptical, given Biya’s long record of ignoring criticism […]

An Islamic Police officer walks through the square where members of the group Ansar Dine were preparing to publicly lash a person found guilty of adultery, Timbuktu, Mali, Aug. 31, 2012 (AP photo).

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss a framework deal announced by U.S. and Taliban negotiators and the broader implications of an eventual American withdrawal from Afghanistan. For the Report, Anna Pujol-Mazzini talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about Mali’s halting efforts toward transitional justice and reconciliation for a war that began in 2012, amid ongoing fighting in the north and new outbreaks of violence in the country’s central region. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for […]

An aerial view of the Pentagon in Washington, March 27, 2008 (AP photo by Charles Dharapak).

The U.S. Department of Defense is grappling with a serious problem: It has an increasing need for top-tier technology talent but has a difficult time competing with the private sector for the people it wants. “The Pentagon is struggling to attract and retain talent for technology-centric jobs related to artificial intelligence, coding and software development,” as Mark Pomerlau put it in Defense News. Part of this problem cannot be resolved. The Department of Defense will never match the salaries that the private sector offers its stars. But many of the issues that the Pentagon faces are self-inflicted. Its organizational culture […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives for a plenary session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2019 (AP photo by Gian Ehrenzeller).

Shinzo Abe has already outperformed his five immediate predecessors, putting to rest the idea that a Japanese prime minister couldn’t stay in office for more than a year. Now, he is approaching a milestone. He will become the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history if he remains in office until November. But Abe is looking beyond that, with a chance to serve out his current term as prime minister until 2021, since he was overwhelmingly re-elected last fall for a third and final term as president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP. The party can effectively determine the […]

Showing 18 - 28 of 28First 1 2