Q & A Archive

Three days after his inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a memorandum reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which was first adopted during the Reagan administration to block recipients of U.S. aid from providing abortions or abortion counseling. While family planning experts have consistently noted the harmful effects of the policy, known as the “Global Gag Rule,” they also warned that the Trump administration’s version is much worse, as it applies to a wider range of U.S. global health assistance. Other donors have tried to step up and provide aid that would otherwise be lost as a result of the policy. […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Last week, AFP reported on Nigeria’s search for oil in the country’s northeast, the home base of the Boko Haram insurgency. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation described the effort, which is being aided by Chinese technical expertise, as a priority for the country. But analysts warned of the security implications, noting that any discoveries could create potential new targets for an insurgency that is still very much active. Those warnings are looking prescient today. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Boko […]

Just weeks after sending troops to its first overseas military base in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti, China has come forward with a curious offer: to dive headlong into a dispute that illustrates the complex rivalries of the Horn of Africa region. In an interview with the Associated Press published July 21, Kuang Weilin, China’s ambassador to the African Union (AU), said China would consider sending peacekeeping troops to a border area contested by Djibouti and Eritrea. The dispute over the area, known as Ras Doumeira, dates back to the late 19th century, when Eritrea was colonized by […]

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos traveled to Havana this month for a visit that regional outlets described as focused on economic cooperation. In addition, Santos again thanked Cuban President Raul Castro for having hosted the talks that led to a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In an email interview, Adam Isacson, a senior associate for regional security policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, explains how the talks led to warmer ties between Bogota and Havana, and how this could pose trouble for U.S.-Colombia relations given the Trump administration’s Cuba policy. WPR: Historically, what […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. The recent court ruling paving the way for same-sex marriage in Taiwan prompted speculation about similar measures elsewhere in Asia. It was unclear, though, whether the ruling would help or hinder the same-sex marriage cause in China. Still, Chinese activists have been scoring victories of their own, among them increased cultural visibility and heightened popular awareness of the harms caused by “conversion therapy.” On Thursday, a court in the city of Guiyang ruled in favor of a transgender […]

Finland is currently conducting a trial to measure the effects of Universal Basic Income (UBI), though the project has been criticized by some as poorly designed. Writing in the New York Times last week, Antti Jauhiainen and Joona-Hermanni Makinen said the sample size was “too small to be scientifically viable.” In an email interview, Heikki Hiilamo, a professor of social policy at the University of Helsinki, describes the concepts underpinning UBI, how Finns are responding to the trial and what it is intended to measure. WPR: What is the objective of Finland’s pilot study on universal basic income, how much […]

On July 2, the World Health Organization announced the end of the latest Ebola outbreak, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northern province of Bas-Uele. All told, four people died during the two-month outbreak, while four people survived infection with the virus. “With the end of this epidemic, DRC has once again proved to the world that we can control the very deadly Ebola virus if we respond early in a coordinated and efficient way,” said the WHO’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. While Congo has extensive experience with Ebola, and the latest outbreak took place in […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. The climate for LGBT Poles has deteriorated under the Law and Justice Party, which came to power in 2015. Attacks on LGBT individuals and organizations are on the rise; legal protections against discrimination remain limited; and curricula reforms privilege nationalist themes over messages of tolerance. In an email interview, A. Chaber, executive director of the Campaign Against Homophobia, explains how LGBT activists are trying to adapt. WPR: What is the current state of LGBT rights in Poland, and […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. More than six months after a series of military mutinies kicked off in the city of Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire still can’t shake the intermittent unrest that has provided a dark counternarrative to what was once widely viewed as a sterling post-conflict success story. Last weekend, three soldiers were killed when shooting erupted at a military camp in the northern city of Korhogo; gunfire was also reported in the Abidjan neighborhood of Abobo. This was followed by further violence on […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about education policy in various countries around the world. The influx of refugees and asylum-seekers arriving in Sweden since 2015 has placed strains on the country’s education system. Nevertheless, authorities have endeavored to retain features of the system that set it apart from other countries in Europe, including the right to education in one’s native language as well as an inclusive, secular approach to religious education. In an email interview, Jenny Berglund, an associate professor and senior lecturer at Sodertorn University in Stockholm, describes the rationale behind these policies […]

Haiti began recruitment this week for a new army, an institution that was disbanded in the mid-1990s under then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The recruitment drive comes as the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti is being replaced by a smaller mission focused on rule of law. In an email interview, Geoff Burt, executive director of the Center for Security Governance and editor-in-chief of Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, describes the Haitian army’s troubled history and the challenges to making the new one both effective and apolitical. WPR: Why was Haiti’s army disbanded in 1995, and what security threats or other […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about workers’ rights in various countries around the world. Though mired in scandal and dogged by low approval ratings, Brazilian President Michel Temer has pushed forward with reforms that stand to dramatically reshape the country’s labor market. In general, these reforms, including a law he signed last week, are geared toward scaling back worker protections and increasing the power of employers. In an email interview, Salo Coslovsky, an associate professor of international development at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, explains how […]

Earlier this month, Bolivian President Evo Morales publicly berated his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, for allegedly disclosing the contents of a filing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague concerning the two countries’ battle over the Silala River. It was just the latest flare-up in a dispute that has further poisoned relations between the South American neighbors. In an email interview, Chrisopher Rossi, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa College of Law who has published detailed accounts of this dispute in the Stanford Journal of International Law and the Inter-American Law Review, explains the two […]

Editor’s Note: This is the final article in a series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. Italy has long worked to improve ties between NATO and Russia, an effort that has continued even after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. At the same time, the country has urged NATO to focus more on threats facing the alliance’s southern flank, including insecurity resulting from migration. In an email interview, Alessandro Marrone, senior fellow with the Security, Defense and Space Program at the International Affairs Institute in Rome, describes Italy’s role in NATO and how this shapes […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo reported this week that an additional 38 suspected mass graves had been discovered in the central region of Kasai, the latest indicator of the gravity of violence that has claimed more than 3,000 lives since last year. The new findings mean that at least 80 mass graves have been identified in connection with the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency, a main driver of instability in a country that appears to be […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. The recent vote by German MPs to legalize same-sex marriage was seen as an example of the law catching up with public opinion. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was certain same-sex marriage would be approved, voted against it herself, leaving people guessing as to whether her vote reflected her values or was a strategic calculation. In an email interview, Dr. Beate Küpper, social psychologist on the Faculty of Social Services at the Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in […]

The most recent meeting of the West African bloc ECOWAS featured an appearance by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared it a “dream to come here to this organization,” while offering Israeli partnership in areas including counterterrorism and agriculture. While Netanyahu’s outreach to Africa has generally proceeded smoothly, relations with Senegal hit a snag late last year over a United Nations resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building. In response to the vote, Israel suspended aid and recalled its ambassador to Senegal, a co-sponsor of the resolution. In an email interview, Dr. Arye Oded, a retired Israeli ambassador and […]