Q & A Archive

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. Argentina has moved rapidly from a country that used to ban LGBT organizations to a global champion of the community. Favorable conditions and savvy strategies have helped fuel the embrace of LGBT rights in Argentina. Since becoming the first Latin American country to approve gay marriage in 2010, Argentina has continued to be a leader on LGBT issues, moving forward with an expansion of transgender rights at home while pushing for LGBT rights generally on the world stage. […]

Early this year, as the world waited to see whether Gambia’s then-president, Yahya Jammeh, would accept his election defeat and leave office, observers questioned who could help him muster the firepower to mount a last stand. Though this debate turned out to be largely speculative, one of the most commonly cited possible reserves of support was the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), an insurgent group that has been active in southern Senegal for more than three decades. Allegations of ties between Jammeh and the rebels go back to the early days of Jammeh’s rule, which began with a […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on social welfare policies in various countries around the world. Food subsidies have long been a critical component of the social safety net in India. In 2017-2018, such subsidies will cost the government more than $20 billion. While some policymakers and experts have pushed for alternatives in promoting food security, proposed changes are highly contentious politically. In an email interview, Kavery Ganguly, an independent consultant on agriculture policy based in Mumbai, explains what the current system does well, where it could be improved and the obstacles to reform. WPR: […]

Italy’s center-right parties performed impressively in last month’s local elections, prompting former Prime Minister and Democratic Party head Matteo Renzi to acknowledge that the polls “could have gone better” for his center-left formation. But turnout was just 46 percent, according to Reuters, and there were questions as to whether the results are predictive of how the various parties will fare in next year’s general elections. In an email interview, Mark Gilbert, a professor of international history at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS Europe, describes the factors that fueled the center-right’s success and the issues that are most important to Italian voters. WPR: […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. This week’s African Union summit—which brought heads of state to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday and Tuesday—featured debate on how best to accomplish one of the main recommendations from its reform commission: curb the body’s reliance on outside donors. Julian Hattem reported for WPR in February that the African Union’s expenses are expected to total $439 million this year, of which just 26 percent will be covered by African nations, undercutting leaders’ claims that it pursues “African solutions to African […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and associate editor Karina Piser discuss Donald Trump’s second trip to Europe and his much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For the Report, David Hutt talks with Peter Dörrie about Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s tactics to hold onto power and the state of the country’s political opposition in advance of next year’s general elections. If you’d like to sign up for the beta version of WPR’s Africa-only subscription, you can do so here. It’s free for the first two months. And if you like what you hear on […]

On June 20, Pakistani officials announced that an air force fighter had shot down an Iranian drone in Baluchistan province. The same day, Pentagon officials said an American fighter jet had shot down an Iranian-made drone that was approaching U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in southeastern Syria. The two incidents highlighted Iran’s increasing operational deployment of its drones. In an email interview, Ariane Tabatabai, visiting assistant professor of security studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, describes the evolution of Iran’s drone program and its importance to the country’s defense sector. WPR: What progress has Iran […]

Last month, a militia that had been holding Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, announced he had been released in accordance with an amnesty law passed by a parliament based in the eastern city of Tobruk. In response, Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, issued a statement calling for Gadhafi’s arrest so he could face crimes against humanity charges in The Hague. However, in a testament to the political and security factors that have dogged the court’s work in Libya for years, Gadhafi’s whereabouts are unknown, and he does not appear to […]

On June 15, Guyana announced it had issued an oil and gas license as well as an environmental permit to ExxonMobil. Raphael Trotman, the resources minister, said oil extraction was expected to begin in 2020, a key step for Guyana as it tries to revive its struggling economy. However, a border dispute with Venezuela remains unresolved, and Guyana’s decision to move ahead with oil production risks souring bilateral relations. In an email interview, Robert Looney, a distinguished professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a specialist in energy issues, explains the dispute and describes how oil fits […]