Historically, the Olympics have been a hotbed of diplomatic hostilities. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would be boycotting the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Four years later, the Soviets announced their retaliation-boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, on the allegation that the U.S. government would not sufficiently protect U.S.S.R. athletes and may even actively harm them. Both...
from Wikimedia Commons This week, two Olympics, thousands of miles apart, are being played. Corporations have ruined both. In 1984, a Union Carbide leak killed 15,000 people in Bhopal, India in what has been called the biggest industrial disaster in history. Forty tons of methyl isocyanate gas ravaged the city, leaving 500,000 injured and thousands of unborn children with futures of pain and deformity. Almost thirty years later, hundreds of bro...
...simply, Mitt Romney is kind of humble. Mitt’s apparently given money to charity, but doesn’t talk about it, earned a lot of money in the private sector, but fails to mention his personal success, and saved the Salt Lake City Olympics from disaster, but only talks about how he thinks the current one will fare. Think about the outcry for Romney to release his tax returns (the Obama campaign’s widest, and most effective avenue of attack) seen in a...
...es about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials…that obviously is not something which is encouraging.” Romney’s critical commentary on the London Olympics are an unwelcome distraction to a trip the Romney campaign had wished would bolster his foreign policy credentials, an area of policy he has no experience in given that his government experience is limited to being...
...itary officers who planned the Rodovia Transamazônica highway, which connects large empty areas to each other throughout the Amazon rainforest, hardly knew their country would win bids to host both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Brazil is also a pioneer in offshore oil drilling, and the recent discovery of massive deep-water reserves along its coast has sparked the interest of investors and politicians alike. The government has also specif...
Illustration by Katherine Isokawa For a long time, the far West Side of Manhattan was ignored by city planning. It developed into a neighborhood of low-rise houses, businesses, and factories. But in the past few years, the city has turned its attention back to that part of town, seeing it as the best way to expand midtown. While the entire proposal has stirred controversy, one aspect of it, a planned stadium for either the Olympics or the Jets,...
...s, are not the only ones that should be concerned with efforts to sustain the world around them. The same can be said for countries. In its preparations for momentous international events, like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, and its recent demonstration of due process for those accused of corruption, Brazil has demonstrated a willingness to spur and sustain long-term development, as Bruno Rigonatti Mendes demonstrates in our cover stor...
...d his running mate are new to foreign policy”. Romney created further doubts about his ability to be Diplomat-in-Chief when his comments made during an international tour expressing doubts regarding the security of the London Olympics nearly created an international incident with our “special friend” Britain. Obama regularly criticizes Romney for the gaffe, and it’s something that Obama will surely attempt to cite in tonight’s debate. Tonight, Ro...
...an Reince Priebus puts it, the Convention will try to show America “the story about a man who is decent and honorable, gave away his father’s inheritance, started something from nothing and created a great business, saved the Olympics, governed in a difficult state as a Republican and was very successful.” However, the Convention will also seek to redefine the Republican Party, and much of this mission falls to the keynote speaker – New Jersey Go...
2012, by all accounts, will be a year for the history books. Power transitions will occur in the world’s two largest economies. London will host the Olympics. The steady shift in the distribution of world influence away from traditional Western-heavy institutions and toward new multilateral groupings will continue, while the rankings of the world’s largest economies remain in a constant state of flux (due to the failure of the European experime...
Follow us at
Like us on
Recent Comments