World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The exceptionally strong support from Qatar to the Syrian rebels is an interesting dimension to the Syrian civil war.   Qatar is committed to selling its huge reserves of natural gas to Europe and the most obvious method of transporting that gas is through a pipeline.  There are many pipelines possible, but the most promising route is through Syria and President Assad has blocked that possibility.   A new government in Syria may mean billions in new revenues for Qatar.

Officials in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo have rescinded the bus and subway fare increases that sparked nation-wide protests in Brazil.  It seems unlikely that the protests will end since they seemed to draw strength from a broader sense of inequality and corruption in Brazil.  We will have to see how the people respond to this concession, but some analysts suspect that the current government is not at risk just yet.

The number of refugees in the world has reached its highest level since 1994–45.2 million people.  These numbers include internally displaced people–people who have been forced to leave their homes, but who are still living in the same country.  The saddest part of this statistic is that half of the 45 million are children.  And this figure is only for the end of 2012 which means that many Syrian refugees are not included.  The primary cause of being forced to leave one’s home is war.  And few countries are opening their doors to these new refugees.

I was fortunate to have a very good article about the use of chemical weapons in war brought to my attention.  It is by MG Zimeta and it appeared in the New Internationalist entitled “Why are we so afraid of chemical weapons?”  It asks some very important questions about the so-called “red line” that need to be answered before the word decides that a case for intervention has been sealed.