Former Egyptian General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has won the Presidential election with more than 90% of the vote. The outcome was not a surprise at all, but El-Sisi’s seeming mandate was significantly diluted by the fact that turnout for the election was less than 50% of potential voters. The apathy toward the election was in sharp contrast to the previous election when President Morsi was elected. The suggestion is that the public believed that the election was not a genuine election in any meaningful way.
The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict will be held in London on 10-13 June 2014. It is the first global conference of its kind, and it is a conference that is long overdue. There are persistent reports of sexual violence against both women and men in every conflict of which I am aware, and the violence is always considered a “side effect” of the conflict. Nothing could be further from the truth: sexual violence is a regular and systematic instrument of war. The Guardian has a great editorial outlining the significance of the conference.
I admire Fareed Zakaria–he is a truly perceptive analyst even though there are times when I disagree with his point of view. He has written a thoughtful essay on President Obama’s speech at West Point that argues that Obama is on the right track with his foreign policy. Interestingly, Zakaria compares Obama with President Eisenhower, who led the US from 1953-1961, overseeing some serious crises in the Cold War.
World Politics News 
Leave a comment