POLITIX 05/07/14 By Michael Shank Trust is essential for any society to function. If it’s not there, political and economic progress is impossible. That’s exactly what’s happening in Yemen right now. From the public’s perspective in Sana’a where I spent the last week, the transitional government cannot be trusted, nor […]
CDN 04/27/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, April 27, 2014 — America is leaving a devastating legacy in Yemen thanks to its program of drone strikes. Without question, America’s approach is doing much to destabilize this impoverished country, undermine constitutional and electoral efforts to unify her people, and devastate the local […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 04/14/14 By Michael Shank The United States Department of Defense used it recently in Yemen and Pakistan. The U.S. State Department is using it right now in Afghanistan and Nigeria. The U.S. Agency for International Development used it in the last elections in Kenya. It’s […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 04/08/14 By Michael Shank and Innocent Rugaragu Twenty years ago this week, an estimated 1 million Rwandans were killed in that country’s genocide. Needless to say, the post-genocide era has been difficult and pregnant with fears and hopes. Had the leadership at the time – […]
THE HILL 04/04/14 By Michael Shank and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) To hear corporate America tell it, our economic recovery is going great. The top 1 percent of earners saw their incomes grow by 31.4 percent from 2009-2012. Oil companies are seeing record profits. Unfortunately, that’s not the recovery — […]
CNN 03/14/14 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Alan Lowenthal Editor’s note: U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif) serves on the House Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources Committees. Michael Shank is associate director for legislative affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation and a senior fellow at the JustJobs Network. […]
CDN 01/13/14 By Michael Shank WASHINGTON, January 13, 2014 — As the U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that American soldiers are re-entering Somalia after 20-plus years avoiding the country, the need for new solutions to this crisis is critical. The answer to the rebel group al-Shabaab’s growth in […]
ALBANY DEMOCRAT-HERALD 12/18/13 By Ray Kauffman The Oct. 25 issue of U. S. News and World Report has an article titled “Books on the Ground, Not Unmanned Robots in the Sky,” written by Michael Shank, director of foreign policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and adjunct faculty at […]
HUFFINGTON POST 12/10/13 By Michael Shank It appears that Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Islamic preacher from Turkey who promotes peace and tolerance, and the schools associated with his religious Hizmet movement can’t get a break. They were first targeted in America, via discrimination aimed at the Turkish American community centered […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 12/02/13 By Michael Shank It appears that Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Islamic preacher from Turkey who promotes peace and tolerance, and the schools associated with his religious Hizmet movement can’t get a break. They were first targeted in America, via discrimination aimed at the Turkish […]