Huffington Post 12/01/2011 By Michael Shank and J.J. Messner With the excitement about Moammar Qaddafi’s downfall beginning to fade, Libya’s new management has begun governing and reconstructing the war-torn nation. Plenty of attention is being paid to the governance angle: Is the National Transitional Council a legitimate, representative body? When […]
Huffington Post 11/16/2011 By Michael Shank The fact that America’s biggest companies paid no federal taxes may come as no surprise to Washington. The report released earlier this month by nonprofit groups Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that 30 of the top […]
Huffington Post 11/14/2011 By Michael Shank Things are changing quickly in Cuba. Last week, on November 10, the Cuban government, under President Raul Castro’s leadership, launched its most progressive economic reform initiative yet by legalizing the sale and purchase of private property. For Cuba watchers and Castro critics, this was […]
Huffington Post 11/11/2011 By Michael Shank Rick Perry’s inability to recall three US government agencies is indicative of this country’s equivocal commitment to “high levels of education”, one of eight factors essential to a stable and peaceful society, as reported recently by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Without […]
Huffington Post 10/05/2011 By Michael Shank As US Congress continues to quack its way through the Super Committee quagmire, a seemingly non-germane offshore issue has surfaced vis-a-vis Iraq. The connection between the two is anything but inconsequential, despite receiving scant review in Washington. If one wonders how US debts and […]
Huffington Post 09/28/2011 By Michael Shank This October 7, 2011, marks the tenth anniversary of the US war in Afghanistan. After expending $4 trillion and thousands of lives, the US needs an exit from the depressing impasse of its militarized foreign policy. With the Pentagon and the CIA countenancing a […]
Huffington Post 09/26/2011 By Michael Shank This September, I was interviewed by a communications firm on the topic of Islamophobia. The firm is planning a campaign to counteract Islamophobia in America and was conducting interviews with Washington policymakers who have addressed this topic. The interview came on the heels of […]
Huffington Post 09/22/2011 By Michael Shank This year, as the world witnesses revolutions erupting throughout North Africa and the Middle East and watches autocrats give way to people power, there is increasing fascination in the West with the nonviolent nature of some of these movements. From policy-makers to the press, […]
Huffington Post 09/21/2011 By Michael Shank Today, September 21, 2011, as the world celebrates the UN-recognized International Day of Peace, it is worth taking stock on the global community’s ability to keep the peace. Take a look at the 2011 Global Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics and […]