European heavyweights from the Institute for Environmental Security had a face-to-face meeting last week with leading think tankers, Obama administration folks and those power wonks over the link between climate change and security. And believe me, the folks at Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon and points in between have been doing a lot of thinking on the issue. It is clear climate change is seen as a major threat to the security of the Atlantic Alliance and farther afield.Meeting under the theme &...

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With the legion of zombie banks staggering around the moonscape that is our financial system, why should the woefully understaffed Obama finance teams go out of their way to strangle live, healthy, banks operating in small island developing states, some as close as 30 minutes away from Florida?Indeed, there is a feeling in small island states that they are being picked on by the big, bullying governments, which do not have the guts to attack the root of the problem – their own citizens ...

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Cash to fuel development comes quickest in the form of tourists. So as regular tourism arrivals decline, African nations would benefit from focusing their efforts on attracting visitors headed to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.  At the lively and informative Africa Travel Association seminar on sports, adventure and diaspora tourism, held Feb. 19-20 in Washington, D.C., it was clear many nations had not grasped the enormous reach and popularity of the World Cup, the world&...

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Not surprisingly, many people, and places, are claiming Barack Obama as their own. En route to the White House the president alighted in many places and touched lots of people in diverse locales so it’s no surprise so many are trying to catch some of Obama’s pixie dust. Overlooked in the pixie dust rush is the fact Barack Obama is the product of a Polynesian island. He was born and schooled on Oahu, “the gathering place” of the archipelago known as Hawaii, the 50th st...

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