Opinion: By John Price, Tuesday March 25, 2014 On Friday March 21 President Vladimir Putin signed the annexation treaty making Ukraine’s autonomous Crimea region a part of Russia. The port city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea, home to Russia’s naval fleet in the region, was included. Russia flexing its muscle in Crimea was reminiscent […]
Read MoreMali is in al-Qaeda’s Cross-Hairs
By John Price, Wednesday February 19, 2014 On Friday February 7, 2014 near the northern Mali town of Tamkoutat, thirty-one people were killed in two ambush attacks by Islamists. The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) was responsible for the attacks, according to Mali’s interior ministry. Last week near the Niger border […]
Read MoreConflict Resolution Through Sports
By John Price, Tuesday February 11, 2014 “Sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does” – Nelson Mandela It has been twenty years since the genocide that devastated Rwanda. Over 800,000 people lost their lives—for no other reason than belonging to the wrong tribe. The slaughter by the Hutus […]
Read MoreAl-Qaeda’s Presence Has Not Been Diminished
By John Price, Tuesday February 4, 2014 In the 1980’s the U.S. supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviets. Our ally was Osama bin Laden who organized his Arab fighters to help defeat the Soviets. When the dictator, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 Osama bin Laden offered to bring his […]
Read MoreCultural Diversity Seen Through the Eyes of African Artists
By John Price, Wednesday January 29, 2014 In July 2012, I wrote the article “Artistic Endeavor: Can Change the Face of Africa”, after attending the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab production of “Africa Kills Her Sun”, or “Afrika Inaua Mwangaza Wake” in Kiswahili. The play had a cast of three African actors and one American, who […]
Read MoreBeirut to Benghazi: We Didn’t Learn a Lesson
By John Price, Wednesday January 22, 2014 We could have learned a lesson from the thirty-six terrorist attacks against Americans in Lebanon in the early 1980’s. The U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed in April 1983, killing 63 people. In October truck bombs struck two barracks housing a U.S.-led peacekeeping force in which over 200 […]
Read MoreAfrica has a history of irrational borders
By John Price, Monday December 30, 2013 In Sudan little thought was given to the vast tribal, ethnic and religious factions when historical boundaries were geographically redefined by the colonial powers. Muslims and Arabs lived in the north, and Christians and animist tribes occupied the south. In the west Darfur region more than eighty tribes […]
Read MoreA Giant is Gone But His Legacy Lives On
By John Price, Thursday December 5, 2013 Nelson Mandela at age 95, lost his battle with respiratory failure, reportedly, the result of recurring infections contracted during his years of prison confinement. Mr. Mandela had spent almost 27 years in a prison cell, eighteen years of which were on Robben Island. His incarceration emboldened thousands of […]
Read MoreSomalia: Education is the Best Way to Defeat Al-Shabaab
By John Price, Tuesday December 3, 2013 In Somalia each day dozens of children twelve years and older are recruited into the ranks of al-Shabaab, the local terrorist organization. Killing an Islamist leader or two will not change the attacks they incur at home, in neighboring countries, and against Western interests. Until recently the United States had all […]
Read MorePartitioning May Be a Peaceful Solution
By John Price, Wednesday November 20, 2013 The goal of building democratic institutions in North Africa and the Middle East could prove to be futile. The Arab Spring uprisings that brought about regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen did not bring peace to the region. The U.S. push for regime change in Syria, […]
Read MoreRepublicans Abroad Radio
Follow me on Republicans Abroad Radio, Wednesday October 23, 2013 at 10:00 ET: http://www.republicansabroadradio.com/
Read MoreAl-Shabaab continues to be a threat
By John Price, Thursday October 3, 2013 The Federal Republic of Somalia was ruled by the brutal dictator Siad Barre until 1991, when a coalition of warlords deposed him. Shortly thereafter the U.S. embassy in the capital Mogadishu was shuttered, leaving a diplomatic void for over twenty-two years. Warlords and their clans started fighting for control […]
Read More