The World Next Week: December 15, 2011

A preview of world events in the coming week from CFR.org: the Arab Spring's one year anniversary is marked; the U.S. Senate must pass a funding bill or face a government shutdown; and the Mercosur summit convenes in Uruguay.

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Hosts
  • James M. Lindsay
    Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  • Robert McMahon
    Managing Editor

Show Notes

CFR's Director of Studies James M. Lindsay and CFR.org Editor Robert McMahon preview major world events in the week ahead.

In this week's podcast: the Arab Spring's one year anniversary is marked; the U.S. Senate must pass a funding bill or face a government shutdown; and the Mercosur summit convenes in Uruguay.

Theme music by Miguel Herrero under Creative Commons License

India

Concerns grow over the widening Middle East conflict after Iran launches three hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel; European Union (EU) leaders discuss how to bolster aid to Ukraine amid an uptick in Russian attacks and the situation unfolding in the Middle East; India kicks off the world’s largest democratic election—spanning more than forty-four days—where the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win again; and warming water temperatures cause a mass bleaching of coral reefs.

Sudan

Congress returns from recess and grapples with contentious agenda items, including reauthorization of a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and a Ukraine aid package; Sudan enters a second year of civil war with more than half of the country’s population in need of aid and millions more displaced; and Ecuadorian police breach international law by raiding the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas. 

Rwanda

Rwanda marks thirty years since its genocide against the Tutsis; U.S. President Joe Biden hosts the first trilateral leaders’ summit with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.; music fans celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Swedish pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win; and Ekrem İmamoğlu is elected mayor of Istanbul, in a rebuke to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.

Top Stories on CFR

Defense and Security

John Barrientos, a captain in the U.S. Navy and a visiting military fellow at CFR, and Kristen Thompson, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and a visiting military fellow at CFR, sit down with James M. Lindsay to provide an inside view on how the U.S. military is adapting to the challenges it faces.

Myanmar

The Myanmar army is experiencing a rapid rise in defections and military losses, posing questions about the continued viability of the junta’s grip on power.

Egypt

International lenders have pumped tens of billions of dollars into Egypt’s faltering economy amid the war in the Gaza Strip, but experts say the country’s economic crisis is not yet resolved.