With the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington is turning its sights elsewhere. Quietly, the Obama administration is building up a vast array of military resources in West Africa, and specifically in Portuguese-speaking Lusophone countries. Reportedly, the Pentagon wants to establish a monitoring station in the...

Now that Venezuela's larger-than-life Hugo Chávez has vanished from the political landscape, what does the future hold for South America? Though Venezuela is only a medium-sized country, Chávez was able to skillfully realign geopolitical fault lines through shrewd use of oil largesse and petro populism. It is unlikely, though, that...

Move over, 19th-century African power struggle -- the coming scramble for continental resources may feature some new and rising players. While European nations such as Britain and France dominated Africa and vied for influence some one hundred years ago, the next geopolitical struggle could pit none other than China against...

This post originally appeared on al-Jazeera.

If the polls are to be believed, Hugo Chávez's successor Nicolás Maduro will probably defeat the political opposition in Sunday's presidential election, thus securing and solidifying Cuban-Venezuelan ties yet further. Such an outcome will come as a severe disappointment to Washington, which...

Though Obama has frequently spoken of the need for more "green jobs," he has failed to acknowledge the inherent environmental advantages associated with a curious plant called hemp. One of the earliest domesticated crops, hemp is incredibly versatile and can be utilized for everything from food, clothing, rope, paper and...

As the underlying rationale for the war on drugs falls apart, some may wonder whether Latin America is really prepared to push back against Washington's militaristic approach toward marijuana trafficking. While such a prospect would have been unheard of just a few scant years ago, recent developments in the U.S....

In a witheringly condescending article, Guardian columnist Michael Wolff recently mocked the launching of Al Jazeera America, a new cable network that will compete with the likes of Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Hardly mincing words, Wolff writes that Al Jazeera's programming is "dreary as all get out." "The...

In light of recent referendums in the Colorado and Washington that have legalized marijuana, could the drug war be headed for a serious meltdown? Such a notion would have been unthinkable just a short while ago, but there is no denying that America is in the midst of cultural change....

Though certainly devastating in an environmental, economic and even psychological sense, Hurricane Sandy may lead to significant long-term political change. Already, activists affiliated with Occupy Wall Street have fanned out across New York to provide disaster relief to the neediest. For "Occupy," the storm provides an opportunity to broaden a...

With so much blanket media coverage being provided to the presidential debates in the U.S., it is easy to lose sight of other important international events. On Sunday, voters will go to the polls in Venezuela to decide the fate of Hugo Chavez's so-called Bolivarian Revolution which has been 14...

For challenging the U.S. and its economic, military and political hegemony in Latin America, firebrand Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa deserves some respect. Moreover, in another recent and risky maneuver which has provoked international controversy, Correa granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Like his Ecuadoran benefactor, Assange has also challenged...

For just one man, Julian Assange has certainly managed to discombobulate and disrupt a large swathe of the geopolitical system. Not only is Sweden gunning for Assange, but there is little doubt that Britain and the U.S. will now stop at nothing to get their hands on the controversial founder...

With the U.S. now losing a degree of its economic and political hegemony throughout the world, a key question will be how Washington reconciles itself to emerging powers such as Brazil. A South American powerhouse in the midst of an agricultural commodities boom, Brazil has witnessed the dramatic growth of...

We're just a few days into the new Republican ticket, and already, it seems, Mitt Romney has been having second thoughts about his running mate Paul Ryan. A big aficionado of radical right wing views and philosopher Ayn Rand, Ryan favors dramatically scaling back social benefits. Though Romney may have...

In the wake of Paraguay's suspicious impeachment of President Fernando Lugo, which observers have likened to a kind of "quasi-coup," some may wonder whether underhanded corporate forces may have played a role in the political crisis. Such suspicions were heightened recently when the new de facto regime led...

On a certain level, I wonder whether Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who is now defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, agreed to take the assignment for personal reasons.

In recent years, Garzón has come to international attention for pursuing a number of high-profile international cases. In 1998 for...

For isolated and impoverished countries, it can sometimes prove difficult to pursue an independent foreign policy which challenges Washington's traditional sphere of influence. Take, for example, tiny Paraguay which has recently been convulsed in political instability. Four years ago, Fernando Lugo was elected president after pledging to take on political...

For isolated and impoverished countries, it can sometimes prove difficult to pursue an independent foreign policy which challenges Washington's traditional sphere of influence. Take, for example, tiny Paraguay which has recently been convulsed in political instability. Four years ago, Fernando Lugo was elected president after pledging to take on political...

During a particularly bizarre moment in Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa's recent interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the fiery South American populist remarked "cheer up Julian, and welcome to the club of the persecuted." The interview, which took place on Assange's own talk show airing on Russian Television, then took...

On a certain level, I am not surprised that Julian Assange has requested diplomatic asylum from the tiny South American nation of Ecuador. Realistically, the WikiLeaks founder might have concluded that the populist government of Rafael Correa was his best bet under the circumstances. Having run out of...