The World Bank’s ease of doing business index incentives countries to do whatever they can to improve their ranking. Jongho Shin/iStock via Getty Images Fernanda G Nicola, American University The World Bank, a behemoth of an organization that provides tens of billions of dollars in aid to mostly developing countries, is in the middle of one of its biggest scandals …
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Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh fear their medieval churches will be destroyed
The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was damaged earlier this year during fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images Christina Maranci, Tufts University A six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the South Caucasus, ended on Nov. 9 after Russia brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Under the deal, several ethnically Armenian provinces in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians …
Read More »Nagorno-Karabakh: in the aftermath of war, Armenia faces an unpalatable choice
Armenian troops suffered a crushing defeat in the Second Karabakh War in 2020. Bumble Dee via Shutterstock Kevork Oskanian, University of Birmingham More than six months have passed since the “second Karabakh war”, as it is now called, came to an abrupt end last year with Armenia all but defeated. The ceasefire hastily signed on November 9 – after Azerbaijan …
Read More »The Caspian Sea is set to fall by 9 metres or more this century – an ecocide is imminent
Anton Balazh / shutterstock Frank Wesselingh, Utrecht University and Matteo Lattuada, University of Giessen Imagine you are on the coast, looking out to sea. In front of you lies 100 metres of barren sand that looks like a beach at low tide with gentle waves beyond. And yet there are no tides. This is what we found when we visited …
Read More »Genocide claims in Nagorno-Karabakh make peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan unlikely, despite cease-fire
Soldiers patrol the mountainous, disputed border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, on Nov. 8. Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County A Russian-brokered cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week halted fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory, where long-standing hostilities reerupted on Sept. 27. The deal leaves Azerbaijan, which was given Nagorno-Karabakh by the Soviets …
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