The ISN Blog team would like to thank our readers for an exciting and interesting year. Thank you for interacting, taking part in discussions here and our other social media platforms and for helping us grow and expand our reach! Stay in touch with us as the new year kicks in; comment and ‘like’ on [...]

Last Sunday, parliamentary elections were held in Transnistria, where 123 candidates vied for 43 seats in the local Supreme Council. With the counting of the votes still ongoing, the favorite to hold on to parliament in this 530,000-strong quasi-state is the “Renovation Party”, which has also controlled the majority of seats in the past. For [...]

A recent BBC article takes up the debate that has been ongoing in India on whether to teach English in schools and colleges. The issue is like a double-edged sword. In a trend towards “Indianization”, many schools and colleges are putting increased emphasis on teaching and even academic writing in vernacular languages. Yet those schools [...]

In the past week, ISN Insights examined: The US-Congo Minerals Law in a piece by Jon Rosen The trajectory of Indian defense policy in an article by Harsh V Pant The impact of global currency wars on African economies in a piece by Edoardo Totolo Belarusian elections in an article by Jeremy Druker Modern-day slavery [...]

ISN OSINT Report 4/2010 In this year’s final OSINT Report Florian Schaurer and Jan Störger examine the prevalent classification and safeguarding procedures in place for sensitive national security information. They provide a synopsis of definitions, and cast light on the complex interplay between officially required secrecy and publicly desired transparency. The report also addresses the [...]