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1. Should Europe pay slave reparations to Carribean nations?
2. Does Argentina need to reform its energy sector?
3. Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
4. Will the revelation of secret recordings made during Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2012 presidential campaign harm his chances of returning to the Elysee Palace?
5. Have recent international crises exposed the weakness of the United Nations?
6. Why is ethnic unrest increasing in China?
7. Will the next British parliamentary election be a referendum on the EU?
8. Is Michael Sata becoming an autocrat?
9. Should the international community allow Crimea to join Russia?
10. Does NATO still matter?
On February 22nd, Florentine mayor and Democratic Party (DP) leader Matteo Renzi became the youngest Italian prime minister. Renzi, who is thirty-nine years old, has promised a series of reforms to shake up Italy’s dysfunctional political and economic culture. While never holding office on a national scale, Renzi believes that he can use his first 100 days in office to get Italy moving again and restore it to its proper place as one of the major powers on the European continent. However, old political and economic habits die hard and political observers, which include some of those in Renzi’s own party, feel that he is all flash and no substance. Considering the fact that Italy is the third largest economy in the eurozone and that its economy has not fared well over the last two decades, Renzi comes at a crucial time in Italian history. A successful administration could put Italy back on the road to economic growth and a more stable political system, but a failure could dishearten the Italian population and lead to populist leaders taking power from either the political left or the right.
For the last two months demonstrations have been waged against the Ukrainian government of Victor Yanukovych. Yanukovych, who was elected to the presidency in 2010, triggered the protests by turning down an association agreement with the European Union (EU). The protests have only grown larger since Yanukovych’s governing party pushed through a controversial anti-protest law that stifled nearly all forms of free speech and to date, at least six people have died in clashes between protesters and security officials. Geopolitical analysts see Ukraine as a diplomatic battleground between the West and Russia and Ukraine’s political problems often pit the EU and the United States against Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. This means that questions about Ukraine often appear in rounds about Europe and American foreign policy over the course of a season and the current unrest in Ukraine makes it very likely that you could see a question about it at your state tournament.
On January 5th, Bangladesh held parliamentary elections that were marred by a widespread opposition party boycott and violence against supporters of Bangladesh’s governing Awami League and the country’s Hindu minority. The international community condemned the violence and has urged the Awami League to reach a political agreement with its main rival, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) so that new elections can be held to create a legitimate government. Thus far, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has shown little willingness to compromise with the opposition. Bangladesh has been one of the global economic success stories since 1990 and has successfully reduced levels of poverty through international trade agreements. However, the recent political violence could ruin the country’s international image, its economic progress, and make it a center for Islamic extremism.
Last week, on December 29th and 30th, two suicide bombings in Volgograd, a Southern Russian city formerly known as Stalingrad, killed at least thirty-four people and sent at least fifty others to the hospital. The town of Volgograd is located 400 miles from Sochi, where next month’s Winter Olympics will be held. Although no group has taken responsibility for the attacks as of the time of this brief, Russian security forces and international experts believe that the suicide attacks are listen to terrorist groups in the North Caucasus region of Russia, whose Muslim population has long sought self-government. Considering that Doku Umarov, a Chechen terrorist leader, proclaimed in July that he wanted to disrupt the Olympics, there are concerns in the international community that the Sochi Olympics would become a 2014 version of the 1972 Munich Games, which were marred by the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also facing international condemnation for his nation’s policies regarding homosexuals and the gradual erosion of democratic safeguards that were put in place after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Due to these issues, it would not be surprising to encounter questions at tournaments over the next six weeks about the Sochi Olympics and whether Russia is capable of protecting the athletes and tourists attending the event and how it should respond to international criticisms of its domestic policies.