Research Library

Erika de la Garza, program director of the Latin America Initiative, reflects on President Obama's Cuba trip in light of her own visit to the island earlier this month.

Social unrest over the extraction of Peru’s natural resources has increasingly heightened, as evident in the intensity of citizens’ claims and the resulting levels of violence.

Though authorities have launched a massive manhunt for drug kingpin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexicans across the board— fed up with their government's inability to function effectively — are on the cusp of a popular revolution that could change the political landscape of the nation.

Though drops in oil prices stand to impact Saudi Arabia’s economic stability, the government has turned to drawing down its foreign reserves and issuing bonds to alleviate budgetary pressures and avoid drastic domestic spending cuts. Fellow for the Middle East Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes in the Baker Institute Blog: http://bit.ly/1fKLWG9.

Qatar’s reforms have opened the floodgates of women’s opportunities in education and defined the small nation as a hub of research and higher learning within the greater Middle East. What are the implications of the abundance of highly educated women in Qatar?

In contrast to the generally accepted view of U.S. policy toward hostile regimes, especially in the Caribbean basin, Washington is not trying to destabilize the government of Venezuela. In fact, it is making efforts to keep Nicolás Maduro in office. With U.S. foreign policy in a precarious position — facing challenges from ISIS, Russia and China — stabilizing the Maduro government looks like the most rational option to support the White House’s current interests in the Western Hemisphere.

Whether out of strategic calculations or due to attitude towards women, the outcome is the same: female candidates often do not follow the party route to political office in Bahrain.