Wilson Weekly

20 Years of PEPFAR: Past Successes and Future Potential

“This bipartisan program has changed the course of human history in so many ways. It brought essential support and awareness on HIV and AIDS to nearly every part of the world, including so many corners of the world that had been left behind or left without... but our work on and through PEPFAR is far from over.” -Ambassador Mark A. Green

WATCH NOW

VIDEO | Congressional Testimony

Leopoldo Lopez Testifies Before Congress on US Support of Democracy, Human Rights

“In February of 2014, after calling for nonviolent protests against the corrupt and autocratic regime of Nicolás Maduro, I was arrested, sent to a military prison, kept in solitary confinement for almost four years, and sentenced to 14 years of prison.” -Leopoldo Lopez, Public Policy Fellow

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Article

The US-Japan Economic Partnership Roadmap Emerges

Trade used to be the biggest source of friction between the United States and Japan. But trade is now emerging as a concern that binds the world’s biggest and third-largest economies. Find out more from Shihoko Goto in her latest article.

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Event | Video

Putin's Concept of International Law

Professor Lauri Mälksoo argues that Vladimir Putin’s recent writings and speeches, along with changes to Russia’s constitution in 2020 and the Russian president’s personal preoccupation with questions of historical memory, reveal that Putin’s interpretation of international law is imperialist.

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Video | Smart Take

Netanyahu Delays Judicial Overhaul

“The only chance to annex the West Bank would be by weakening the Supreme Court... The coalition that supports the government is itching to finish the legislation, because under any possible scenario, it seems that the parties of coalition would take a rout, an, utter defeat.” -Guy Laron, senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a fellow with the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute and Middle East Program.

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Article

Iran’s Dissident Sunni Cleric

Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, the most outspoken Sunni cleric in Iran, has demanded an end to theocratic rule but rejected violence as a political tool to achieve it. Aaron Boehm tells us more about Ismaeelzahi’s background, influence, and criticisms against him in his latest article for The Islamists.

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Gender Equality and Health Equity Through Foreign Policy: A Progress Report

In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, we are joined by Maternal Health Initiative and Canada Institute Fellow Valerie Percival, whose project argues that improvements in gender equality and health equity place societies on pathways to peace and provide for more stable and less corrupt governments.

Upcoming Events

Corruption, Accountability and Democracy in Brazil: Challenges and Solutions
(In-Person Only)

Monday, Apr. 3 // 1–2:00 pm (ET)

Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975

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The Cost of Afro-Arab Social Exclusion in MENA

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Wilson In the News

US Politicians Must Decide What They Really Want from TikTok (Nikkei Asia)

“To politicians, though, what distinguishes TikTok is its rare combination of being owned by a Chinese corporation and being an American household name. As a result, its standing in the US-China relationship is akin to dry kindling at a time when hawks are driving the dynamics of the relationship from both sides.” -Rui Zhong, Program Associate, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States

Russia’s New Fan ID Law Seen as New Form of Authoritarian Surveillance (PRI)

“Protest rallies are prohibited now in Russia, so they are the only community with the chance to protest and they use that for more than 100 percent, so they showed many, many people that you can protest.” -Alena Popova, Galina Starovoitova Fellow

China’s Ties to Honduras Show its Increasing Influence (NewsNation)

“It's a reflection of the fact that we have a peer competitor, economically, diplomatically, and within a thousand miles of China, militarily. This is another sign of many, that America really is in strategic competition with a peer competitor and needs to pay attention.” -Mark Kennedy, Director, Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition

Biden to Visit Canada for First Time Since Becoming President (PRI)

“The Canadians would like it to be a longer visit, they’d like to do more things, but it’s been a kind of rush job, not because of anything other than crazy calendars... It goes back to the symbolic value. It’s a way of saying, politics is politics, but there’s something about Canada that I really love.” -Christopher Sands, Director, Canada Institute