The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009

A few ways the world changed while you weren’t looking.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | DECEMBER 2009

Chechen Murders Go Global

The world was shocked in July by the murder of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in Chechnya. Suspicions immediately focused on the Chechen Kremlin-backed strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, a frequent target of Estemirova's investigations. But Estemirova was just one of several critics of Kadyrov who has been murdered in recent months, and it appears that living abroad is no protection. In January, Kadyrov's former bodyguard, Umar Israilov, was fatally shot in Austria, where he was seeking asylum. Israilov had filed a complaint against Kadyrov in the European Court of Human Rights, accusing him of abductions and torture.

In March, an exiled former resistance fighter named Ali Osayev was murdered in Istanbul. This followed the killings of two other former Chechen rebel commanders in Istanbul in late 2008. All three murders were carried out with a similar weapon, according to police.

Also in March, Sulim Yamadayev, who commanded a rebel faction that competed with Kadyrov's, was murdered in Dubai. His brother Ruslan, once Kadyrov's rival for the Chechen presidency, was murdered in Moscow in September 2008. Interpol issued warrants for seven Russian citizens in connection with Sulim's murder, including a Duma representative from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

Then there's the shadowy conflict within the North Caucasus region itself, which is anything but frozen. Although Kadyrov's repressive tactics have largely succeeded in pacifying Chechnya and the Kremlin issued a showy mission-accomplished declaration of the end of hostilities there in April, there are increasing fears that the republic's Islamist insurgency is spilling over into the surrounding region, with a wave of car bombings and assassinations in neighboring Ingushetia. The president of that wayward republic was badly wounded in an assassination attempt in June. 

VISKHAN MAGOMADOV/AFP/Getty Images

 SUBJECTS:
 

Joshua E. Keating is deputy Web editor at Foreign Policy and edits FP's Passport blog.

ALWAYSSKEPTICAL

1:53 PM ET

November 29, 2009

flooding?

"The environmental consequences -- increased flooding in coastal regions around the world..."

The melting of the Artic ice will not cause flooding. The ice would displace the same amount of water in liquid form as it now does in solid form.

 

JACKERHACK

6:47 AM ET

December 18, 2009

Oh no, it will

You forget that about 1/9th of ice floats above water. When it melts, it will cause the water level to rise.

 

DARCYLARCY

1:21 AM ET

December 22, 2009

Actually...

If the ice and sea water were of similar-enough composition, then once the ice melts, the resulting "new" water would be exactly the same volume as the water that was deplaced by the floating ice. In other words, the increasing density of the ice as it melts would exactly offset the difference in volume. The threat of sea level rise has nothing to do with the volume difference of ice and water (at least, not so directly).

However, water's freezing process partitions out much of the salt content. Therefore, what melts from floating sea ice is fresher, less dense water which *does* have a larger volume than the salt water that it displaced when it was solid. While it's not really my field, I believe that the volume difference should be on the order of 2.5%, based on the densities of sea water (64 lbs/ft3) and fresh water (62.4 lbs/ft3).

 

GRANT

4:24 PM ET

November 29, 2009

I don't see quite so much

I don't see quite so much cause for concern on the Feingold-Brownback* bill, as long as the U.S doesn't see the need to engage itself to heavily in the fighting. Though there are few things I would love to see more than Kony on trial the U.S doesn't have the best record when it comes to operations with other nations. Also, if memory serves one of the reasons why the U.S has had so much trouble finding a base for Africom is partially out of memories about U.S operations during the Cold War (as well as anti-U.S sentiment in the nations).

In re. to ALWAYSSKEPTICAL: We shouldn't presume that yet. The planet isn't so simple as to be measured by human perspective, and island nations are beginning to see changes in water.

*That's what they'll call it, you heard it here first.

 

W_NELSON

10:47 AM ET

November 30, 2009

NW Passage has been open for years:

Correction:

-------
Only one problem: The Northeast Passage has been opened for commerce since 1934 – and never ‘closed’.
-------

From here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/06/times_thermageddon_r_us/

 

F1FAN

10:20 AM ET

December 1, 2009

I'm surprised

I'm surprised that 'climategate' isn't on this list. The media in the US has categorically ignored it.

 

MUGWAMP

1:55 PM ET

December 3, 2009

rising coast lines

It is true that the Arctic sea ice is floating and already contributing to the current coastal levels. It is also true that if the Arctic sea ice is melting, then the ice on massive Greenland and Canada's northern islands will also melt. That is the source of concern. Worse yet, is that once the reflective ice and snow are gone from the tundra regions of the north, large amounts of methane will be released. The oceans also have large amounts of frozen methane that could be released, as we move to a higher temperature range. Methane is a much more potent green house gas than CO2. Humans may have started this pattern, but Mother Nature has the means to extend it. Finding ways to adapt to the inevitable, while we try to slow the pace of climate change is the challenge.

 

LINKBUILDINGSERVICES

4:32 AM ET

December 12, 2009

surprising

Its surprising to see that some people still taking the
The environmental consequences lightly.

 

SANDNESSC

4:06 PM ET

December 14, 2009

A ROTC for spies

My question is in regards to this line in the section titled "A ROTC for spies"

"The U.S. intelligence community already funds national security studies programs at more than 14 U.S. colleges and universities."

The question is does anyone have a list of the 14 colleges that this article is talking about.