In The News

Somalia’s Piracy Offers Lessons in Global Governance

Christopher Jasparro April 6, 2009
Contrary to common perception, the swift and coordinated international response to piracy off Somalia’s coast has been less of a success than reports make it out to be. In fact, it masks deeper problems of unfairness in international economic order and local governance. Somalia’s pirates are a motley crew: some are fishermen defending their turf, while others are guns for hire. And the...

Hillary Clinton Admits US Role in Mexico Drug Wars

Jo Tuckman March 27, 2009
Mexico is a source as well as major transshipment point for most of the illegal drugs moving into the US – a trade route marked with thousands of cases of torture, murder and ruined lives. Yet American teenagers and college students do not connect their casual use of marijuana and cocaine at lively, secure campus parties with the brutal violence on display throughout Mexico. During a visit to...

Thieves Embrace Globalization

Lee Shi-Ian March 17, 2009
A supply chain of car thieves, brokers and crime syndicates track preferences of global customers and provide vehicles accordingly. Thieves act on the lists provided by foreign buyers, and 4x4 trucks are among the most popular, reports Lee Shi-Ian for New Straits Times Online. The crimes follow a pattern of thieves receiving requests from buyers in Cambodia, China or Saudi Arabia; finding the...

A Dangerous Void in Pakistan

Ahmed Rashid March 4, 2009
Many analysts had hoped that the democratic elections in 2008 and the resulting civilian government might stabilize Pakistan. Instead, a dithering and weak government which tried to buy off Islamic militants by a controversial ceasefire now face a breakdown of the ceasefire, in the midst of new terrorist attacks, political protests and economic meltdown. The result is that NATO and the US,...

The War on Drugs Is a Failure

Fernando Henrique Cardoso February 23, 2009
In 1971, US President Richard Nixon declared that fighting drug abuse would be a major priority. More than 30 years later, three former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico label the policies that attack the supply side a failure. “Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven't worked,” write Brazil’s Fernando Henrique...

Hijacked Supertanker Underlines Our Energy Vulnerability

Michael G. Frodl February 17, 2009
Analysts once suggested that supertankers, a challenge to control, could not be taken by pirates. But pirates from desperate Somalia demonstrated that such pronouncements become just another challenge to be met, by managing to hijack a Saudi supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil. “Somalis turned the lack of an effective coast guard and police to their advantage to hijack ships and...

At Last, Justice Comes to Cambodia

Benny Widyono February 13, 2009
Cambodia suffered years of hurt, from French and Japanese occupation to American invasion and massive bombing. The end of the US war in 1975 opened an even grislier chapter in Cambodia’s history. The rise of the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot brought unprecedented misery as the regime emptied cities, torturing and executing the educated, imposing extreme policies that led to starvation, disease and...