In The News

At France Télécom, Battle to Cut Jobs Breeds Odd Tactics

Leila Abboud August 23, 2006
A winery and scuba-diving shop, a magician and an opera singer – such are the small businesses and careers subsidized by France Télécom, the national telecommunications company. While preparing to list the company on the Paris stock exchange in the mid-1990s, executives recognized that its workforce was bloated. After nearly a decade of attempting to induce early retirement by offering generous...

Drop the “War on Terrorism” Metaphor

Richard N. Haass August 17, 2006
Although terrorists have yet to launch another attack on the scale of the September 11th attacks, the arrests in London remind the world that extremists still plot. Globalization allows would-be terrorists to move around easily, and modern technology such as weapons of mass destruction increases the potential for destruction and loss of life. The Bush administration insists that promoting...

Japan-China: Nationalism on the Rise

Brahma Chellaney August 16, 2006
Political parties that pander to nationalism and spread xenophobia threaten Asia’s economic and social renaissance. For example, Japanese politicians insist on making pilgrimages to war shrines, refusing to admit any remorse for atrocities committed during World War II. Countries, including China and Japan, tend to overlook history or develop their own warped version to invade territory, seize...

A Self-Defeating War

George Soros August 16, 2006
The metaphor “war on terror” is inappropriate, leading to real conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon and causing far more civilian deaths than the 9/11 attacks. A majority in the US now recognizes that the war in Iraq in particular is a huge and costly blunder, but remains stymied, like US leaders, about how to withdraw from the nation without creating more problems. More Iraqis died in July...

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: How Inevitable Is an Islamist Future?

Cameron Brown August 15, 2006
Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, observers have anticipated the next big Islamist takeover. Analyzing attempts at power grabs and current trends, Cameron Brown concludes that, in fact, democracy is proving the most effective way for Islamist groups to take control of state apparatus. For now, Islamist parties are the major opposition party in many states throughout the Middle East, and Brown...

Europe's Muslims: Economic Worries Top Concerns About Identity

August 11, 2006
Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the UK share worries about growing Islamic extremism, even though European Muslims as a whole tend to favor moderate Islam, according to a spring 2006 poll on immigration and identity, conducted by the Pew Research Foundation. The results follow a year that included bombings in London and Madrid and the riots sparked by Danish cartoons, but were released before...

The Odd Couple: Japan and China, The Politics of History and Identity

Haruko Satoh August 7, 2006
The Yasukuni Shrine has become a symbol of Japanese nationalism and a major target for Chinese criticism. China and Japan still carry bitterness since fighting each other during World War II, and Japanese leaders’ visits to the resting place for 14 class-A war criminals further strain the relationship. The bitterness, established in a Cold War framework, has little sense of purpose other than...