In The News

Koizumi Visits Energy-Rich Russian Region, Seeking Oil

James Brooke January 13, 2003
Search for a secure source of energy has been a major concern for industry-rich, resource-poor Japan. It is a concern that has been further heightened by growing insecurity in the world and rising tension in the Middle East -- its principal energy source. A new geopolitical concern about competition from a rising China has now been added to Japan’s foreign policy calculations. In a diplomatic...

What Does North Korea Want?

January 10, 2003
In a background report on North Korea, the staff of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations provides an excellent overview of the recent tensions between the US and North Korea. The question-and-answer format addresses the following: What does North Korea want? What is North Korea’s latest move? Is the decision final? Will the United States meet North Korea’s demands? Why has the...

Brazil Needs A-Bomb Ability, Aide Says, Setting Off Furor

Larry Rohter January 9, 2003
A Brazilian official says that nuclear research is necessary for his country because "we need to be prepared." But prepared for what? Across the border in Argentina, and across the region, people are wondering what to make of this latest news from Brazil's newly-elected leftist government. Although the Brazilian President has distanced him from his aide's remarks, during...

Bush turns diplomatic in handling Korean crisis

Edward Epstein December 14, 2002
In a phone conversation on December 13 with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, President Bush said he won't allow "business as usual to continue," but promised to seek a diplomatic settlement to North Korea's decision to restart a nuclear program. The question of why the US is preparing to go to war against Iraq but seeking a diplomatic solution in North Korea underlines the...

United States to North Korea: We Now Have a Pre-Condition

James A. Kelly December 12, 2002
Just a day before North Korea announced the resumption of the operation of a nuclear reactor closed since 1994, a top US official gave for the first time a personal account of his meeting with North Korean officials. He said that after reviewing the Clinton administration’s North Korea policy, the Bush administration decided in June 2001 to speak to the North Koreans "any time, any place,...

North Korea Suspends Nuclear Moratorium

Kim Min-bai December 12, 2002
Already the focus of nations worried about the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons, North Korea announced Thursday that it will resume development of nuclear power facilities to meet its energy needs. The communist country and the United States had agreed in 1994 that if North Korea stopped its nuclear programs, the US would supply it with enough oil to meet its needs until a safer...

Spotlight Falls on a Heavily Globalised Industry

Daniel Dombey November 20, 2002
After the oil tanker, the Prestige, broke in half off the Spanish coast and began gushing forth its slick contents, thousands of fishing families and businesses who depend on the ocean and pristine beaches began asking who should be held liable. As this Financial Times article notes, "the Prestige, registered in the Bahamas, owned by a Liberian company, managed by a Greek company and...