In The News

North Korean Nuclear Agreement: Back to the Future?

Shim Jae Hoon February 15, 2007
Members of the Six-Party talks have finally reached an agreement aimed at halting North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program. If the agreement holds, the accord has a good deal to offer both sides: In return for energy aid, security guarantees and steps toward normalizing relations, Pyongyang will dismantle its nuclear infrastructure in a way that outside powers can verify. Plenty of pitfalls remain,...

A Radical Step to Preserve a Species: Assisted Migration

Carl Zimmer February 14, 2007
Species of life already threatened by human overdevelopment and disappearing habitats face a new danger, and traditional conservation techniques may not be enough to save them. Global warming is already altering ecosystems and threatening some species, like the Bay checkerspot butterfly, with extinction. In response, conservation biologists try a radical technique that has never been used for...

Across Arab World, a Widening Rift

Anthony Shadid February 14, 2007
In many Muslim nations, Sunni and Shiites live and work together as neighbors, and so the growing sectarian conflict in Iraq is unsettling for Muslim nations like Egypt. The divide between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to a disagreement in the 7th century about who should succeed the Prophet Mohammed. Shiites, long disenfranchised in Iraq and Bahrain where they make up a majority and many other...

China Says Rich Countries Should Take Lead on Global Warming

Jim Yardley February 9, 2007
China is taking steps to fight global warming, but demands that developed countries take primary responsibility. Currently the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China is set to bypass the US by 2009, but points out that Chinese per-capita emission rates are lower than those of many rich countries. Chinese officials argue that long-term industrial development in the West caused...

What North Korea Really Wants

Robert Carlin February 8, 2007
With the six-party negotiations, North Korea certainly has some goals, but those remain a mystery to many observers from the West. The nation could want some economic rewards, including energy, food or other forms of aid. Or, the nation could want security or diplomatic relations. Robert Carlin and John Lewis, long-time analysts of North Korea, contend that the nation really wants “a long-term,...

Traffic Cop in an Unsettled Region

Bernhard Zand February 7, 2007
This month, Riyadh is seeing more diplomatic traffic than usual as high-level envoys from the US, Germany and other nations seek to gain the support of the Saudi government for various initiatives to promote peace in the region. As Bernhard Zand writes, the hidden backdrop for this flurry of activity is the ambiguity of Saudi intentions and the fact that the nation may represent the best...

America’s China Worries – Part I

Joan Johnson-Freese February 6, 2007
For more than a decade, the US was a lone superpower in terms of economic, diplomatic and military might. But China has steadily stepped up to the challenge, demonstrating its intent to serve as a counterweight to US influence when it comes to global affairs. In the first of this series of articles about challenges to US-China relations, Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the US Naval War College’s...