In The News

A Carbon Cloud Hangs Over Green Fuel

Mark Clayton March 29, 2006
To save costs, some fuel refineries burn coal instead of using natural gas to turn corn into ethanol. The choice could nullify ethanol’s very purpose – to reduce environmental damage. According to David Hawkins, climate director for the National Resources Defense Council, if conversion plants unleash large amounts of CO2 into the air – the result of burning coal – that could erase the positive...

Bush, India, and Two Degrees of Separation

Siddharth Varadarajan March 29, 2006
Remnants of the old non-proliferation movement continue to haunt the agreement that would allow the US to sell nuclear technology to India, in that the US has not revealed plans to treat India as an equal nuclear partner. The US has multiple goals for such an agreement, including reducing India’s consumption of oil and increasing India’s dependence on the US. Passionate debate in India,...

Protectionism Threatens Emerging Engine of Growth

Fred Kempe March 24, 2006
Despite inflation, debt, energy prices and terrorism, global economic growth has flourished with the help of emerging markets. Consumers in developing nations like China are increasingly spending more, approaching the levels of US consumers, and contributing to keeping economies worldwide running smoothly. But protectionist forces in the US and EU could halt the new source of growth. Worried...

How Bush’s Nuclear Deal Burned Canada

Leonard S. Spector March 24, 2006
To achieve the deal that was the focal point of his recent visit to India, President Bush retracted an original US demand that all of India’s nuclear facilities be classified as civilian facilities and subjected to permanent IAEA monitoring. Under the current agreement – yet to be approved by legislative bodies in both nations – India will have both civilian and military facilities, with the...

A Welcome End to India's Pariah Status

Bronwen Maddox March 3, 2006
US President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an agreement that would allow shipment of nuclear components to India for peaceful energy development. India agreed to “irreversibly” turn nearly two-thirds of its 22 nuclear reactors into civilian facilities that will be open for inspection. The agreement is not final, and the US Congress could block the deal, taking advantage of...

Will Fight for Oil

Ted Koppel March 1, 2006
The Bush administration has been sensitive to charges that oil was a central determinant of Iraq war policy. Maintaining that oil was unrelated to US action in Iraq is odd, suggests veteran television journalist Ted Koppel, considering that protecting the flow of Persian Gulf oil has been central to US foreign policy since the mid-20th century. And he also suggests that oil is the reason why...

Think Again: Soft Power

Joseph S. Nye Jr. March 1, 2006
In 1990, “Foreign Policy” first analyzed “soft power.” Here, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., author of the original article, returns to correct notions that have since become associated with soft power. The concept, he asserts, is the power of “attraction,” as opposed to the power of “coercion” or “payment.” Soft power is not exclusively cultural power, yet exporting cultural goods that hold attraction...