In The News

Asia’s Polite Reception To Bush Masks Declining US Influence

Daniel Sneider November 17, 2005
Following mass anti-American protests and blistering criticism at Mar del Plata, President Bush has found a bit of respite on his East Asian sojourn. But, as Daniel Sneider, columnist for the Mercury News, is quick to note, “beneath the polite appearance, however, there is no less a challenge to American leadership in Asia.” Plans are afoot, spearheaded by China, to forge an East Asian Community...

Why American Free Trade Area Runs Aground Again?

Wu Hongying November 16, 2005
Viewed from Beijing, the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas reflects a rift between the US and the whole of Latin America. Wu Hongying writes that George Bush (following in his father's footsteps) sees the FTAA as a way of consolidating Washington's economy hegemony in the Americas, and says that the rest of the hemisphere will not stand for it. In particular, Wu argues...

America’s Future is Stuck Overseas

Stuart Anderson November 16, 2005
The numbers are better, but not good. Since hitting a low in 2002, post September 11, the number of foreign graduate students enrolled in the United States has been improving, albeit slowly. The importance of these international students to American technological and economic superiority cannot be understated, as former US immigration official Stuart Anderson writes. Foreign graduates...

Excessive Profits Erode Security

November 15, 2005
President Bush’s current tour of East Asia, specifically mainland China, challenges the scruples of his Administration’s prevailing foreign policy. Intensely critical of undemocratic regimes from Iran to North Korea, the US, in the case of China, has let political concerns wither on the wayside in the wake of its more pressing economic needs. An editorial in the Taipei Times warns of “the...

Fox’s Performance Leaves Many Puzzled

Kelly Arthur Garrett November 15, 2005
Having failed to persuade other American leaders to move towards a pan-hemispheric free trade pact, Mexican President Vicente Fox now faces a political firestorm at home. Fox’s support for the Bush Administration’s free-trade stance has led to charges that he is an entreguista (a stooge or turncoat)—charges surely inflamed when Fox criticized the president of Argentina for “obeying Argentine...

The Global Sweep to Mop Up the World's Oil Resources

November 14, 2005
China is scouring the globe for energy with which to fuel its economic boom. It has found much of that energy in Africa. Dangling promises of aid and development in exchange for access to oil, Beijing has forged partnerships with a growing number of countries south of the Sahara. The Chinese are not uneasy about dealing with African regimes considered too corrupt or too brutal by the West....

Tragedy and Paradox of French-Arab Relations

Matein Khalid November 11, 2005
France has a long relationship with the Arab and Muslim worlds—a relationship that has often been marked by hostility and bloodshed. It would be a mistake, however, to see the current French rioting as an outgrowth of conflict between France and Islam. Matein Khalid writes that France's French-Arab minorities care about their own economic opportunity and social equality, rather than any...