In The News

Earthquake Narrows US-Iran Rift

Roshanak Taghavi January 30, 2004
A devastating earthquake in the city of Bam, Iran, may help to bring the United States and Iran closer together. Washington's offer to provide humanitarian aid to help over 40,000 quake victims marks the first open cooperation between the US and Iran in a quarter-century. According to this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, however, Iran is skeptical about pursuing warmer relations in...

Ex-Arms Monitor Urges an Inquiry on Iraqi Threat

Richard W. Stevenson January 29, 2004
Dr. David Kay, who stepped down recently as the head of the Iraqi Survey Group, has announced that his organization has yet to find evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Instead, Kay expressed concern over the faulty intelligence that led the Bush Administration to justify a war against Saddam Hussein on the basis of such a program. The...

One Hand Clapping in the Caucasus

Kenneth Weisbrode January 26, 2004
As Georgia's newly elected president takes office this week, much of the world has high hopes for the future of his new government. Outsiders have been trying to influence developments in Georgia and neighboring Azerbaijan for some time now, says Eurasia scholar Kenneth Weisbrode, but if recent history is any indication, the path to stability in the Caucasus region is still quite rocky....

Turkey at the Crossroads

Mohammed Ayoob January 22, 2004
An Islamic party that supports Turkey's admission into the EU and the military that is lukewarm on troop deployment suggest paradoxes in Turkish politics. Mohammed Ayoob explains these paradoxes as the result of a general change in Turkey's political landscape and the particularities of the situation: the Kurdish insurgency has diminished, the military's influence has waned, and an...

An Ancient Model for China's New Power

Eric Teo Chu Cheow January 21, 2004
Asia is changing politically and culturally as a result of China's rise, says this article in the International Herald Tribune. Harkening back to the days of the Ming and Qing dynasties, China's recent approach to its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region emphasizes securing its immediate borders, placing itself as the 'heart' of the region, and giving more 'favors'...

Will Washington Return to Supporting Freer Trade?

Susan Ariel Aaronson January 20, 2004
Has the US led the world in promoting a pro-free trade agenda? Looking at the rhetoric emanating from Washington in the early days of the Bush administration, one may think so, says globalization scholar Susan Ariel Aaronson. But looking at Washington's actions over the past two years, we must reach a different conclusion, she argues. US intransigence on decreasing subsidies to its...

Africa's Potemkin Deception

Michael Holman January 19, 2004
Just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once created mock villages in the Ukraine and the Crimea to convince Catherine the Great of her empire’s health, so may the continent’s modern benefactors be deluding themselves and the world about its progress, argues Michael Holman, former Africa editor of the Financial Times. Sub-Saharan Africa remains mired in poverty, disease, and debt, yet manufactured...