In The News

Indonesia Questions US Commitment to Fight Terrorism

September 3, 2003
The United States is dragging its feet in the war on terrorism, says Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda. By failing to grant Indonesian detectives access to Hambali, a terror suspect captured three weeks ago by US and Thai authorities, Washington effectively prevented Indonesia from getting information needed to prosecute another suspect, Hassan claimed. Just yesterday...

How Washington Can be a Hyper-Power and a Hyper-Borrower

Philip Segal September 2, 2003
What kind of a superpower gets into so much debt that it has trouble pushing around countries that it would love to? The American kind, says Philip Segal, Markets and Finance Editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal. China and Japan - two major buyers of US government bonds - could do great damage to the American economy if they decided to stop buying or to suddenly sell their share of the US...

Chinese Aide Says U.S. Is Obstacle in Korean Talks

Joseph Kahn September 2, 2003
With North Korea balking at holding another round of talks, diplomatic maneuvers are underway to coax it back to the table. A Chinese official who hosted multilateral talks in Beijing last week said that the discussions were stymied by Washington's insistence that Pyongyang dismantle its nuclear program before other issues are addressed. Wang Yi, vice minister of foreign affairs, called on...

Think Again: The United Nations

Madeleine K. Albright September 2, 2003
Is the United Nations really horribly bureaucratic, ineffective, undemocratic, and anti-American? Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright doesn't think so. In this Foreign Policy article, she argues that even after the recent US-led Iraq War, which failed to garner the support of the UN Security Council, the United Nations retains its position as the preeminent forum for...

The World-System: The Era of Lula

Immanuel Wallerstein September 1, 2003
In 2002, Brazil elected its first ever candidate from a leftist party, Luiz Inácio da Silva. Nicknamed Lula, the leader of the "Party of the Workers" was installed amid a perilous economic climate. With high interest rates and potentially explosive debt, investors expressed their concern by trading Brazilian currency for US dollars and withdrawing financial resources. However, Lula...

Korea: The Hexagon of Uncertainty

Francesco Sisci August 30, 2003
The six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program made significant headway, even if the communist country did threaten to test a nuclear bomb. This article in the Asia Times notes that amidst much of its usual belligerent rhetoric, North Korea backed down on two previous demands by partaking in the talks, simultaneously giving up on bilateral negotiations with the US and meeting without a...

Why the US needs the UN in Iraq

Paul Reynolds August 28, 2003
The chief US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, claims that Iraq is "not a country is chaos and Baghdad is not a city in chaos," yet Washington is edging ever closer to asking for multilateral assistance from the UN. This article from BBC News says that Washington's stance is changing because of both domestic politics and the growing complexity of the situation in Iraq. At home...