In The News

Mexican Immigration Still Up in Air

Dane Schiller November 27, 2002
A meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda ended with a $25 million pledge to help coordinate border security efforts between Mexican and US law enforcement officials. The larger issue of whether the US will permit temporary workers to enter the US from Mexico is still elusive, despite being one of Mexican president Vicente Fox's main...

Whither Arab Independence?

Basheer M Nafi November 27, 2002
What does America's effort to clamp down on Iraq mean for the Middle East as a whole? According to historian and Islamic scholar Basheer M Nafi, the US-led, UN-sanctioned weapons inspection project is simply another attack on the already brittle sovereignty of Arab nation-states. Writing in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly, Nafi argues that "Western imperialism has made a comeback in the...

Behold the Leviathan

Kari Huus November 26, 2002
In a time of much political and economic uncertainty at the international level, MSNBC conducted a series of interviews with people around the world, asking them to comment on several aspects of American policy and culture. Democracy, equality, and freedom—fundamental virtues and values—received much admiration from those surveyed abroad. When asked about America’s foreign policy, they changed...

The Axis of Irony

Strobe Talbott November 26, 2002
The Iraq crisis could have the ironic but salutary effect of reinvigorating the United Nations, revealing George W. Bush to be more of a multilateralist than the rest of the world thought (and feared), and establishing a welcome degree of continuity in American foreign policy. - YaleGlobal

North Korea Admits Nuclear Arsenal

November 17, 2002
orth Korea’s disguise of its nuclear capabilities has always served as the rogue state’s only playing card in negotiations with the US. Today, the state publicized its possession of “powerful military counter-measures, including nuclear weapons" for the first time, possibly in reaction to the recent conditional halt of fuel aid by the US, South Korea, the European Union, and Japan. Pyongyang...

'Bin Laden' Tape Warns of New Attacks

James Drummond November 13, 2002
Al-Jazeera, the Arab-language broadcasting service which has aired recordings of Osama Bin Laden, has just released another audio recording attributed to the Al Qaeda leader. The Financial Times reports that the tape reveals ominous threats to the US-led effort to constrain Saddam Hussein: "In references to recent attacks ranging from the bombing of a Bali nightclub to the occupation of a...

Arab States See Resolution As Way to Avoid War

Roula Khalaf November 10, 2002
The UN resolution calling on Iraq to disarm has been marked by an unusual unanimity of the Security Council, but that may not last long. Diplomats quoted by the Financial Times say the ambiguities could shatter the unanimity of the Council if Iraq plays by the rules for a while and inspectors report 80 per cent compliance. "If Iraq makes sufficient progress most members of the Security...