In The News

With Asian Hands

Anouar Abdel-Malek January 28, 2003
This editorial from Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly says that Malaysia, an economically rising Asian nation whose population is predominantly Muslim, is the type of nation with whom Egypt must forge closer ties in the century to come. Thanks to the forces of globalization, the author says, the West is losing power to the other nations of the world, and Egypt and other Muslim nations of the Middle...

Big Bang Expansion of the European Union

Shada Islam January 28, 2003
The expansion of the European Union to include another 75 million people in Eastern and Central Europe is an event of monumental proportion. Negotiations remain underway as 10 new countries adjust their economies and polities to EU standards on agriculture, trade, human rights, and other issues. Meanwhile, people around the globe are taking stock of what a larger EU means for their region. -...

Globalization and the Middle East: Part Two

Frank Griffel January 21, 2003
Far from being anathema to Islamic societies of the Middle East, globalization has strengthened Islamic fundamentalism in the region by facilitating extensive networks of formerly dissociated Muslims - so says Yale Islamic Studies professor Frank Griffel, in the second half of this series on globalization and the Middle East. "A close look into the Islamic world reveals that it does indeed...

Globalization and the Middle East: Part One

Barry Rubin January 16, 2003
Globalization has been heralded both as the savior and the damnation of the world. Especially the attitude of Islamic countries towards all that globalization brings has been a matter of intense debate. In the first of two-part series, Middle East scholar Barry Rubin argues that unlike regions like Latin America or East Asia the Islamic nations of the Middle East have responded negatively to...

A Discussion On Ethical Globalization

January 15, 2003
Is globalization unethical? That seems to be the view of many critics of globalization. Former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson is taking an initiative to address that concern. The Ethical Globalization Initiative that she directs seeks to integrate human rights norms and standards into a more ethical globalization process and to...

Will Travel, Wreak Havoc: How Invasive Species Affect Ecological Diversity

Michael Richardson January 14, 2003
Flora and fauna have long moved around the globe along with wandering human beings. As the native Indians in North America learned after the arrival of diseases from the Old World, not all these exchanges have been beneficial. In recent years this problem has become even more acute, as increased travel and commerce have enabled invasive organisms to spread with alarming speed. In the United...

Terrorism Fails to Halt Globalisation

Guy de Jonquiýres January 7, 2003
A study by A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine has concluded that globalization has not been halted by terrorist attacks on the US and other countries. This summary in the Financial Times explains, "Rejecting suggestions that September 11 will halt globalisation, [the report] says terrorism has instead injected impetus by spurring closer international political co-operation, while...