In The News

Superpower in the South Pacific

C. Raja Mohan July 30, 2003
Australia has long been the premier power in the South Pacific. According to this opinion in an Indian daily, however, Australia is increasingly matching its economic and military capabilities with the political will to exercise its power. The author says that national security concerns are behind Canberra's new policies of intervention and preemption in failing microstates where terrorist...

For Now, Hong Kong Protests Do Not Faze Investors

Frank Ching July 29, 2003
In Hong Kong, the recent mass demonstrations against proposed anti-subversion legislation have not shaken foreign investors' confidence. In the following essay, Frank Ching argues that while anti-government political activism might scare off investors in most countries, Hong Kong has benefited from its international reputation as a stable and investor-friendly economy. However, Ching says...

Hail Britannia!

Immanuel Wallerstein July 25, 2003
In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq – and especially with the difficulties the US has encountered since – there is a renewed interest in the historical experience of past imperial efforts. Not surprisingly, the publication of British historian Niall Ferguson's provocative history of the British Empire has aroused special interest. In this review of the book, noted historian and World...

Imperial Perspectives

Edward Said July 25, 2003
The perspective of the imperial power is inevitably distorted but nonetheless shapes the way the power rules, argues Edward Said in this opinion piece for Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. Said maintains that every empire, including America's, tells itself that its mission is benign, that its mission is "certainly not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate the peoples and...

Painted into a Corner

Omayma Abdel-Latif July 25, 2003
The exclusion of Muqtada Al-Sadr, the 32-year-old activist who enjoys a large following among sections of the Iraqi Shi’ites, from the US-sponsored Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) has sparked massive demonstrations protesting the legitimacy of US occupation in the country. Although Shi’ite Muslims, the majority in Iraq, want political representation, they, along with the Sunnis, worry that IGC’s...

What the Millennium Development Compact Means

Romeo Austria Reyes July 23, 2003
Although slow progress in aid, trade, and debt relief casts doubt on the feasibility of the Millennium Development Goals and the sincerity of rich nations to the Millennium Development Compact, Indonesia is generally making good progress toward realizing the development objectives. However, inter-provincial inequalities are plentiful. To ensure the good national trend is matched at the sub-...

Beijing is Losing the People's War in Cyberspace

John Gittings July 21, 2003
While Beijing spends hundreds of millions of dollars installing surveillance equipment to restrict access to “harmful” information, an emerging civil society is gaining more and more freedom. To this increasingly demanding and sophisticated public, it's a choice between hearing rumors on the street and “going on the web,” and they increasingly choose the latter. Moreover, the growing...