In The News

Latin Lands Don't Share Powell's Priorities

Larry Rohter June 10, 2003
At the annual conference of the Organization of American States, US Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to leave behind all ideological differences between the North and the South over the war in Iraq. Instead, he emphasized the current US position in Latin America – to allow more free trade through prospective treaties like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and to pressure...

Burmese Junta's Remedy: Crackdown

Seth Mydans June 10, 2003
Despite international condemnation led by the United States, the ruling generals of Myanmar are continuing to crack down on supporters of the democratic opposition. The crackdown began last week when the opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked and arrested, prompting US President Bush to back a bill in Congress to enforce sanctions on Myanmar and cut off imports. The US protest of...

Indians Pursue Portuguese Passports as an Entree to Europe

James Brooke June 8, 2003
Anyone who was living in the Indian state of Goa in 1961 – when colonization by Portugal officially ended – or who had an ancestor living there at the time, can still obtain a Portuguese passport and thus have indirect access to much of Europe. During decolonization, the Portuguese made arrangements so that all inhabitants of “Portuguese India” would retain some of the rights of Portuguese...

The Arch of Globalization

Abdel-Moneim June 5, 2003
In the first installment of a two-part essay, Abdel-Moneim, director of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt, offers five possible genealogies of the US-led war in Iraq. First, he argues, the war was about opening up the Middle East to processes of globalization. Globalization has been uneven, affecting world regions and countries differently, and the Middle East is the...

Senators Demand Ban on Imports from Burma

Anwar Iqbal June 5, 2003
In the wake of the detainment of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the opposition party in Myanmar, two US senators are proposing a legislation to ban all imports from the country until it improves its record on human rights and democracy. If the bill passes, the US will join business and labor groups that have already united in support of sanctions. Already, many major...

America's War on Terror Goes Awry in Pakistan

Ahmed Rashid June 4, 2003
Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, offers a scathing indictment of US foreign policy in South Asia, post-September 11. Rashid argues that US-led military action and victory in Afghanistan did not eradicate the Islamic fundamentalist ideology of the Taliban. Rather, Taliban's...

Asean Needs New Tools for New Threats

Amitav Acharya June 4, 2003
Though the interdependency inherent in globalization renders all member nations of ASEAN increasingly vulnerable to external threats, this same inter-dependency must be drawn upon if these challenges are to be met effectively, says this article in The Singapore Times. The author, deputy director of Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, states that financial volatility,...