In The News

Renewing American Leadership

Barack Obama December 1, 2007
Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, argues that US foreign policy must be reformed if America’s international power is to be revitalized. Obama, who has pledged to withdraw US troops from Iraq, laments that the Iraq War damaged some international relationships that secured both US power and global stability in the post-World War II era. Now, he argues, the US must...

“Russia Has Discredited Itself in the Eyes of the World”

Naomi Buck November 29, 2007
The Kremlin has assumed a two-pronged approach toward December 2 parliamentary elections: arresting opposition figures and banning international observers. This has culminated in violence and mass detentions in several cities, with police crushing demonstrations by opposition parties. The Kremlin-backed United Russia party is expected to select Putin as president, through May 2008 when term...

The Battle of Beijing

Moisés Naím November 26, 2007
China is intent on using the 2008 Olympics as a stage to display the strength of its culture, organized political system and rising economic power. Activists on a range of issues, particularly human rights, are equally earnest, planning to use the Olympics as a platform for exposing flaws of China’s one-party authoritarian regime. State-of-the-art technology common among tourists – including cell...

American Special Forces in Pakistan: Back to the Future?

Paula R. Newberg November 21, 2007
The reaction to the news that the US Defense Department has decided to send Special Forces trainers to Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas has so far been muted. But the irony of the decision and its long-term implication for the Subcontinent is hard to miss. In the eighties, the US administration poured money and weapons in Pakistan to train the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The...

Venezuela Scrambles for Food Despite Oil Boom

Rory Carroll November 15, 2007
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has gained both prestige and notoriety for his use of oil diplomacy throughout Latin America. An oil boom combined with Chávez’s socialist policies has had two consequences: a surge of imported luxury goods and a shortage of food staples. According to the research group Datanalisis, as much as a quarter of the supply of food staples is “disrupted,” and any stock...

Old Gripe Brings Turkey Face to Face With Iraq

Dilip Hiro October 22, 2007
After World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, world powers carved up the Middle East. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres would have partitioned Turkey and created an autonomous Kurdistan, but Turkish nationalists rejected that plan. The Treaty of Lausanne that followed in 1923 granted independence to Turkey, but not for Kurdistan – and ethnic Kurds instead are spread among Turkey, Iraq, Iran and...

Chinese Consulate in Mandalay Attacked

Saw Yan Naing October 10, 2007
Demonstrations against the government ruling Burma, renamed Myanmar, have evolved to include protests against China, for keeping the military junta in power. A drive-by shooting targeted the Chinese consulate in Mandalay, and local observers suggest that the event reveals rising hostility toward Beijing. Since violent riots between Burmese and Chinese residents of Rangoon 40 years ago, the...