In The News

Africa’s Storied Colleges, Jammed and Crumbling

Lydia Polgreen June 4, 2007
Africa’s institutions used to attract the continent’s future engineers and doctors, with many students going on to become leaders of their country. However, since the 1970s, corruption, mismanagement and government policies that favored primary and secondary education over higher education put the universities on a path to decline. African college students contend with crowded dormitories and the...

Survivor: Chinese Communist Party

Jeffrey Wasserstrom June 4, 2007
Student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square during spring of 1989, ending with a massacre on June 4, prompted many foreigners mistakenly to predict the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP remains in power today, but confronts a growing set of challenges, both domestic and international. To counter complaints about the CCP micromanaging many aspects of private life throughout the 1980s...

Exit From Iraq Should Be Through Iran

William E. Odom May 29, 2007
The US Congress and the White House have been at odds over the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq for months, but brief historical reflection suggests that the only option left for Washington is to link forces with Iran. Starting in the mid-1950s, the US maintained stability in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf by establishing bilateral relationships with Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and...

Bush May Turn to UN in Search for Iraq Solution

Simon Tisdall May 24, 2007
The Bush administration is considering an alternative to the surge, and is in the process of internationalizing the Iraq crisis. This plan involves an expanded role for the United Nations, and also a greater role for regional countries, who must realize that their security depends on success in Iraq. Should these options fail, the US might, as a last resort, try to seek an arrangement with Mr....

Was Osama Right?

Bernard Lewis May 22, 2007
Wars of ideology extend over the long term, and the patient believer waits and allows, even encourages, his various enemies to destroy one another. Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Princeton, analyzes how the former Soviet Union and the US had contrasting responses to attacks throughout the latter part of the 20th century. In general, the Soviets had less trouble interacting in Muslim nations...

Wolfowitz Saga Exposes Structural Flaws of the World Bank

Devesh Kapur May 15, 2007
Reactions to the conflict-of-interest allegations against Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, have been muted: Europe won’t criticize Wolfowitz much for fear of losing its monopoly over the IMF; countries that depend on World Bank funding may regard the scandal as leverage against strict expectations about corruption within their borders; and up-and-comers such as India and China seek...

Running Out of Time in Iraq

David Ignatius May 15, 2007
President Bush has long resisted setting any timetable for progress or troop withdrawal in Iraq. But a group of Republicans, worried about their party’s chances in future elections, warned the president that, unless some signs of progress emerge, they could no longer support his strategy after September. So US military commanders confront that deadline, as Sunni and Shiite factions struggle for...