In The News

The Jihad and the West – Part II

Mohammed Ayoob September 26, 2006
Jihad as armed struggle was associated with early expansion of Muslim territories and then took on a more defensive connotation in the 19th century, after Muslim nations were subjected to colonization by European powers. This two-part series explores the role of jihad in modern society, and the second article calls on Islamic scholars to consider dispensing with the term when it comes to...

Give Globalization a Hand

Ernesto Zedillo September 19, 2006
Ongoing economic growth, as well as international trade and investment, continues to lift millions from poverty and make national economies more interdependent. Globalization not only provides economic opportunities, but increases global resilience against all manner of crises. Yet, despite globalization’s many benefits, political forces could curtail or even reverse the phenomenon. Every nation...

Wolfowitz Corruption Drive Rattles World Bank

Steven R. Weisman September 15, 2006
The World Bank’s goal is to alleviate poverty by providing low-interest loans to some of the poorest countries in the world. Yet those poorest countries also have high rates of corruption. Critics of World Bank leadership question whether the fight against corruption will take priority over the fight against poverty, eventually diminishing assistance to the countries most in need. Critics express...

China's Revolutionary Myth

Gwynne Dyer September 5, 2006
Communism offered little in contributing to China’s status as a rising economic power. Chinese communists won the civil war in 1949, after which leaders experimented with a series of disastrous social policies, including the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Under Deng Xiao-ping in the 1980s, China tried its hand at some capitalism ventures, gradually intermingling with foreign...

Middle East: Marching Backward to the Future

Barry Rubin August 22, 2006
The fighting in Lebanon marks a return to an old worldview, a view once espoused by pan-Arab nationalists and now taken up by radical Islamists. The prevailing belief of extremist leaders is that the West is weak and can be defeated by Muslims willing to martyr themselves and engage in large-scale bloodshed. Victory, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a recent speech, requires...

A Fight Against Terrorism – and Disorganization

Karen DeYoung August 9, 2006
US government bureaucracy and spending has exploded since the 9/11 attacks five years ago. The US has spent almost $500 billion on counter-terrorism, and layers of protection that often overlap – which doesn’t include a burgeoning private security industry – yet many experts still question the country’s safety. Government agencies still clash and fight for turf. For example, the Central...

The Meaning of the Mumbai Blasts

Michael Krepon August 7, 2006
After the Mumbai train attacks, India, Pakistan and the US offered predictable reactions: India expressed outrage, while struggling for an acceptable way to deal with Pakistan. Pakistan expressed condolences and a hope that the normalization process with India would proceed. The US offered support for India’s fight against terrorism. The reactions reveal that the three countries are in a bind,...