In The News

L’Europe face à la mondialisation – Part II

Bruce Stokes May 18, 2006
L’économie de marché peut amener des bénéfices macroéconomiques, mais il fait aussi des victimes humaines- des ouvriers qui sont heureux de trouver un nouveau travail et moins bien payé. Les nations développées d’Europe, avec leurs protections sociales généreuses, tentent une série de stratégies pour entrer dans la compétition mondiale avec des nations dont la population a de plus faibles...

Pakistan’s Obedient Son

Susanne Koelbl May 17, 2006
Both the US and Afghanistan pressure Pakistan to capture suspected terrorists hiding along its borders. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai once had strong ties, but the relationship is unraveling over the issue. Meanwhile warlords challenge Musharraf’s authority and promote domestic unrest, motivated by the desire for control of Pakistan’s rich natural...

Al Qaeda Talking Heads

Fawaz A. Gerges May 11, 2006
Just after Iraqi leaders chose a new prime minister and president, the leaders of Al Qaeda – Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – hurriedly released a series of statements to the media. The media blitz represents the most concerted effort to date by Al Qaeda leadership to articulate its investment in the ongoing conflict in Iraq – and suggests that a viable government,...

How Not to Fight Terrorism

David Cole May 9, 2006
The high-profile trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has concluded, and the result, after four years, is a life sentence – which Moussaoui was prepared to accept when the proceedings began. In the intervening years, the US government sought to prove that Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker set to participate in the 9/11 attacks and blocked his access, with questionable legality, to witnesses and other...

Prejudice Forms a New Line Between East and West

Nicholas Watt May 9, 2006
A new boundary is forming between east and west in Europe. While official policy in the west has extended tolerance toward the gay community, conservative governments in the east take a hard-line stance to control what they regard as a growing threat. In countries like Poland and Russia, politicians openly declare homosexuality to be a deviant lifestyle that must be reigned in. Often, anti-gay...

Work in Progress: Prosperity in Home Countries May Not Stem Tide of Migrants to the US

Joel Millman May 9, 2006
Economists and politicians long assumed that increasing jobs in impoverished nations could slow illegal immigration from those countries. Yet one study suggests that increased opportunities in home countries like Mexico or Brazil promote skill development. Many workers still want to apply new skills in the nation that offers the best pay and standard of living. Analysts suggest that the chance to...

When It Comes to Political Islam, Moscow Seems Confused

Konstantin Eggart May 1, 2006
Moscow has a contradictory relationship with radical Islam. On one hand, Russia embraces Islam as part of its general, sometimes subtle, oppositional stance towards the West. After inviting a Hamas delegation to Moscow, Russia deflected accusations from Israel and the US – suggesting that the group had not conducted terrorist acts on Russian soil – eager to prove it does not tow the US, EU or...