In The News

The Descent of Man

Dennis Lim August 3, 2005
Darwin's Nightmare, Hubert Sauper's new documentary released in the United States this week, chronicles an evolutionary and globalization-related predicament. Decades ago, the Nile perch was introduced to the waters of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, with the aim of replenishing over-fished waters. In the years since, the six-foot fish have proved a lucrative export for Tanzania, but a...

Iraq: This Is Now an Unwinnable Conflict

Patrick Cockburn July 25, 2005
The Iraq war, predicted to be an easy victory, has instead become further confirmation of the Duke of Wellington’s sage warning nearly two centuries ago against getting involved in guerilla war, “Great nations do not have small wars.” As the fighting drags on with no end in sight, reporter Patrick Cockburn argues that it has become a “demonstration of weakness” and stoked the flames of terrorism...

Choking on Aid Money in Africa

Erich Wiedemann July 5, 2005
When G-8 leaders assemble at the summit in Scotland this week, they face an increasingly complex challenge of reexamining aid packages currently being offered to Africa. Despite the large sums of foreign aid flowing into the troubled continent each year, Africans continue to suffer from malnutrition and disease. Citing factors such as incompetent planning and corruption, a growing number of...

For Democratic Change, Deal with Moderate Islamists

Amr Hamzawy June 15, 2005
In its push to spread democracy to the Middle East, the West has favored secular liberal movements in countries around the region as their partners of choice. These alliances make sense on an ideological level, as many Arab liberals and non-religious parties wholeheartedly espouse the Western democracy model and Enlightenment political philosophy. However, such movements tend to lack popular...

A Truckload of Nonsense

George Monbiot June 15, 2005
The recent agreement by seven of the G-8 nations to cancel impoverished countries' debts to the World Bank and the IMF requires debtor nations to eliminate corruption and promote private-sector development. A close analysis of the past, however, reveals that corruption has seldom been a barrier to foreign aid and loans. In fact, corporations in first-world countries often take advantage of...

Bush Touts Trade, but US Bid to Empower OAS Stalls

Pablo Bachelet June 7, 2005
Concerned over political turmoil and threats to free trade emerging from many Latin American states, President Bush emphasized on Monday that democracy and trade liberalization will put troubled OAS member states on the path to greater prosperity. But the nature of recent difficulties in countries like Bolivia and Venezuela underscore the many problems with the US approach. Both countries and...

A Retreat from Great Europe? – Part II

John Brenkman June 2, 2005
The highly anticipated French referendum on the EU constitution arrived this weekend: The vote was a resounding "Non." And with the Netherlands casting an even more strident "Nee" vote, observers, both European and worldwide, now wonder what lies ahead for the European Union. YaleGlobal examines the fallout of the referendum in a two-part series. In part two, John Brenkman...