In The News

Globalization Is an Anomaly and Its Time is Running Out

James Howard Kunstler August 4, 2005
While American intellectuals continue to portray globalization as a new permanent fixture of the world, writes James Howard Kunstler, the global trade fair is nearing its end. Kunstler opines that the "cheerleaders of globalization" fail to recognize that today's global economic relations are based on relative world peace and reliable supplies of cheap energy. He points to...

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...

A Stir in Asia

Victor Mallet July 19, 2005
Mounting tensions between China, Japan, and South Korea have brought a wave of nationalism to East Asia over the past year. Taking an increasingly assertive stance on controversial disputes over territory, history, and nuclear weapons, politicians in these three nations have worked excessively hard to promote chauvinistic sentiments in public. Although passionate nationalism is not new in East...

Tokyo-Seoul Rift Threatens US Interest

Scott Snyder July 14, 2005
The United States has sought to maintain a steady relationship with South Korea, but recent tensions between South Korea and Japan could pose new challenges for the Bush administration. Whereas Washington has viewed Japan as a consistent and loyal ally since 9/11, Seoul is troubled by a rightward shift in Japanese politics and the prospect of Japan's renewed militarization. South Korea...

Nagasaki 1945: While Independents Were Scorned, Embed Won Pulitzer

Mark Selden July 7, 2005
Sixty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some newly disclosed journalistic accounts offer a unique insight into wartime press controls. A copy of Chicago Daily News reporter George Weller's dispatches, which were stopped in 1945 by US military censors, has recently been uncovered by his son. Both Weller and another reporter had documented the atrocities in post-...

Angst of a Stagnating Germany

Dominic Sachsenmaier July 5, 2005
In the midst of fierce debate concerning the future of the EU, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's call for a September election has opened a national discussion about the future of Germany. Since the unification of East and West Germany, the economy of the formerly prosperous welfare state has stagnated. Already high jobless rates are intensified by competition with low-wage foreign...

A Muslim Woman, a Story of Sex

Alan Riding June 22, 2005
The Almond, the first novel of North African writer Nedjma, has attracted media and critical attention ever since its publication in France last year. The novel is a study of sex – a topic very much off-limits to authors in traditional Arab societies, let alone the women who live within the conservative-leaning social structures. Nedjma, herself a female and a product of Muslim society, has...