In The News

Letting Sudan Get Away with Murder

Ben Kiernan February 4, 2005
Over 200,000 people have died in the violence in Sudan's Darfur provinces. And as the bloodshed continues, genocide scholar Ben Kiernan writes, members of the international community – who may actually have the influence to halt the killings and prosecute the perpetrators – have been preoccupied with semantic and jurisdictional wrangling. Kiernan provides an historical background to the...

The Russian-Turkish Rapprochement Could Benefit Armenia

Haroutiun Khachatrian February 3, 2005
As Turkey edges closer to integration into the European Union, long-standing problems on its opposite frontier are holding the country back. In addition to Turkey's troubled history of violence against its Kurdish minority, Turkish relations with neighboring Armenia have been strained for decades. Turkey has refused to recognize the killing of many Armenians in 1915 as "genocide,"...

Can the World Deliver for Africa?

Larry Elliott February 2, 2005
2005 may be the year of Africa, if UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and other officials have anything to do with it. Britain, charged this year with the coinciding presidencies of both the EU and the G8, has vowed to make African economic revival a priority. The poorest continent in the world is steadily growing poorer, as standards of living, health, education, and economic productivity are far...

Iraqi Elections: Not Yet Historic

Rami G. Khouri February 2, 2005
Sunday's elections in Iraq were an unprecedented step towards self-rule for a nation that had long suffered under autocracy. While the vote was certainly historical, it by no means assures the birth of a genuine democracy. Whether this moment becomes historic – producing lasting, meaningful change – or descends into chaos depends on the events of the coming months and years, says Rami G....

Democracy Won, but do Americans Care?

Maggie Mitchell-Salem February 1, 2005
The largely successful democratic election in Iraq was made possible only by tens of thousands of deaths, both Iraqi and American. In the United States, many initial supporters of the war are growing increasingly wary of mounting costs and casualties, suggests this Daily Star commentary. This wariness comes as President Bush uses the elections to justify a continued US presence in Iraq and –...

A Fiesta of Protest at Porto Alegre

Dominic Sachsenmaier January 31, 2005
Each year, over 2000 corporate and political bigwigs congregate in a luxurious skiing resort in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum. Simultaneously, at the far less opulent locale of Porto Alegre, a much larger, less well-heeled, and considerably more diverse body gathers at the World Social Forum. This diversity, however, may be its weakness, argues Professor Dominic Sachsenmaier....

Critics See Hypocrisy in China's Support for Baghdad Elections

Mark Magnier January 28, 2005
China contributed US$1 million to help ensure the success of Iraq's upcoming election this Sunday. But at home, democracy is still something to which leaders have a serious aversion. Chinese officials argue that their country's history provides a tenuous foundation for democracy and that their people are too poor and uneducated to participate in the electoral process. Yet neighboring...