In The News

A Global Power Shift in the Making

James F. Hoge, Jr. July 21, 2004
China has an economy that by 2010 will be double the size of Germany’s. Japan has fed off this growth to pull itself out of its 1990s economic malaise and enjoyed a real GDP growth rate of 6.4% in the last quarter of 2003. Elsewhere in Asia, the “tigers” have recovered from the 1997 financial crisis, and India’s economy is growing at 8% per year with some economists predicting that India could...

America's Korea Policy Needs an Overhaul

Stephen W. Linton July 20, 2004
Despite decades of American economic and military support for South Korea, in recent years younger South Koreans have begun to express virulently anti-US views. It is no longer only in meetings with North Korea's communist government that American visitors to the Korean peninsula confront charges of US economic imperialism, war-mongering, and colonial intentions. In fact, says Korea...

Quo Vadis America?

Immanuel Wallerstein July 13, 2004
The world has long been divided between those who hail the US as a leader of global forces for human freedom and those who see it as an imperialist power. It is only recently, however, under the presidency of George W. Bush, that those who had negative feelings about the US were mostly citizens of Western countries, including the US itself. Social theorist Immanuel Wallerstein argues that an...

Immigration is Changing the Face of Suburban America

William G. Holt, III July 6, 2004
New immigrants to the US are settling in some surprising places. In the past, most newcomers to the US found comfort and kin in the urban centers of cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But increasingly, says sociologist William Holt, immigrants are settling in the suburbs of 'second-city' destinations like Atlanta and reversing a trend set by the earlier period of...

Gulf Security in a Globalizing World: Going beyond US Hegemony

Michael Kraig June 29, 2004
War and domestic political uncertainty have reigned in the Middle East during the past three decades. But one strategic reality has steadfastly evolved: the rise of the United States as an external guarantor of Gulf security. The continued presence of 138,000 US troops in Iraq after the formal handover of sovereignty is the latest reminder. However, while US military dominance may be...

Can of Worms?

Gamal Nkrumah June 25, 2004
Al-Qaeda may have penetrated deep into the Saudi security apparatus, says this article in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. Officials deny that there is a problem and are working hard to contain the terrorists, even killing Al-Qaeda’s reputed leader in Saudi Arabia last Friday. But the rapid replacement of this man by Al-Oufi, a former policeman and war veteran of Afghanistan, suggests both the...

Fresh Water Talks

Gamal Nkrumah June 11, 2004
In parts of North Africa, fresh water is a scarce commodity. Although the region's main pipeline – the mighty Nile River – is perhaps most often associated with Egypt, it actually runs through a host of countries further upstream. In order to map out use rights in an equitable fashion, the ten-country Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) hopes to bring all parties to the negotiation table. But the...