In The News

Germany Deadlocked Over Immigration Policy

Dominic Sachsenmaier August 22, 2003
Economic integration around the world does not necessarily equate to acceptance of multi-culturalism at home. Though German industry and banks straddle the globe, linking countries and societies economically, many Germans are fiercely fighting the influx of foreign influence - particularly through immigration. These Germans feel passionately about preserving a homogenous society and are...

Here's All the News on TV that Fits the Muslim Stereotype

Gwynne Dyer August 21, 2003
News channels – even the most reputable ones – are disproportionately covering stories about violent Muslims, London journalist Gwynne Dyer maintains. On any given night, the international news is likely to be dominated by stories about Iraqi guerrillas, Islamic terrorists in Indonesia, rioting between Muslim sects in Pakistan, and Europeans taken hostage by Muslim guerillas in Mali. Covering...

Harvesting Poverty

August 11, 2003
Two hundred years ago, the English navy blockaded French ports, cutting the country off from the sugar cane of tropical colonies and forcing Napoleon to push French farmers to grow beet sugar as a replacement. The blockade eventually ended, but the farming of beet sugar did not. Indeed, as this New York Times editorial points out, beet sugar is vehemently protected by EU agricultural policies...

For Zimbabwe’s White Farmers, Time to Move On

Rachel L. Swarns August 4, 2003
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, in an effort to erase the inequalities left by British colonialism, has demanded that white farmers stop working and leave their land. A tiny minority in Zimbabwe, the white farmers control a large percentage of the fertile land, inherited from the days of British rule. While the World Bank and United Nations do condone redistribution of land, half of...

Hail Britannia!

Immanuel Wallerstein July 25, 2003
In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq – and especially with the difficulties the US has encountered since – there is a renewed interest in the historical experience of past imperial efforts. Not surprisingly, the publication of British historian Niall Ferguson's provocative history of the British Empire has aroused special interest. In this review of the book, noted historian and World...

Imperial Perspectives

Edward Said July 25, 2003
The perspective of the imperial power is inevitably distorted but nonetheless shapes the way the power rules, argues Edward Said in this opinion piece for Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly. Said maintains that every empire, including America's, tells itself that its mission is benign, that its mission is "certainly not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate the peoples and...

A Generation on the Move in Europe

Keith B. Richburg July 22, 2003
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, a new Generation E (Europe) has emerged, bringing into question long-revered notions of national identity and culture among Europeans. World War II solidified national identity because it was fought along national lines. But the younger Generation E, comprised of elite and middle class university educated Europeans, is well acquainted with...