In The News

The Rise of the Net Dissidents in China

Frank Ching May 22, 2003
In a society where sensitive topics are avoided, virtual space has provided the Chinese people an online civil society where they can be more anonymous and enjoy more freedom of speech. However, the government is also catching up on it, employing tens of thousands of people to monitor web forums and chat-rooms all over China. While most governmental websites are still strictly controlled, more...

We've Seen This Situation Before

Mark Turner May 21, 2003
Almost a decade ago half a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in Rwanda through a "state-sponsored genocide." Recent reports of ethnic killings in the northeastern part of Congo have international observers fearing a repeat of Rwanda. But this time the UN seems determined not to have the international community be mere bystanders, and already efforts to form a sizeable...

China Threatens Execution in Intentional Spreading of SARS

Erik Eckholm May 15, 2003
In a remarkable judicial interpretation of existing disease laws in China, the Communist Party has issued new rules allowing for the imprisonment or execution of anyone found to be spreading SARS intentionally. Following severe international criticism for its handling of SARS, China has taken steps to improve the reporting and disclosure of the health threat. The official media has now begun to...

A Trusteeship for Palestine?

Martin Indyk May 12, 2003
Worrying that US President Bush’s "road map" agenda for the end to the Israel-Palestine conflict will fall through, Martin Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel, and other members of the Saban Center's Israeli-Palestinian Workshop have proposed an alternative solution. They suggest a three-year international governing force in Palestine, headed by the UN, IMF, WTO, and various...

Truck Bomb in Chechnya Kills at Least 36 and Wounds Scores

Steven Lee Myers May 12, 2003
The continuing separatist movement in the southern region of Russian territory certainly suggests that the breakup of the Soviet Union over 10 years ago is not quite over. Chechen rebels, fighting for independence from the Russian state, claim that the Russians are denying their right to sovereignty over their own nation, while Russian officials consider the rebels to be a fringe terrorist...

When Crises Strike, China’s Leaders Adapt to Survive

Joseph Kahn May 4, 2003
The widespread usage of global media technologies such as the Internet and cell phones in China threaten to undermine the Communist Government’s control of information. The unchecked spread of SARS in China, and from China to other parts of the world, is a striking example of the administrative inefficiency within the Communist Government. Moreover, it threatens the Communist ideology as a...

Human Trafficking Casts Shadow on Globalization

Michele A. Clark April 23, 2003
Women and children have been among the biggest losers in this era of globalization, if we consider the massive increase in human trafficking in recent years. Cheated or sold into a life of sexual slavery or indentured servitude, the victims of human trafficking and their stories reveal the dark underside of increased international mobility. With the demise of socialist states, in particular,...